Baseball Card Market Report for September 14-20, 2023 - Top eBay Sales post

PLUS -- Checking in on a hobby groundbreaker

Sep 22, 2023

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Quick Draw Mc…Lawlar?

Well, that didn’t take long!

In the midst of a wild card race, the Arizona Diamondbacks called up one of the most promising prospects in the sport, Jordan Lawlar.

Lawlar, the #6 overall pick in the 2021 draft, hit 20 home runs with 36 steals while manning shortstop at two minor league stops this season.

The build-up around him has been growing, as it does for big-hype prospects, and it didn’t take long for the hobby to pour on a little gasoline.

Witness the top card in our list of the top-selling baseball cards on eBay from last week. Yeah, that’s nearly 58 thousand dollars on the strength of 27 bids for a guy who has 22 big league plate appearances as I write this.

Pardon me for being old, but I about had a nervous breakdown that time I dropped three bucks on an out-of-the-pack Darryl Strawberry RC.

Is Lawlar a risky “investment”? Heck, he only needs 335 more long balls MLB play to catch Straw.

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Now, for another trip through trendsetting hobby history…

Checking the Market for a Hobby Groundbreaker

Over our on our YouTube channel this week, we took a look at the top selling 1991 Stadium Club baseball cards on eBay during August of 2023.

Here is that vid, in case you want to see who “won” this show:

But I thought it might also be fun to see how these cards have done over the course of the last few years. After all, 1991 Stadium Club was the next evolution in the super premium cards that was going to pull us out of the Junk Wax Era.

And it did, sort of. But it didn’t take too awful long for most of us to realize that even this spiffy set had been produced in huge numbers.

So…

What does that mean for the market values after all these years?

To find out, I went to the PSA Auction Prices realized tool and picked out the five cards from the set that have sold most often over the years. Then I found selling prices for each card in the most common graded condition (PSA 9) late in 2019 — pre-pandemic — and in the summer of 2023.

Here’s what I uncovered:

1991 Stadium Club Nolan Ryan Tux (#200) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $12
2023 Value: $30
Profit/loss: $18
% change: 150

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1991 Stadium Club Frank Thomas (#57) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $10
2023 Value: $15
Profit/loss: $5
% change: 50

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1991 Stadium Club Bo Jackson (#224) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $8
2023 Value: $20
Profit/loss: $12
% change: 150

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1991 Stadium Club Ken Griffey, Jr. (#270) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $12
2023 Value: $18
Profit/loss: $6
% change: 50

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1991 Stadium Club Jeff Bagwell (#388) - PSA 9

2019 Value: $10
2023 Value: $12
Profit/loss: $2
% change: 20

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

—

Not jaw-dropping, maybe, but not pond scum, either.

Over the course of the last four, disease-ridden years, these five cards have increased in selling price an average of about 84%. So, you know — they’ve just about kept up with inflation.

Now, I’ll admit there is a bit of funkiness here. Not all the cards had sales late in 2019 or in the summer of 2023, so I took the next closest thing.

And some — looking at you Frank Thomas — wiggled all over the place, pricewise, so I basically had to throw my dart and try to hit the middle.

Overall, though? Not a terrible return for cards that still can’t quite shake the stink of their era.

About the only stink you’ll find on this next batch of cards is the aroma of cold, hard cash …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for September 7-13, 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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