Comments on: Lunchtime Quiz: Appraising Baseball Cards

By: Brandon Cacek

Brandon Cacek — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:11:01 +0000

Thanks for the great quiz, and if in the future you ever need anything from me, please let me know.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:06:16 +0000

My friends and I hold Upper Deck, and specifically the 1989 #1 Griffey jr. card responsible for the eventual collapse of the market. For the first time, a card value was based on potential, and not performance. Throughout the 80’s, card prices rose and fell based on on-field performance. That Griffey jr card expensive before he even played a big league game.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:03:07 +0000

Scrawled on the end of his bat are the words “F**k Face.” Snopes has a good explanation…snopes.com/sports/baseball/ripken.asp

By: sm

sm — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:01:06 +0000

ok….I’m probably gonna feel really stupid, but what is wrong with that last card for Billy?

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:02:07 +0000

My good friend Dave Jamieson is writing a book called ‘Mint’ on the rise and fall of baseball cards, which was born out of this piece in Slate: slate.com/id/2146218. We’ll try to get him here as a guest blogger once it’s published.

By: Clotho

Clotho — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:20:33 +0000

you’re correct EV, Upper Deck (and similar high end sets like Score/Pinnacle and the high end sets Topps/Donruss/Fleer released to keep up) played a big part in the collapse of the baseball card market – as well as over production like Karen said. Gone were the days of being able to get a pack of cards and a stick of gum for $0.35, and the average kid couldn’t afford to pay 2, 3 or even 5 bucks for a pack. Couple that with over saturation, and card prices plummeted

By: EV

EV — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:21:44 +0000

I have a number of those, including the Mike Schmidt Ron Cey rookie 3rd basemen card. My cousin and I collected together in junior high in the late 80’s. His uncle gave us a box of old cards to start us off, and the 3rd basemen card was in it. It was worth $300 or so back then. Not so hot now.

All the guys who were big cards to get back when I collected are part of the roids scandals now. Conceco (sic), McGuire, Bonds, Clemmens, Palmero . . .

Once collecting started to be viewed as an investment game, the whole works crashed out. (I blame upper deck for ensuring the downfall, but that’s just my very non-expert opinion.)

By: karen

karen — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:03:15 +0000

Sadly the over production of cards in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s helped devalue a lot of cards that should have been worth more. Add in that a lot more people keep and care for their cards nowadays vs in the 20’s-50’s, there’s too many cards for most to be worth anything. I stopped collecting because it’s not as fun as because there are so many cards. When the same card gets re-issued 4 times with different color or diamond levels and only the top level is worth anything because there’s only 100 in existance it takes some of the fun out. You know you’ll never pull one from a pack. But in today’s market having a limited edition is the only way one will make money. Maybe my ARod rookie will be worth something in a few years.

By: Clotho

Clotho — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:46:42 +0000

“As it turns out, I don’t have a small fortune stashed away in my parents’ basement.”

isn’t that a shame?! If you put in as much of your time and heart as a child collecting cards as I did, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. I was supposed to have made a fortune off my cards by now. Although, it looks like prices have risen recently – I promptly went out and bought an issue of Beckett’s after Maguire broke the single season home run record, and his Team USA card that is featured in the quiz (and that I stole from my sister – shhhhhh) was worth a relative pittance compared to what it’s worth now. I looked up the value of my most prized cards, and I was totally devastated by the meager prices.
I may head over to homeruncards.com and pick up the Don Mattingly rookie card that was featured in the quiz – it was the most sought after card of my childhood (Donny Baseball is my hero), and one I could never trade for, and certainly couldn’t afford – now that I’m an adult and can pretty easily afford it, I don’t think it would mean as much, ya know?

man, this has brought back a flood of childhood memories…I think I’m going to raid my parent’s basement this weekend – thanks for the stroll down memory lane Jason!! :)

By: TMo

TMo — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:46:38 +0000

i guess i should be proud of my 45%, considering the quiz average.