Monthly Archives: March 2013

Upper Deck Baseball Cards History 1988

Baseball card price

Upper Deck Baseball Cards History 1988

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Upper Deck Baseball Cards

Upper Deck baseball cards, 1989 marked the release of this hi-tech (at the time) product. But few people know that the Upper Deck baseball product, issued cards used to market their cards in 1988. Years later these cards also paved the way, for what we now have come to learn are “Promo cards”.

In 1988, a few players were part of the original marketing product, and those players were Wally Joyner and Dwayne DeWitt, and they were actually featured in 2 Upper Deck baseball cards released that year. Those cards had one purpose, to fuel the interest in the Upper Deck product. Although all of the product sold out and quickly, clearly it was not because of the poster boys but rather the hype that surrounded the Upper Deck company.

1989 Upper Deck Hologram

In a time, where there was some counterfeiting going on in the sports card industry. These baseball cards offered a hologram (on the back right hand corner) that was to be tamper proof. The actual poster boy for the 1989 Upper Deck baseball product quickly became Ken Griffey Jr. You can say what you like about the Upper Deck baseball product but Ken Griffey Jr. did not disappoint.

In fact it is hard to believe, that with his record over 600 home-runs, Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1989 Upper Deck rookie baseball card can be had relatively cheap. Hard to believe that at one time, Ken Griffey Jr. was one of the most amazing center fielders to ever have played the game, Ken Griffey Jr. is no longer a hobby favorite in all areas of the country, but a 600 plus home-run all-star none the less.

How many home-runs could he have hit? Had he not been injured for about 4 years totaling all of his trips to the disabled list. Maybe 750, I guess we will never know. For argument sake, I will say respectively 35 home-runs a year. Ken Griffey Jr. is still playing, the Chicago White Sox are probably going to bring him back, there are your 750 imaginary home-runs!

Their 1989 baseball product is loaded with plenty of future Hall of Fame candidates, I do not believe that John Smoltz will have any problems getting in when his time is up, being the only player to have led the National League in wins one year and saves another. I have a hard time making a case for Gary Sheffield, boy it seems that controversy always follows him, but still his career numbers are nice. Being the nephew of Dwight Gooden, you can see where the genes come from.

The Dale Murphy Reverse Negative

The 1989 Upper Deck baseball product is loaded with error cards as well, many more than I can ever list here but there are a few reverse negative photos out there. The Dale Murphy card being the more favorite and most expensive. Ungraded copies of these still sell in the $20.00 range.

All in all, I like the Upper Deck baseball product the cards grade very nicely if you are opening up the wax product or factory sets and I have had some fun chasing the error cards, but I am not ready to put this set in the top 5 baseball card sets of modern-day baseball cards. Just my opinion.

BGS And JSA Can Authenticate Your Autographs

Autograph Collecting

BGS And JSA Can Authenticate Your Autographs

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Celebrity Autographs

Celebrity Autographs collection and the money making possibilities are endless. Recently BGS (Beckett Grading) and JSA (James Spence Authenticators) teamed up to both grade and authenticate sports cards that are signed by collectors as opposed to the reputable sports card companies like Topps, Donruss, Fleer, and Upper Deck and their in-house autographed product.

In a Beckett Sports Publication a few months back and also shared in the Beckett newsletter which I receive bi-monthly, Beckett and James Spense Authenticators now authenticate and also encase autographs and photos that are not the standard sports card sizes.

James Spence Authenticators

Beckett and James Spence Authenticators works the authentication magic in a two-part process, first the item in question is verified at James Spence Authenticators and authenticated as an original piece of autographed memorabilia, then the item gets sent to Beckett for encasing and an actual grade if so desired, you can have the item just slabbed as authentic, if you so desire. I can tell you that it has not made a difference in the overall sale of a sports card in my collection, whether or not the autograph gets an 8 or 9 so long as the autograph is not flawed, and the item in questions is desired than it will obtain a nice sale price. There is no doubt that this service offers security and peace of mind.

I have sent a few cards through the process and I can tell you that the process pretty much sticks to the shipping and handling guidelines. They issue an expected to receive date (standard 20 days) as opposed to the guarantee times on the sports cards but overall a professional procedure. My history with Beckett includes one lost subscription in about 40 orders. I was however fully reimbursed with my collections insured cost. On the Beckett form for submissions, you are given the opportunity to state a value for all the cards that you submit for grading. My advice is that you do not sell yourself short on the values of your cards, because in the grading submissions guidelines Beckett and James Spence will pay you strictly on your insured amount.

For example one of the cards you submit is valued at $25.00, if you put $10.00 then simply that is what you get in the event that the card or order should get lost. I must admit that once in a while in my laziness, I would just take a guess at the value of the sports cards, I no longer do that for the obvious reasons. Beckett and James Spence offer a nice product and it is a nice way to solidify the autographed collectible that you have had in your collection, before the sports card companies began including autographed cards in their products. Submit your cards today to this new and neat submissions procedure.

Pricing Baseball Cards – Don’t Sell Yourself Short Online

Specialty Cards

Pricing Baseball Cards – Don’t Sell Yourself Short Online

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Pricing Baseball Cards

Pricing baseball cards, no easy task to do when your venue for sales is the internet. Whether you use the Beckett baseball cards site or eBay or have some other venue, you should not sell the value of your sports collection or individual cards short.

Included in my internet sales plan to succeed with the sales of sports cards, is the buy it now option that eBay offers. It seems to be the new trend in internet sales. People are desperate and want it now, actually they wanted it yesterday. Here in lies the tricky part, you have to stand your ground. What do I mean by that? Well this is what I mean, Beckett Sports Publications will price most cards and they have various publications they even have one that prices graded cards. When pricing your cards, you have the book price, and the consensus internet price but be prepared to have your price, especially when attempting to sell cards that are not in demand to large groups of consumers of players that are not particularly hot or sports that are not in session.

SPX Daiske Matsuzaka

Scan over the list of cards that are being offered, that you are attempting to sell. Try to price your card a few dollars below, after all you have to determine do you want to sell the item or not, if the answer is yes, then you might as well be competitive and aggressive. Every time I list a card for sale, I already have a price in mind which I will not go below, and I never choose the option of turning away potential buyers with a preset limit, those of you that have used this before know what I am talking about, sometimes dialogue with a potential buyer is everything.

Getting cards graded is not always the best way to go, things to considered are whether or not this is a sports card that you wish to keep for your collection or sell. Pricing baseball cards is tricky, I recently sold a BGS 9.0 2007 Upper Deck SPX Daiske Matsuzaka autographed rookie card for $175.00 on eBay. The buyer used the buy it now option, never haggled on the price either. This card would have fetched the same price ungraded, although the BGS graded card price indexed is roughly $200.00. Incredibly the sale came the day after the RedSox’s ace beat the Tampa Rays in the Baseball League Championship series. This buyer saw the bargain and purchased the card outright. The card had been on eBay for close to 20 days. I guess with that timing was everything with that sale.

1975 Topps Baseball Mini

Now by the same token, I will tell you that I sold a BVG 9.0 1975 Topps Baseball mini, for $130.00 and with this card the buyer went back and forth with the sale of the card, we finally agreed on $130.00. I thought that this was a fair price, after all I learned that because there are far more PSA vintage sports cards graded, than with BVG there are just as many more collectors out there looking for vintage cards with the PSA grading, frankly I did not think there would have been many more takers. PSA registry’s are driving many of the sales of vintage PSA cards to dry up, occasionally you will see someone breaking a registry set and the sales of these cards usually skyrocket.

In any business, repeat business is the foundation of the sales, treating people fairly, not over-pricing your cards and pricing baseball cards according to market values, regardless what a pricing book states is the best way to have your business progress with internet sales.

How Many Rare Baseball Cards Do You Have?

Specialty Cards

How Many Rare Baseball Cards Do You Have?

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Collecting Baseball Cards

In our current state of recession, perhaps if something has to give in the household it would be sports cards, baseball, football, basketball whatever your vice. Not true in my home, I keep spending anyway. Just trying to do my part Obama! I have any idea, if you have been storing sports cards for the better part of a few years, now would be the perfect time to get them graded.

Beckett grading and PSA grading are giving quite a few specials these days and I can think of no better time to take them up on it. Grading cards is a challenge and if you have vintage cards there are several ways to go. If the card is worth something and it is a little banged up, you can still submit the card to have it authenticated for a fraction of the price to have the same card graded. Over a period of time, this may turn out to be a good move. The card will still be worth something to someone, and buying the card while knowing that the card is authenticated is good relaxing feeling for a collector or investor.

Grading Your Sports Cards

I have been quite successful with BGS and the ratio of BGS 9.5 (Gem Mint) cards that I get back, truth be told in regards to modern-day cards, unless you have a signed autographed low serial numbered card of a superstar, a BGS 8.0 or 8.5 will just not command must. Really be critical of your cards when sending them to get them graded. Unless of course they are for your personal collection and have no plans of selling the sports cards in the near future. Remember these are your sports card treasures.