Baseball Card Market Report for November 24-30, 2022 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- 5 Christmas gifts for card investors (and collectors, too!)

Dec 02, 2022

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The Old and The New

This is the time of year when many of us reflect on the the months that just flew by us like a Sidd Finch fastball (the old) while pining for the great things to come somewhere over there beyond that snowbank horizon (the new).

So it’s pretty fitting that our list of the top eBay sales from last week, at the bottom of this post, feature plenty of old and new.

On the old side, there is a sweet Jackie Robinson rookie card, enough Mickey Mantle bling to make your Pinstripes stand at attention, and even a dusty old Shoeless wonder.

And on the new side — the really new side, it turns out — are three appearances by Milwaukee Brewers uberprospect Jackson Chourio.

I think we’ll be seeing his name for awhile, at least until and unless the 2023 season does something to dissuade us from buying his breakout.

Speaking of breakouts, and old and new, now is also the perfect time to get your Christmas shopping lists in order, both incoming and outgoing. Because, if not now, then when?

So, keeping in mind that we talk about the baseball card market from all sorts of angles around these parts, here are …

5 Hobby Gifts to Ask for — or Buy — Now

You’re reading this a couple of days into December (or at least I’m sending it then), which gives you just about enough time to get your holiday gift list buttoned up, whether your giving or hoping to receive.

And, if you’re interested in sports cards and the sports card market in particular, you’re sure to find a winner among the five gift ideas below — they provide insight into our history as well as plenty of cardboard-focused entertainment.

(Note: The following sections contain affiliate links to eBay listings for the items being discussed.)

Old Beckett Magazines

You want to know what happened to the “hot” cards of yesteryear? Or when Dennis Eckersley rookie cards rose out of the ashes of obscurity to become hobby favorites? Then copies of old Beckett magazines have you covered, each one providing a snapshot of the hobby during the time period when they were issued. You can find issues all the way from #1 spanning into the 1990s and beyond, though you’ll have to pay a pretty penny for those early years.

Find old Becketts on eBay (affiliate link)

Old Issues of Sports Collectors Digest

As much as Beckett captured the overall picture of the hobby in any given month, Sports Collectors Digest, or SCD, was where you turned to get window into the real heart and soul of cardboard life. Within the (mostly) black-and-white pages of the bi-weekly (or weekly, depending on the year) of this hobby classic, you’d find ads for just about anything you’d ever want to buy, information about new releases, auction results, industry news, show reports, in-depth articles and columns, and even the opportunity to connect with other collectors.

How fun — and instructive — to see what had us all abuzz decades ago, and how those topics and sets have played out over the years!

Find old SCDs on eBay (affiliate link)

Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards

Between the first Beckett yearly price guides and today’s total reliance on the internet, Krause Publications (who published SCD) rolled out their Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, which they billed as “the most comprehensive price guide ever published.” It undoubtedly was, but card values are ephemeral.

The true value of these tomes, all these years later, is just the massive compilation of card information gathered between their covers. Sure, you can piece together this info from the net today, but I’ll wager there are some sets listed in the Standard Catalogs that you wouldn’t even know to search for.

Find the Standard Catalog on eBay (affiliate link)

The Trader Speaks

The Trader Speaks predates even SCD by five years, but it was no more by 1983. Today, old-time collectors speak of The Trader Speaks in reverent tones, and the publication is almost mythical, but you can still buy copies from several years online.

This is another great outlet for tracking the evolution of hobby trends and prices, and for basking in some rich cardboard history in the process.

Find The Trader Speaks on eBay (affiliate link)

1988 Donruss Gregg Jefferies

This is a cautionary pick, a reminder that all these dollars we talk about here and all the dollars that are being poured forth in the market are being sunk into … cardboard.

Once upon a time, Gregg Jefferies was the next Mickey Mantle, the next Cal Ripken, the next superstar of all superstars.

Individual collectors/speculators invested hundreds or even thousands of dollars into his rookie cards, just sure that the payoff would make them set-for-life rich someday.

Then, Jefferies went out and turned in a splendid 14-year career: nearly 1600 hits, a .289 batting average, two All-Star appearances, and, improbably, two top-10 finishes in Rookie of the Year voting.

But he’s not a Hall of Famer, and his cards are as common as dirt, and no one got rich selling them. Plenty of people lost money on them, though.

This card should be the icon for every bid or checkout button wherever cards are sold, just as a last-second reminder.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

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You can’t go wrong with any of those gift picks for the market-minded collector on your list (including yourself!), and none of them will break the budget.

Unlike, say, the …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for November 24-30, 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 Values Newsletter

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