Baseball Card Market Report for November 21-27, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on Thurman Munson baseball cards

Nov 29, 2024

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High-Flying Variety

As the baseball hot stove really starts to heat up, the top of the card market seems to be taking some time to unearth the sort of variety that makes this hobby a fun ride for fans and collectors of all types and ages.

I mean, take a look at the list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (bottom of post), and you’ll find beauties issued anywhere between 1931 and 2024, and a wide variety of players.

Sure, names like Ohtani, Ruth, and Mantle show up as usual, but we also get cameos by a 1990s hobby icon (Nolan Ryan) and one of the most iconic cards of all time, the 1953 Bowman Color Pee Wee Reese masterpiece.

Speaking of cardboard masterpieces, a certain Yankees legend once graced several unforgettable baseball cards in his own right.

Checking in on Thurman Munson Baseball Cards

Over the last several months in this space, we’ve walked through the baseball cards for some of baseball’s big names with an eye toward pre- and post-pandemic values.

The gist of this series is to get an idea of what types of cards weathered the COVID boom and mini-bust well, and which don’t look so hot here on the other side.

Next up on our roster is a guy who was one of the most popular players in baseball in the 1970s, and a name that still comes up in discussions of Hall of Fame snubs: Thurman Munson.

Earlier this month, we ran down the top Munson cards sold recently on eBay over on our YouTube channel:

And that exercise reminded me that we should probably give the Yankees legend the old before-and-after treatment here.

So…

Below are the first ten regular-issue Munson cards, which just so happens to cover the entire run of Munson base cards, owing to his untimely death in the summer of 1979. For the most part, I stuck to PSA 8 cards in the listings below, but I slid back to PSA 7 for the tough 1971 black-bordered card — a hobby icon — because the high grades get into astronomical prices quickly. They also don’t show up for sale very often.

For each card, I found selling prices for copies (in PSA 8 condition) via the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool from both late 2019 and from this summer/fall (2024).

Here is what I found:

1970 Topps Thurman Munson (#189) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $300
2024 Value: $500
Profit/loss: $200
% change: 67

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1971 Topps Thurman Munson (#5) - PSA 7

2019 Value: $225
2024 Value: $750
Profit/loss: $525
% change: 233

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1972 Topps Thurman Munson (#441) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $50
2024 Value: $125
Profit/loss: $75
% change: 150

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1973 Topps Thurman Munson (#142) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $75
2024 Value: $125
Profit/loss: $50
% change: 67

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1974 Topps Thurman Munson (#340) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $25
2024 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $35
% change: 140

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1975 Topps Thurman Munson (#20) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $35
2024 Value: $75
Profit/loss: $40
% change: 114.

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1976 Topps Thurman Munson (#650) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $35
2024 Value: $40
Profit/loss: $5
% change: 14

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1977 Topps Thurman Munson (#170) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $40
2024 Value: $80
Profit/loss: $40
% change: 100

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1978 Topps Thurman Munson (#60) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $15
2024 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $10
% change: 67

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1979 Topps Thurman Munson (#310) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $12
2024 Value: $25
Profit/loss: $13
% change: 108

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—

Overall these cards showed a 122% increase in selling price over the last five years, which means they’re hammering down for around double now what they were bringing in late 2019.

That puts Munson in good company, as several other players we’ve looked at also landed in the “Two-Times Club”: Dave Parker, Dale Murphy, Dave Winfield, Pete Rose, and Ken Griffey, Jr.

Even with that strong price growth, Munson probably has room for more upward mobility, particularly if the Veterans Committee (in whatever form) eventually calls him to Cooperstown.

Now, here are some cards that have some work to do if they hope to match Munson’s trend lines over the next five years…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for November 21-27, 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
Most expensive hockey cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

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