Baseball Card Market Report for October 5-11, 2023 - Top eBay Sales post

PLUS -- Checking in on Don Mattingly rookie cards

Oct 13, 2023

Note: When you click on links to various merchants in this newsletter and make a purchase, this can result in this newsletter earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Ruth Over Ohtani?

With Shohei Ohtani on the shelf after elbow surgery and his Angels already in their winter homes, it would be reasonable to wonder whether his out-of-sight status would drop him into out-of-mind territory among collectors.

And that does seem to be the case, at least at the high end of the market. To wit, Ohtani appears just once on our list of the most expensive baseball cards sold on eBay last week (see bottom of post).

This “slide” comes after Ohtani led these “standings” most of the season. It also let the original Babe Ruth — as opposed to the the next Babe Ruth — eclipse the two-way phenom by a 2-1 margin.

And, with baseball news starting to dry up beyond each night’s playoff heroes, some old hobby favorites also stepped into the void — Mantle, Robinson, Mays, and Ryan are just a few of the all-timers you’ll find below.

Say…speaking of old hobby favorites…

How Are Don Mattingly Rookie Cards Selling?

The card hobby is just like everything else in life in at least one respect — what we see today is built on the backs of people and events and trends that came before.

And so often, we either never think about those things and folks gone by, or we don’t even know about them at all.

All of which is to say…when was the last time you thought about Don Mattingly baseball cards? And specifically Don Mattingly rookie cards?

Unless you have been building a set or looking for a could-be Veteran’s Committee candidate, chances are that Donnie Baseball hasn’t crossed your mind in a good, long while.

But all the big prices and all the fancy cards that define the modern hobby could never have existed if Mattingly and his RCs hadn’t burst onto the scene at exactly the right time in 1984.

I wrote up the full history over on Wax Pack Gods a few years ago — you can read that account right here if you want.

As important as Mattingly was to building the modern hobby, though, his cards are pretty much an afterthought in today’s market.

Sure, they still change hands on a regular basis, as you can see from our rundown of recent eBay sales:

That’s a sort of in-the-moment snapshot, of course.

But how are Mattingly’s seminal rookie cards doing overall? To find out, I decided to look at the selling prices for all of The Hit Man’s 1984 base cards, both just before the pandemic and then again this fall.

Here is what I found (approximate values based on sales listed in the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool):

1984 Donruss Don Mattingly (#248) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $135
2023 Value: $175
Profit/loss: $40
% change: 30

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Fleer Don Mattingly (#131) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $35
2023 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $25
% change: 71

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 O-Pee-Chee Don Mattingly (#8) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $60
2023 Value: $120
Profit/loss: $60
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Don Mattingly (#8) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $30
2023 Value: $60
Profit/loss: $30
% change: 100

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Tiffany Don Mattingly (#8) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $225
2023 Value: $425
Profit/loss: $200
% change: 89

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

So, as we’ve seen with a few other hobby stars of the past (see our 1991 Score rundown last week, for example), Mattingly’s RCs have been able to rise right along with the rest of the hobby tide these last few years.

Mattingly may not be defining the market like he once did, but an average increase of about $70 and 73% ain’t too shabby.

Think these next puppies can muster the same percentage increase in the years to come?

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for October 5-11, 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

Discussion about this post