Baseball Card Market Report for May 30-June 5, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- How did 1990 Bowman weather the pandemic?

Jun 07, 2024

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Mick Flexing His Hobby Muscle

Amid all noise of the modern hobby, from the prospects commanding thousands of dollars to the next super parallel one-of-one chase craze, a few things have remained constant.

For starters, big on-field numbers over a sustained period of time still carry over to card prices. And that “sustained” can be a season or two if we’re looking at historic peak performances, or it can be career excellence.

For another, the career excellence usually wins out in the long run — in the form of election to the Hall of Fame. A plaque in Cooperstown remains the surest bet you can find that a given player’s cards will likely at least keep up with the market at large over the months and years to come.

And, finally (for now), some Hall of Famers always seem to stand above even their all-time great peers when it comes to collector interest and hobby prices.

Want evidence of that?

Well, just take a gander at the list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week, at the bottom of this post. Here, in the middle of another beautiful, brutal, exciting baseball season, Mickey Mantle leads the pack — both at the very top of the list, and in terms of sheer numbers.

At this point, it’s hard to see demand for The Mick ever waning for long or to any great degree. His cards have real staying power, as do those of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Nolan Ryan, etc., etc., etc.

And the cards of Paul Skenes? Well, somebody’s paying six grand a pop for them. You have to wonder how the return on that speculation will look compared to a similar splurge on bona fide HOF rookie cards, say, 34 years down the road.

Speaking of 34 years down the road…

How Did 1990 Bowman Weather the Pandemic?

It’s been a while since we did one of those before-and-after looks at a particular run of cards, where “before” is pre-pandemic (2019) and “after” is now.

But over on the YouTube channel today, we’re taking a look at the most expensive 1990 Bowman sales on eBay recently (you can see that video right here). Why not seize the opportunity?

So that’s what we’re going to do here — play off that theme and dive into how the top 1990 Bowman baseball cards are selling today compared to how they were selling when we were still young and innocent(er).

What follows, then are comparisons of selling prices (per PSA Actual Prices Realized) for PSA 10 copies of the six most “valuable” 1990 Bowman cards, from late in 2019 and from this spring (2024). Why the air quotes?

Well, these are junk wax cards we’re talking about, so none are going to be world-beaters, and hardly any beyond these half dozen change hands with any frequency.

For instance, as I write this, there have been no recent sales of the Sammy Sosa, Rickey Henderson, Nolan Ryan or Barry Bonds card from the set. Go figure.

Anyway, here’s what I found…

1990 Bowman Frank Thomas (#320) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $75
2024 Value: $100
Profit/loss: $25
% change: 33

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1990 Bowman Ken Griffey Jr. (#481) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $20
2024 Value: $35
Profit/loss: $15
% change: 75

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1990 Bowman Larry Walker (#117) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $50
2024 Value: $45
Profit/loss: -$5
% change: -10

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1990 Bowman Bernie Williams (#439) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $20
2024 Value: $30
Profit/loss: $10
% change: 50

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1990 Bowman Juan Gonzalez (#492) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $18
2024 Value: $30
Profit/loss: $12
% change: 67

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1990 Bowman Bo Jackson (#378) - PSA 10

2019 Value: $10
2024 Value: $50
Profit/loss: $40
% change: 400

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

Those numbers are sort of all over the place, but the average is a 50% increase in selling prices between 2019 and now. An interesting note here is that “now” is a lot different than it was in 2022 and even 2023, as we’ve seen a lot of prices soften in the last year or so.

Many cards in many sets are now approaching pre-pandemic prices, and some are even below — see Larry Walker above.

Will we see a further market correction as the mass inflation in the sports card market during the pandemic era runs smack dab into real-life inflation that’s pulling dollars to other things? You know, trifling matters like food, housing, transportation?

Time will tell, but you just might be able to find some affordable prices — now or later — if you’re in the market for some overproduced Hall of Fame cards that still look great.

Now for some cards that pretty much flip the script on both the “overproduced” and “affordable” bits…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for May 30-June 5, 2024

(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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