Baseball Card Market Report for May 5-11, 2022 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Do collectors prefer hitters or pitchers?

Baseball Briefs

May 13

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Party Like It’s 1979

So, just when you think it’s safe to assume the card market is shaping up around the new on-field happenings of this new season — BAM! — a 1979 Topps set break hits the like a tidal wave.

And, so, in our list of top eBay sales from last week (see bottom of post), we have a ‘79 Nolan Ryan … and a ‘79 Paul Molitor … and a couple others … and then, well, a ‘79, uh, Shane Rawley.

Yeah, more than $5700 for a Shane Rawley baseball card.

Who said dreams don’t come true??

And those nifty 1970s also sort of play into our recent discussion, featuring as they do some our 3000-hit men … who just so happen to make a cameo of sorts in our question du jour.

But first …

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Now, I can hear you over there, just dying to know …

Do Collectors Like Hitters or Pitchers Better?

There has been a lot of talk about the “dead” ball this season in Major League Baseball, and indeed, runs and home runs have been hard to come by for almost all hitters and teams.

It’s to the point where we may see some records set, both on the pitching side, and on the hitting-futility side. You can choose sides, and plenty have, but mostly, there’s hand-wringing about the general state of the season.

But, absent any extreme conditions in the game, which set of players do collectors prefer more — hitters or pitchers?

There are as many ways to look at that question as there are words on the back of 1981 Donruss baseball cards, but here and now, we’re going to examine relative rookie card prices for players who have done similar amazing things either on the mound or at the plate, and who ended up with similar career WARs.

Specifically, for each pair of players below, we’ll …

Find the top rookie card for each of the two players, by measure of number of graded card sales
Finding the Card Value Multiplier for each of those cards
Found the Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM) for the two cards, with the hitter in the numerator and pitchder in the denominator

Here are our head-to-head battles:

(The below sections contains affiliate links to eBay and Amazon listings for the card being discussed. Stats culled from Baseball-Reference.com.)

George Brett v. Bob Gibson

Brett tried to hit .400 in 1980, while Gibson tried to keep ALL runs off the board in 1968. Both almost succeeded, and both have cherry rookie cards.

1975 Topps George Brett (#228) - PSA 8

WAR: 88.6
Value: $850
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 170

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1959 Topps Bob Gibson (#514) - PSA 8

WAR: 89.2
Value: $6300
Common Value: $35
Multiplier: 180

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.94

Roger Maris v. Don Newcombe

Maris of course took down Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record in 1961.

Newcombe helped the Dodgers to three National League pennants and won the first-ever Cy Young Award in 1956, and the N.L. MVP award that same summer.

1958 Topps Roger Maris (#47) - PSA 7

WAR: 38.2
Value: $925
Common Value: $18
Multiplier: 51

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1950 Bowman Don Newcombe (#23) - PSA 6

WAR: 38.9
Value: $250
Common Value: $65
Multiplier: 4

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 12.75

Harold Baines v. Charlie Hough

Baines played a long time and had a sort of meh calling card — he was a full-time DH for much of his career.

Hough pitched until he was 83 years old and had his own calling card — that knuckleball of his.

1981 Topps Harold Baines (#347) - PSA 9

WAR: 38.8
Value: $93
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 31

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1973 Topps Charlie Hough (#610) - PSA 8

WAR: 38.4
Value: $13
Common Value: $6
Multiplier: 2

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 15.5

Gil Hodges v. Jack Morris

Hodges was one of the most solid hitters of the 1950s, whose big moment in the 1969 World Series (as Mets manager) helped cement his Hall of Fame election.

Morris won more games than anyone else in the 1980s, and his big moment in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series pretty much cemented his own Hall of Fame election.

1949 Bowman Gil Hodges (#100) - PSA 6

WAR: 43.9
Value: $450
Common Value: $55
Multiplier: 8

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1978 Topps Jack Morris (#703) - PSA 9

WAR: 43.5
Value: $105
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 26

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 0.31

Fred McGriff v. David Wells

McGriff fell seven home runs short of 500 and the Hall of Fame, though he’s better than some enshrined and will probably get in.

Wells pitched a perfect game in 1998 and had more WAR than McGriff. He, too, is better than some HOFers, but he’ll probably never sniff Cooperstown.

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Fred McGriff (#28) - PSA 9

WAR: 52.6
Value: $40
Common Value: $3
Multiplier: 13

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1988 Topps Traded David Wells (#128T) - PSA 10

WAR: 53.5
Value: $25
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 5

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 2.6
—

So there we have five pitcher v. hitter matchups, with each end of the pair having accomplished something pretty nifty, and with each in the same general WAR bucket.

Who comes out on top, card-value-wise?

Well, the hitters won three of the battles, with the pitchers taking two.

And, though Gibson bested Brett, they were essentially even in this row. In fact, the only convincing pitcher victory is Jack Morris over Gil Hodges, which might owe to the general inflation for solid 1940s and 1950s baseball cards.

In general, based on these numbers, the market tends to favor big hitting accomplishments over mound prowess.

Now, let’s see if the same holds true in the current hobby, by diving into the …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for May 5-11, 2022

(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
Most expensive hockey cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

Baseball Card Market Report for May 5-11, 2022 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Do collectors prefer hitters or pitchers?

Join Today!

See what you’re missing out on right here.

Party Like It’s 1979

Do Collectors Like Hitters or Pitchers Better?

George Brett v. Bob Gibson

Roger Maris v. Don Newcombe

Harold Baines v. Charlie Hough

Gil Hodges v. Jack Morris

Fred McGriff v. David Wells

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for May 5-11, 2022

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