What Happened To The Price Of Baseball Cards?

[yk9001]

I once successfully bamboozled my brothers friend into trading me a Cal Ripken Rookie card for an autographed Bryan Harvey card

 

 

Unless you cashed in, you didn't get one over on them.

 

Cal Ripken rookie cards were going to be the key to my riches.  I bought about thirty or so in 1989 and 1990.  Wait 5 years for him to break the ironman record, and cash in.

 

I just looked at ebay.  Depressing.

[Adam]

lol @ key to my riches. haha. I feel your pain, brother

[yk9001]

I have one Topps Traded ripken.  That seems to have held some value.  Probably 15 or so Topps and the rest fleer and Donruss.

 

The only problem is I don't have them graded.  What am I going to do, pay $15 to grade a $15 card?

[stevestevens]

I was also at those baseball card shows. I do not even want to think about how much money I wasted. Funny thing is my mom kept all the cards but threw away all my garbage pail kids cards. I had three complete sets of series 1. Funny that those are the only things worth any money. Not a lot but at least something.

If anybody wants to buy 50+ Will Clark, Wally Joyner, or Barry bonds tops rookies PM me and we can talk over a price.

[Angel Dog and Beer]

I have a Danny Tartabull rookie that I will sacrifice for 10 cents. I'll throw in a Mike Greenwell and Greg Jeffries card too.

[stevestevens]

Crazy thread.

I still have about 6-8 packed Rubbermaid tubs of all sorts of cards. I used to collect basketball cards for fun and that some how turned into my whole family going nuts and buying boxes for me "as an investment".

We "invested" a lot too. Now I let my mom know that her investment was to help me realize that I will never let my kids buy one pack of cards.

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Holy Moses... he almost looks better today.

[stevestevens]

Score did suck but the Bo Jackson card was pretty sweet. You all know which one i am talking about.

[stevestevens]

Even though baseball cards suck if I were at a convention right now I would still drop a 5 spot on a blind grab bag in hopes of getting the big prize.

[stevestevens]

I remember when Price Club started carrying boxes of topps, score, and donruss, and if you were lucky enough you could get there before the very rare pallet of fleer was gone. Buying in bulk and undercutting the card shops was the way to go. Maximizing profits!

[2112]

Crazy thread.

I still have about 6-8 packed Rubbermaid tubs of all sorts of cards. I used to collect basketball cards for fun and that some how turned into my whole family going nuts and buying boxes for me "as an investment".

I remember one Christmas, that everyone gave me card sets. That was a fun Christmas. Couldn't even open them, I might hurt their value. Now i guess I could use them as doorstops.

[Keener]

Yep.  Should have sold my Teemu Selanne rookie card immediately following his rookie year.

[Tank]

when i was a kid, we used to do stuff like this to some of our cards:

 

 

i added glasses and scars to one of the faces on this next card. guess which face? 

 

 

yep, that little mistake cost me about $400. i think i even blacked out a couple of his teeth, too.

[Tank]

i think i found blarg's favorite card:

 

[Kenny]

Holy Moses... he almost looks better today.

Oh, yeah, sure.  That guy doesn't do cocaine.

 

As for my opinion on cards.  I think kids lost interest in them 15 years ago when Pokemon started to come around.

[arch stanton]

when i was a kid, we used to do stuff like this to some of our cards:

 

 

i added glasses and scars to one of the faces on this next card. guess which face? 

 

 

yep, that little mistake cost me about $400. i think i even blacked out a couple of his teeth, too.

I have a pretty worn copy of this card that my uncle gave me. I went through my phase of deciding to become a catcher and Bench was my idol. He really looks like Pete Townsend in this picture.

[HeavenlyHalos]

Good call arch, and Ron Tompkins kinda looks like Joe Buck.

[Brandon]

Strangely, when I was in high school at my first job I was into one of the Final Fantasy games and in the game there was a card game you could play. They sold these at one of the shops. I saw complete sets go from between $400 and 1k. I have close to two full sets. Never thought they would amount to much and the sports cards would always appreciate.

[HaloFan85]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-Fleer-BASEBALL-Complete-Factory-Set-Unopened-/300935704512?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item46112a6fc0

 

 

 

Griffey Jr rookie cards used to go for $80 by itself, right out of the pack. 

I think his Fleer rookie card was always worthless thus the reason for that $15 price.

 

His Upper Deck rookies were the valuable ones.

[St1ck]

I may be wrong, but I remember the Fleer card being worth around $80 at it's peak. 

[Ray McKigney]

When I was a kid Topps was da bomb. 

[Brandon]

Anyone have some extra Upper Deck Space Jam Looney Tunes cards?

[decinces11]

YK, you can grade the Ripken cards for less than $15 if you don't mind waiting longer for the cards to return. I actually used to work for PSA and can take a look at them if you want to let you know if they are worth getting graded. Unless they are gem mint, it probably isn't worth it as a PSA 9 doesn't sell for that much more than an ungraded copy.

 

Most of the cards from the late 80's and early 90's were massed produced so that is why the values have tanked. There are still some good stuff that has held its value and actually has gone up in value as well. It all depends on what you have.

 

As someone else mentioned, the 89 fleer griffey was never an $80 card. Maybe $15-$20 at the peak. The value of the Griffey now is $10, but there are so many out there that most people that want one already have one or more.

[Adam]

Phil Plantier is going to be the shit! So is Juan Guzman

[Brandon]

Decinces, how much do you think I can offload my mint Mickey Morandini, Rene Gonzales, and Sid Bream cards for?