Baseball Card Market Report for May 23-29, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Baseball card prices and trends for the best pitchers of the 1980s

May 31, 2024

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Shohei, Mickey, and the Arms

Take a look at the list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (bottom of post) and you’ll see an old hobby favorite leading off.

And not only does Mickey Mantle take the top slot, he appears in our lineup eight times, more than any other single player.

But beyond The Return of The Mick, we get a bit of the usual — plenty of Ohtani — along with a dash of the seldom seen. Take a gander at that PSA 10 copy of the Trammell/Molitor rookie card, for example. PSA has only graded 30 of those cards in that condition among more than 8500 total submissions for that card.

That’s condition scarcity in action.

And then you’ll even find a couple of non-Ohtani arms, in the persons of Paul Skenes and Nolan Ryan. Although he’s hobby royalty, Ryan doesn’t appear on these lists all that often these days, so it seems an appropriate time to ask…

Are Cards of the 1980s Best Pitchers Worth More?

I stumbled onto one of those online discussions the other day that went something along the lines of, “I’d take Jack Morris over <insert any pitcher here>! Morris won more games in the 1980s than any other pitcher, son. And besides, Game 7.”

Of course, there were other voices in the conversation, voices that pointed out things like Morris’ high earned run average, the postseason games where he didn’t look like superman, and the other pitchers of the 1980s who might have a claim to the title of “Best of the Decade.”

Those types of arguments make you think and dig into the record books and maybe even join in the fray. And, for me at least, they also open up questions about card values.

Specifically, how do the biggest winners of the 1980s compare to each other when it comes to rookie card values.

Well, to find out, I employed our usual card value multiplier method to figure out how far above common value the rookie cards of the decade’s top ten winners fare in the market these days.

Here is what I found (I’ve included career WAR for each pitcher as another point of comparison):

1978 Topps Jack Morris (#703) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 162
Career WAR: 43.5
Value: $100
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 25

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1980 Topps Dave Stieb (#77) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 140
Career WAR: 56.4
Value: $20
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 6.67

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1979 Topps Bob Welch (#318) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 137
Career WAR: 43.7
Value: $25
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 5

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1972 Topps Charlie Hough (#198) - PSA 8

1980s Wins: 128
Career WAR: 38.4
Value: $30
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 6

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1981 Fleer Fernando Valenzuela (#140) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 128
Career WAR: 41.5
Value: $35
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 8.75

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1971 Topps Bert Blyleven (#26) - PSA 8

1980s Wins: 123
Career WAR: 94.5
Value: $600
Common Value: $12
Multiplier: 50

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1968 Topps Nolan Ryan (#177) - PSA 8

1980s Wins: 122
Career WAR: 81.3
Value: $8000
Common Value: $10
Multiplier: 800

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1978 Topps Jim Clancy (#496) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 119
Career WAR: 20.5
Value: $8
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 2

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1983 Topps Frank Viola (#586) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 117
Career WAR: 47
Value: $25
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 5

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1980 Topps Rick Sutcliffe (#544) - PSA 9

1980s Wins: 116
Career WAR: 33.9
Value: $20
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 6.67

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—

What do we see here?

Pretty much what we’d expect, that’s what.

For starters, Ryan has a multiplier that’s completely out of line with his career numbers when compared to other pitchers of his ilk…but, then, there really are no pitchers of his ilk when you factor in all the strikeouts and no-hitters and bloodied mound-charging whippersnappers and the like.

The other two Hall of Famers, Blyleven and Morris, check in with multipliers of 50 and 25, respectively. That seems fair to me. Blyleven was a (much) more valuable pitcher over the course of his career than Morris was…again, in my book. I realize not everyone reads that same book.

Some read the aforementioned “Most Wins in the 1980s” book.

You say Tiffany, I say super glossy. Whatever.

The rest of the guys up there are all pretty much the same level of scrub as far as collectors are concerned, at least in terms of RC value. Fernando has the biggest multiplier, but it’s still under 10. Clancy is the bottomfeeder at 2. The rest fall in between.

If you’re looking for a bargain in this group — and stop me if you’ve heard this before (or don’t, because it bears repeating) — it’s Stieb. He was better than many remember and as good as or better than Morris in some ways.

Should Stieb ever get the call to the Hall, that multiplier might arch closer to 20, at least in the short term.

Now for some cards already doing wild things in the short term…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for May 23-29, 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 …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

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