Baseball Card Market Report for October 10-16, 2024 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Checking in on Pete Rose baseball cards

Oct 18, 2024

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(Almost) Center Stage

With October baseball having dwindled to four teams as I write this, it’s not too surprising to see a couple of the remaining stars checking in big on our list of the most expensive cards sold on eBay last week (bottom of post).

Of course, we almost always see Shohei Ohtani in our weekly check-ins, and Aaron Judge is no stranger to these proceedings, either. Ohtani has been just OK in his first of postseason play, while Judge’s performance has been pretty anemic to this point.

If either or both of them gets really hot over the next couple of weeks, there may not be room for anybody else on these lists until the World Series is over!

For now, though, there are plenty of old-timers and youngsters to add variety to our vicarious hobby habits. A few vintage set breaks made for some interesting high-dollar cards from names you don’t see all that often here: Banks, Kaline, Aparicio.

There was even a Pete Rose rookie card. Which reminds me: it’s high time we spend some time…

Checking in on Pete Rose Baseball Cards

It’s old news now, but Pete Rose’s death at the very end of September is still big news in the game and in the hobby. And you know that his passing is going to stir up Hall of Fame controversy in the short term, medium term, and long term — at least until and unless he’s elected, probably even after.

So now is as good a time as any to start getting a handle on the current (or at least recent) Pete Rose baseball card market. To that end, we took a look at the most expensive Rose cards sold on eBay during September of 2024 on our YouTube channel:

To add more context to the conversation about where Rose’s cards have been and where they may be headed, I thought we should use this space to run through our typical pre-post pandemic price exercise.

So, what follows are typical selling prices for the first ten Rose base cards in the most common PSA condition (per the PSA Population Report) in late 2019 and in the summer of 2024 (before his death). Rough prices are derived from actual sales as reported through the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool.

Here is what I found.

1963 Topps Pete Rose (#537) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $1000
2024 Value: $2000
Profit/loss: $1000
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1964 Topps Pete Rose (#125) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $200
2024 Value: $600
Profit/loss: $400
% change: 200

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1965 Topps Pete Rose (#207) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $100
2024 Value: $200
Profit/loss: $100
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1966 Topps Pete Rose (#30) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $50
2024 Value: $90
Profit/loss: $40
% change: 80

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1967 Topps Pete Rose (#430) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $65
2024 Value: $135
Profit/loss: $70
% change: 108

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1968 Topps Pete Rose (#230) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $50
2024 Value: $100
Profit/loss: $50
% change: 100

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1969 Topps Pete Rose (#120) - PSA 6

2019 Value: $35
2024 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $25
% change: 71

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1970 Topps Pete Rose (#480) - PSA 7

2019 Value: $70
2024 Value: $150
Profit/loss: $80
% change: 114.

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1971 Topps Pete Rose (#100) - PSA 6

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

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1972 Topps Pete Rose (#559) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $100
2024 Value: $225
Profit/loss: $125
% change: 125

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—

Overall, these Rose cards showed a 114% increase over the course of the pandemic. Given that Charlie Hustle’s card values were already high before the COVID boom, that means we’re looking at some pretty steep prices for these cards on the open market.

And those prices hooked sharply skyward after Rose died, which is fairly typical for retired players. The effect was more exaggerated than usual for Rose given the knee-jerk reaction many had, assuming he’s now a lock for a Cooperstown plaque.

He’s not.

And buying anything during the peak of a hype cycle is generally not the smartest money move.

The bottom line is that Rose’s card prices are super volatile right now, but the long-term trend has been and probably will continue to be steady upward growth. His rookie card will almost surely be worth more in January 2034 than it was in January 2024, for example, even if the October 2024 prices look out of whack for many months and years to come.

Buyer/investor beware! At the end of the day, Rose baseball cards — and almost every other baseball card — are still just cardboard.

Now for some other cards that offer plenty of opportunity to drop big bucks, for better or for worse…

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for October 10-16, 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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