Baseball Cards: From Hobby to Investment (1 Viewer)

[lancer]

Heritage Auctions currently has a mint 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card (rated PSA 9) up for sale. The current bid is around $1.9 million with an expected final sale to approach $3 million. Complete insanity. I mean, MM was my all-time fav when I was growing up, but in his 18 year career he earned a total of $1,128,000. How can a piece of cardboard be worth more than he earned in 18 years? Mick is rolling over and over and over...:rolleyes2::rolleyes2:-- Al

 

[marco55]

The talk of baseball cards reminded me of the primitive but fun sports games we had as a kid. My favorite was that vibrating metal football field where you placed these plastic football guys. You could actually buy teams painted in NFL uniforms. When you turned the thing on it sounded like an earthquake with them rattling and going every direction like the Monty Python skit where the track meet guys can't run in a straight line. I never did quite figure out the rules. And the bubble hockey games. There seems to be a resurgence with that one. There was also a company called APBA that made all sorts of sports games based around cards and rolling dice. Remarkably they still seem to be in business.

I loved that football game.The Cowboys were my team back then.
Mark

 

[marco55]

I started collecting in the early 60's and I couldn't wait for my grandpop to get home to see if he brought home some packs for me.There was always 3 or 4 players in each series that was hard to get but that was part of the fun.My grand parents started getting me the whole sets but that kind of took the fun out of it.I collected only Topps and quit before all those other companies came into being.I probably had more fun collecting baseball cards more than anything else I've collected including toy soldiers. Baseball was and still is the number one sport for me.
Mark

 

[lancer]

I started collecting in the early 60's and I couldn't wait for my grandpop to get home to see if he brought home some packs for me.There was always 3 or 4 players in each series that was hard to get but that was part of the fun.My grand parents started getting me the whole sets but that kind of took the fun out of it.I collected only Topps and quit before all those other companies came into being.I probably had more fun collecting baseball cards more than anything else I've collected including toy soldiers. Baseball was and still is the number one sport for me.
Mark

I suspect baseball card collecting is responsible for a lot of us loving baseball in a life-long form. I had my years where football edged out baseball as my favorite (when I was a 20 something) but I have always loved baseball and football is now almost off my radar. Card collecting was an absolute blast, will always remain with me, and I can still enjoy the memories by pulling out some of my remaining cardboard treasures. :wink2::smile2: -- Al

 

[gk5717]

If my memory serves me the 1952 Mantle was a double print card, meaning cards were printed on large sheets then cut. So for every sheet of 1952 high numbers that had a Mantle, there were 2 Mantles per sheet, while other players just one card. So in reality the 52 Mantle is expensive not because it is so rare but because of it's desireability. Every card collector wants one.
I have been away from collecting for almost 30 years now but I wonder with todays technology how much a problem is there with fake cards?
The famous Honus Wagner card which at one time was the hobbys most valued card was not a fake but it turned out it was trimmed to make the edges and corners perfect. I believe that guy, Bill Maestro went to prison.
Gary

 

[lancer]

If my memory serves me the 1952 Mantle was a double print card, meaning cards were printed on large sheets then cut. So for every sheet of 1952 high numbers that had a Mantle, there were 2 Mantles per sheet, while other players just one card. So in reality the 52 Mantle is expensive not because it is so rare but because of it's desireability. Every card collector wants one.
I have been away from collecting for almost 30 years now but I wonder with todays technology how much a problem is there with fake cards?
The famous Honus Wagner card which at one time was the hobbys most valued card was not a fake but it turned out it was trimmed to make the edges and corners perfect. I believe that guy, Bill Maestro went to prison.
Gary

Correct on the famous Wagner card, once owned by Wayne Gretzky, it was trimmed and Maestro did go to the slammer. If the current '52 Mantle reaches the projected $3 - 3.5 million level, it will be the new highest priced card champion.
Been away from the market for a long while myself, so not sure if fake cards are a real problem. I do know that bogus autographs and bogus game-used artifacts are a HUGE problem. I read somewhere that the majority of autographs on the market are faked. A real case of buyer beware and those Certificates of Authenticity are worthless in many cases, as they are often bogus too. Only way to be absolutely sure of an autograph these days is to get it in person at a show. Once again, the huge business in fake autographs and such followed the popularity explosion in the 80's. -- Al

 

[gk5717]

I never did get the autograph thing. A fellow Blues hockey jersey collector I know is right at my age 70. He attends these various affairs and goes to the Blues practices to get autographs. How can a person of that age have any dignity asking a 20 year old kid for his signature. For that matter how can ANY adult ask a player for a signature. I understand kids, but even as a kid I wouldn't do it. Yea I know some do it for re sale. But that is even more humiliating in my way of thinking.
Gary

 

[Combat]

One sports memorabilia item that has really taken off is the purchase of jerseys. When I was growing up you hardly, if ever, saw a fan wear a jersey. Look at old films of games from the 70s and 80s. Now almost everyone has a $200-500 jersey on for the game. I have tickets for the local AHL hockey team - not NHL - but AHL. The Hershey Bears. The jerseys in the shop are all over $150. Even for the kids. Want a number added? Another $70+. Almost every fan in attendance has one on. Sometimes they auction off special game worn jerseys after the game. Locals who you wouldn't suspect had pancake money for Denny's lay down $1K or more for every jersey on the team. Sometimes even for players who didn't play that night or the mascot. It's incredible. And they do this multiple times during the season. Every game jersey sells for over $1K.

 

[gk5717]

One sports memorabilia item that has really taken off is the purchase of jerseys. When I was growing up you hardly, if ever, saw a fan wear a jersey. Look at old films of games from the 70s and 80s. Now almost everyone has a $200-500 jersey on for the game. I have tickets for the local AHL hockey team - not NHL - but AHL. The Hershey Bears. The jerseys in the shop are all over $150. Even for the kids. Want a number added? Another $70+. Almost every fan in attendance has one on. Sometimes they auction off special game worn jerseys after the game. Locals who you wouldn't suspect had pancake money for Denny's lay down $1K or more for every jersey on the team. Sometimes even for players who didn't play that night or the mascot. It's incredible. And they do this multiple times during the season. Every game jersey sells for over $1K.

Guilty As Charged. I collect game worn, not to be confused with authentic. These jerseys were worn during an NHL game by the particular player. You think soldiers are expensive!
The funny thing about jerseys is the more wear & tear on them the better. Not like soldiers where the figure should be mint.
Gary

 

[theBaron]

Yeah, I was talking about this with my dad yesterday. We were trying to remember what we did, in our respective childhoods, if you wanted a jersey or even a cap. I think that when I was little (b. 1964), caps were generally available, through gift shops at the parks or elsewhere, I guess. I don't recall seeing jerseys, either, or having any idea on how to get one, unless it was that you knew someone from the team. And my dad, he said he couldn't recall at all, how he might have gotten even a cap, when he was a kid in the 40s. I guess that again, you had to have a connection with a team, or maybe go through a sporting goods company.

I guess teams did sell some memorabilia, but I don't remember where I got things like that, as a kid. Maybe there was a gift shop at the Vet. I had a Phillies cap-had a Cardinals cap before that, but when I was 3, my dad sent it as a joke to an old college buddy of his, who hated the Cardinals. I don't know where that cap came from. I tell Pop that I might be a Cardinals fan today, if he hadn't taken away my old Cardinals cap.

Collectible pennants, too-I had a pennant from Busch Stadium. We must have gotten that from a gift shop. I don't have that one, anymore, but I have my various Phillies pennants. I have old university pennants, too, which I got from my parents and which they got when they went to college. Sis-boom-bah!

Prost!
Brad

Prost!
Brad

 

[Warrior]

One sports memorabilia item that has really taken off is the purchase of jerseys. When I was growing up you hardly, if ever, saw a fan wear a jersey. Look at old films of games from the 70s and 80s. Now almost everyone has a $200-500 jersey on for the game. I have tickets for the local AHL hockey team - not NHL - but AHL. The Hershey Bears. The jerseys in the shop are all over $150. Even for the kids. Want a number added? Another $70+. Almost every fan in attendance has one on. Sometimes they auction off special game worn jerseys after the game. Locals who you wouldn't suspect had pancake money for Denny's lay down $1K or more for every jersey on the team. Sometimes even for players who didn't play that night or the mascot. It's incredible. And they do this multiple times during the season. Every game jersey sells for over $1K.

It's big, no check that, huge business. And you are spot on; in the 70's and 80's virtually no one wore jerseys, in some of the crowd shots from older games, it's hard to tell what team is playing based on the outfits on the fans.

A bunch of my friends and I went to the 1986 AFCCG in Miami vs the Doofins and we've got a number of pictures, one of which is all of us standing inside the Orange Bowl pointing at the scoreboard after the game was over, only one of us had any sort of gear on, my friend had one of those cheesy mesh hats, I think they were made out of cardboard.

Now at the games, the entire crowd has hats, jackets, jerseys. It's nuts and you have to love how they take advantage with the alternate uniforms, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Memorial Day, July 4th gear, it never ends, parents across America must be broke if they have kids who are into sports................

 

[gk5717]

As for as actual game worn jerseys, sticks, helmets, etc they are pretty easy to get these days. The Blues have auctions almost every week featuring some sort of game worn memorbilia. There are several dealers who have exclusive contracts with teams to sell their items. And for the older stuff there are 2 main hockey auction houses that have auctions about 3 times a year. But you are correct back in the 80's you had to have some sort of connections to get that stuff. I got my first game worn Cardinals jersey, Lonnie Smith, from the 1982 season because a popular sports restaurant was on my beat. And during the 1982 world series I did some favors for the owner and he gave me the jersey. He had great connections with the Cardinals. Same with my first 2 Blues jerseys. A jewelry store owner had connections with the Blues and that's who I got my first 2 Blues jerseys from.
Gary

 

[lancer]

Heritage Auctions currently has a mint 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card (rated PSA 9) up for sale. The current bid is around $1.9 million with an expected final sale to approach $3 million. Complete insanity. I mean, MM was my all-time fav when I was growing up, but in his 18 year career he earned a total of $1,128,000. How can a piece of cardboard be worth more than he earned in 18 years? Mick is rolling over and over and over...:rolleyes2::rolleyes2:-- Al

The auction for this card resulted in it's sale for $2.88 million, somewhat short of the all-time record paid for Honus Wagner at $3.12 million. The value of the Mantle rookie card has risen to such heights in a relatively short period of time. In 1988, the '52 Mantle (in 9/10 condition) could be had for $3300. By 1998, the price had climbed to $121,000. By 2007, it was $240,000, and now this, $2.88 million. Absolutely incredible. I'm hanging onto my 1960, 68, and 69 Mantles, although I don't expect they'll make me wealthy.:wink2:^&grin:tongue: -- Al

 

[Panzer ace]

The auction for this card resulted in it's sale for $2.88 million, somewhat short of the all-time record paid for Honus Wagner at $3.12 million. The value of the Mantle rookie card has risen to such heights in a relatively short period of time. In 1988, the '52 Mantle (in 9/10 condition) could be had for $3300. By 1998, the price had climbed to $121,000. By 2007, it was $240,000, and now this, $2.88 million. Absolutely incredible. I'm hanging onto my 1960, 68, and 69 Mantles, although I don't expect they'll make me wealthy.:wink2:^&grin:tongue: -- Al

ESPN says that the card was sold by an retired NFL lineman by the name of Evan Mathis?

 

[lancer]

ESPN says that the card was sold by an retired NFL lineman by the name of Evan Mathis?

Yes, he OL played for the Eagles. -- Al