Baseball Card Market Report for September 21-27, 2023 - Top eBay Sales post

PLUS -- Checking in on The Rocket's market standing

Sep 29, 2023

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Out of Sight, Still on the Mind

If you thought Shohei Ohtani’s early exit from the 2023 season and, ultimately, the elbow surgery that could keep him off the mound until 2025 would stifle his hobby swagger … well, the hobby begs to differ with you.

For yet another week, Ohtani took down all comers in our list of the top-selling baseball cards on eBay (bottom of post), appearing 8 times.

Seems nothing can stop the Ohtani train, and with the hype cycle of his impending free egency just ramping up, we might all want to hold onto our seatbets.

We could be in for a rocket ride.

And, speaking of Rocket …

Checking in on the Roger Clemens Market

This week on our YouTube channel, we took a look at the top selling Roger Clemens baseball cards on eBay during August of 2023.

Here’s that rundown:

As a follow-on to that, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how Rocket’s cards have performed since his final appearance on the writers’ version of the Hall of Fame ballot in late 2021/early 2022.

Has Clemens’ lack of a plaque dumped him into hobby obscurity? Here’s what I found, looking at the difference in selling prices (according to the PSA Auction Prices Realized tool) for several of his key cards between January 2022 and summer of 2023.

Here’s what I found:

1985 Topps Roger Clemens (#181) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $22
2023 Value: $15
Profit/loss: -$7
% change: -32%

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1985 Topps Tiffany Roger Clemens (#181) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $235
2023 Value: $200
Profit/loss: -$35
% change: -15%

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1986 Topps Roger Clemens (#661) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $10
2023 Value: $10
Profit/loss: $0
% change: 0%

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1987 Topps Tiffany Roger Clemens (#340) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $25
2023 Value: $15
Profit/loss: -$10
% change: -40%

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1991 Topps Desert Shield Roger Clemens (#530) - PSA 8

2019 Value: $75
2023 Value: $48
Profit/loss: -$27
% change: -36%

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

So, not a single price increase, with Rocket’s classic but decidedly Junk Wax 1986 Topps the only entry here to hold its own in the last couple of years.

The average value drop, based on these prices, is about 28%. That’s hefty by any measure, but is all of that attributable to Clemens falling off the Cooperstown ballot?

Almost surely not, as the pandemic price peak seemed to hit in that late-2021-to-early-2022 period. And we’ve seen some pretty widespread softening in prices since then.

What we should do — and maybe I will — is compare Clemens price performance over that period to a beloved player like Trout or Clemente or Mays, as well as to another less-loved figure, like Barry Bonds.

Hmmm. Stay tuned.

For now, here are some cards that seem to be performing just fine at the moment …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for September 21-27, 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

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