Baseball Card Market Report for June 29-July 5, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Do a lot of All-Star appearances mean big card prices?

Jul 07, 2023

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Peril on the Hot List

As I write this, Mike Trout has just hit the injured list and Angels teammate Shohei Ohtani was pulled from his latest start with a blister.

Both of those guys happen to appear multiple times on our list of the top-selling baseball cards on eBay from last week (see bottom of post).

Nothing new there, as they show up all the time.

But those guys have also spent their share of time on the IL over the years, and you have to wonder how that will affect their hobby profile in the long run.

Trout’s especially worrisome from that perspective at this point, as he’s 31 and has fallen way off the career pace he set for himself pre-pandemic.

It’s sort of reminiscent of Ken Griffey, Jr., who ruled the hobby through much of the 1990s but started to fall apart in his 30s with the Reds.

Today, Griffey makes lists like this one on a regular basis, but his cards don’t dominate the way those of Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, or Wayne Gretzky do in their respective sports.

It will be interesting to see how well Trout and Ohtani hang with Mickey Mantle as long-term, frontrunners in the coming decades.

Now, for something a little more immediate…

Many All-Star Appearances, Valuable Cards?

Today marks the beginning of the last weekend of games before the All-Star break.

So you know we have to look at some cards of All-Stars in this space, right?

Right.

So …

What I’m wondering this time around is if players with a ton of All-Star appearances carry more card value than similar players with fewer ASG nods.

To find out, I first identified the top 5 guys with the most years as an All-Star who are NOT in the Hall of Fame and are not on the current ballot or recently retired. I also skipped the PED guys like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Then, for each of those 5, I found his top comp according to the Baseball Reference Similarity Score. That comp also had to meet the non-HOF rules above AND had to have significantly fewer All-Star selections.

Next, for each of those players, I found their most popular rookie card based on the number sold as listed in the PSA Auction Price Realized report.

Finally, I found the card multiplier, with the many-AS guy in the numerator.

Here is what I found…

(Note: The following section contains affiliate links to eBay listings for the cards being compared.)

Bill Freehan v. Darrell Porter

1963 Topps Bill Freehan (11 ASG) (#466) - PSA 8

WAR: 44.8
Value: $125
Common Value: $25
Multiplier: 5

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1972 Topps Darrell Porter (4 ASG) (#162) - PSA 8

WAR: 40.8
Value: $20
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 4

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 1.25

Steve Garvey v. Cecil Cooper

1971 Topps Steve Garvey (10 ASG) (#341) - PSA 7

WAR: 38
Value: $155
Common Value: $8
Multiplier: 19.38

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1974 Topps Cecil Cooper (5 ASG) (#523) - PSA 8

WAR: 36
Value: $20
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 5

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 3.88

Elston Howard v. Terry Steinbach

1955 Bowman Elston Howard (9 ASG) (#68) - PSA 6

WAR: 27
Value: $100
Common Value: $30
Multiplier: 3.33

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1987 Donruss Terry Steinbach (3 ASG) (#34) - PSA 10

WAR: 28
Value: $30
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 10

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.33

Dave Concepcion v. Al Dark

1971 Topps Dave Concepcion (9 ASG) (#14) - PSA 7

WAR: 40.1
Value: $115
Common Value: $8
Multiplier: 14.38

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1948 Leaf Al Dark (3 ASG) (#51) - PSA 4

WAR: 43.8
Value: $425
Common Value: $125
Multiplier: 3.4

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 4.23

Fred Lynn v. Chet Lemon

1975 Topps Fred Lynn (9 ASG) (#622) - PSA 8

WAR: 50.2
Value: $50
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 10

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1976 Topps Chet Lemon (3 ASG) (#590) - PSA 8

WAR: 55.6
Value: $20
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 6.67

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Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 1.50

—

I cheated a bit with the Garvey-Cooper comparison. Because Cooper appears on the same rookie card as Carlton Fisk (1972) and doesn’t have a 1973 card, I fast-forwarded to 1974 Topps.

So it’s not a perfect comparison.

Otherwise, though, it’s RC-to-RC comparisons across the board.

And, aside from Elston Howard, all of the many-ASG players win their matchups.

I suspect Howard loses out to Steinbach due to the relative popularity these days of 1955 Bowman (not very popular) and 1987 Donruss (popular with lots of us graying ‘80s kids).

Overall, this tiny sampling seems to show that we collectors do indeed “value” our All-Stars.

Now, on to some other cards we seem to value quite a lot …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for June 29-July 5, 2023

(Quick note — this list contains affiliate links to the original eBay listings.)

If you want to see updated 30-day market toppers anytime, we have a couple of resources over on WaxPackGods.com:

Most expensive baseball cards sold in the last 30 days
Most expensive football cards sold in the last 30 days
Most expensive basketball cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

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