Baseball Card Market Report for May 25-31, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Are there any bargains among retired catcher cards?

Jun 02, 2023

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Baseball Signs

Baseball is a game wrapped in numbers and nostalgia and threads of the past like no other.

That means it’s not too hard to connect one thing to another — to find signs that the baseball gods are at work, if you will — pretty much whenever you want to.

Take our list of the top-selling cards on eBay from last week at the bottom of this post, for example.

Now, you tell me, when was the last time you saw a Gene Woodling baseball card on a list like this? Probably been a good long while, right?

And when you cruise down there and check out that 1955 Topps beauty, you’ll see that Woodling was a member of the Baltimore Orioles on that card.

Which is interesting in its own right, considering that Woodling appeared on quite a few cards with the Yankees before this one ever saw the light of day.

So is it a coincidence that the Woodling O’s card pops up here when the real O’s are finally contending for real again.

Probably.

But then you also have to factor in that Johnny Bench rookie card that showed up just in time for us to go …

Looking for Bargains Among Retired Catchers

So I noticed the other day that both Tony Peña and Terry Kennedy have birthdays on Sunday.

That got me thinking about how so few of the star catchers from “my” era have made the Hall of Fame. And, when I did a bit more research, I was reminded that, aside from third base, catcher is the position with the fewest Cooperstown denizens.

With Ted Simmons’ surprise election a couple years back, there are now 19 receivers in Cooperstown.

That led to a pretty healthy boost in Simmons’ card prices, so THAT got me wondering about whether there might be any bargains lurking out there among the top non-Hall of Fame catchers who might still find their way to a plaque someday.

So below are the top guys, by measure of WAR (Baseball Reference version), who are not in the Hall of Fame.

This list does not include active players or recent retirees who have yet to have their moment on the ballot.

For each of these players, I took their most popular rookie card (by measure of graded sales) and then found the card multipliers.

Here is what I found …

(The following section contains affiliate links to eBay listing for the cards being discussed.)

1971 Topps Gene Tenace (#338) - PSA 8

WAR: 46.8
Value: $65
Common Value: $12
Multiplier: 5.42

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1970 Topps Thurman Munson (#189) - PSA 8

WAR: 46.1
Value: $425
Common Value: $15
Multiplier: 28.33

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1963 Topps Bill Freehan (#466) - PSA 8

WAR: 44.8
Value: $100
Common Value: $25
Multiplier: 4

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1994 Bowman's Best Jorge Posada (#29) - PSA 9

WAR: 42.7
Value: $25
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 5

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1993 Bowman Jason Kendall (#162) - PSA 9

WAR: 41.7
Value: $3
Common Value: $1
Multiplier: 3

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1972 Topps Darrell Porter (#162) - PSA 8

WAR: 40.8
Value: $50
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 10

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1975 Topps Jim Sundberg (#567) - PSA 8

WAR: 40.5
Value: $30
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 6

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1979 Topps Lance Parrish (#469) - PSA 9

WAR: 39.5
Value: $70
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 14

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1952 Bowman Smoky Burgess (#112) - PSA 6

WAR: 33.4
Value: $45
Common Value: $45
Multiplier: 1

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1991 Bowman Javy Lopez (#587) - PSA 9

WAR: 29.7
Value: $10
Common Value: $2
Multiplier: 5

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—

Before we dig into the results, I’ll note that the Tenace and Parrish cards listed are actually their second-year cards since they share their rookie cards with other high-profile players.

So, these first solo cards are our proxies.

Now, we see a pretty clear pattern here, with most of these players clustered around a multiplier of 3-6. Basically, that means the market sees these RCs a 3-6 times more significant than commons.

That trend spans all the way from Tenace at the top of our list to Lopez at the bottom.

Does that mean these guys are all bargains when compared to, say, Munson, with his 28+ multiplier.

Not necessarily.

As mentioned above, that 1971 card is not actually Tenace’s RC. And Lopez is way down the list of potential HOFers and has pretty much no chance at a plaque at this point.

But if Tenace or Freehan ever did get the call, you can bet their cards would take a leap forward.

Can the same be said for Munson?

Again, the answer is a resounding maybe.

At current price levels, the market is already treating the late Yankees captain like a Hall of Famer.

But Munson is so beloved that his cards will probably continued to climb, relative to the rest of the market, regardless of his Cooperstown status.

He’s a blue-chipper, just like some of the pieces on our list of …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for May 25-31, 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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