Baseball Card Market Report for June 1-7, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Do Rookie of the Year "losers" have valuable baseball cards?

Jun 09, 2023

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(Space) Needle in a (Cardboard) Haystack

If you’re a fan of Seattle Mariners baseball cards, the list of the top-selling cards on eBay last week (bottom of post) might just make you all giddy in an Alvin Davis sort of way.

No, you won’t find the 1984 American League Rookie of the Year down there, but you will find 3 Griffey, 2 J-Rods, and even an almost-unheard-of-these-days A-Rod.

It’s pretty sweet hobby representation for the diamond pride of the Pacific Northwest, nestled among the usual Ruths, Mantles, and Ohtanis.

Almost makes me wonder if I should have figured out a way to include Erik Hanson in my big question of the week …

Are Rookie of the Year “Losers” More Valuable?

So, here we are, a couple of months into the 2023 baseball season, and all sorts of diamond-shaped races and talking points are shaping up.

Among the debates that are rounding into form and picking up speed as we head toward summer proper are the ones involving this year’s rookie class.

As in, who will win the Rookie of the Year awards come November?

With newcomers like Masataka Yoshida, Esteury Ruiz, Bryce Miller, Hunter Brown, James Outman, Corbin Carroll, Brett Baty, and Eury Perez (among many others), all making a name for themselves in the early going, there is no shortage of discussion material.

And there are ardent supports for just about all of them. But not all of them will be named ROY, barring some colossal voting mashup.

Even so, most of these guys will carry some hobby weight for at least a little while, and that includes the ones who eventually end up on the short side of the voting.

In that spirit, I thought it might be interesting to see how some of the non-ROY winners from years past are faring in today’s baseball card market.

To find out, I picked out ten players who caused a splash during their rookie campaigns, and who caused collectors to take notice, but who were not named Rookie of the Year.

I also limited my picks to players who finished their careers with fewer than 10 WAR, putting them way (way!) below Hall of Fame standards.

For each of these players, I took their most popular rookie card (by measure of graded sales) and then found the card multipliers to get a feeling for how much ahead of common values they’re running these days.

Here is what I found…

(Note: The listings below contain affiliate links to the original eBay listings.)

1989 Upper Deck Ron Jones (#22) - PSA 10

WAR: 1.8
Value: $12
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 2.4

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1989 Upper Deck Ricky Jordan (#35) - PSA 10

WAR: 4.9
Value: $12
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 2.4

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1989 Upper Deck Kevin Maas (#22) - PSA 10

WAR: 1.5
Value: $25
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 2.4

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1987 Topps Traded Matt Nokes (#91T) - PSA 10

WAR: 9.8
Value: $45
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 9

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1986 Topps Ernie Riles (#398) - PSA 9

WAR: 6
Value: $5
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 1

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1985 Topps Traded Mariano Duncan (#32T) - PSA 10

WAR: 5.8
Value: $35
Common Value: $6
Multiplier: 5.83

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1986 Topps Traded Charlie Kerfeld (#52T) - PSA 9

WAR: -0.5
Value: $10
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 3.33

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1985 Topps Team USA Cory Snyder (#403) - PSA 9

WAR: 0.7
Value: $6
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 2

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1993 SP Chuck Carr (#137) - PSA 10

WAR: 4.3
Value: $25
Common Value: $15
Multiplier: 1.67

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1988 Topps Sam Horn (#377) - PSA 10

WAR: 2.3
Value: $5
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 1

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—

Most of these guys finished in the running for their respective ROY awards, but some didn’t get any votes at all (e.g., Jones).

All of them walked with a hobby swagger once upon a time, though. No surprise since they all had RCs issued during the Junk Wax Era, when rookie cards really exploded for the first time.

So, has that early glow stuck with their cards all these years, despite the players themselves sort of fading away?

Eh, sort of.

None of the cards listed above are world-beaters in today’s market, but a couple of them — Nokes and Duncan — won’t ever truly be commons (at least not their RCs).

They’re among the more accomplished names on our list, so it makes sense.

Ernie Riles appears to be a victim of playing in a small market, and Charlie Kerfeld rides a massive — if brief — public persona to heights out of alignment with his negative WAR.

All in all, though, these RCs aren’t too far removed from the commons bin. And on any given day, it wouldn’t be surprising if you found one or all of them there.

Now for some cards that probably will forever avoid that fate …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for June 1-7, 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 …

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