baseball card price

Football Cards

Case Vs. Random Boxes? 2013 Topps Chrome Football

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2013 Topps Chrome Football vs. 2013 Topps Finest Football

Many people that collect sports cards today always second guess themselves out of purchasing cases of specific product, for those who can afford to do that. I often wonder why not purchase smaller lots from different sellers, like some of the reputable ones on eBay? Some of the good sellers on eBay sell lots of 5 or 6 boxes. Many times you can secure some bigger hits that way, other times not so much. I love to place  Youtube videos on my sports card blog, because sometimes you can see how difficult it is even with a case purchase to secure any valid hits. Other times you can see the flip side, which is 4 boxes from different cases, and two of the same lousy autographs like in this video that I am sharing on my baseball card price blog. See for yourself, and make up your own mind as to the pros and cons of purchasing sports cards online in smaller bunches. Some of the great rookies thus far from 2013 are as follows: Eddie Lacy, Geno Smith, Keenan Allen, and more…

Even Rarest Baseball Cards Bring Baseball Card Price Variation!

Baseball card price

Even Rarest Baseball Cards Bring Baseball Card Price Variation!

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Even Rare baseball cards bring baseball card price variation. Amongst the many of the cards which would qualify, one of the most original were the Post Cereal baseball cards from the 1960’s.  These baseball cards collections are a rarity today because the concept of the collecting originally, was one that lead to many a human error. The main reason is simply because they had to be cut from the back of the cereal boxes, and everyone did not display the same cutting skills.

Unlike many different card companies like say, Kellogg’s and their 3-d cards which were inserted in the boxes already packaged and safe from the human error and disparity in the cutting of the cards. This Carl Yastrzemski 1962 Post #61 is a prime example, the card was cut by the original owner and it is in incredible shape, but for modern day grading qualifications it falls short, because grading companies have determined that the size should be a specific size for proper grading.  In short BVG allows you to send the card in for slabbing without a grade for authentication purposes, even though I have yet to hear of any counterfeit issues with these Post cards, the cards do have blank backs making them a possible target.

These Post Cereal issued cards remain very popular today primarily because of the star inclusion, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron, and many many others.  These would never quality for unopened baseball cards because they were printed on sheets on the exterior or interior of the actual box.

If you have any questions regarding the Post Cereal cards, feel free to email me or leave a post and I will answer you as soon as possible.

The Baseball Card Price Goes Up, Just Grade Your Cards!

Baseball card price

The Baseball Card Price Goes Up, Just Grade Your Cards!

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Want the see a baseball card price go up?  Graded cards, some will argue that grading cards is a waste of time and money, others will profess that it is the best thing since sliced bread.  I have, in the past battled the pros and cons of grading cards, as well as which company to choose to do the grading. The big three for my money, Beckett Grading, PSA Grading and SCG Grading.

I pretty much will not stray too far from those, but I have had some graded by GAI ( Global Authentication), but not too much. Overall a pretty good experience with GAI, I just do not care too much for the protective case.  Like with anything that involves my hard earned money, I have run my own test, and are willing to share the experiment results with you. I would say that every card grading company has its own specialty, even though the result should be the same across the board. We know that not to be the case, as far as reputability goes. I have learned the following, I will never send another vintage card to Beckett Grading.  For reasons of longevity, most people had already established and built many vintage graded card registries with PSA and continue to build those and update them, so selling a vintage card graded by say Beckett Grading (whom by the way is very reputable) you would actually be selling yourself short, and although the baseball card price will always increase with a grading from these companies, you may actually affect the price of your registry set in a negative way.

I will give you an actual example that occurred to me. 1975 Topps Mini Frank Robinson card, graded by BVG ( Beckett Vintage Grading) a 9.0 pretty tough grade, we will agree. The card realized $90.00 on EBay last year. That card would fetch easily $300.00 had it been graded by PSA, is there any doubt? Check the history for the 1975 Topps mini cards. I believe BVG, BGS do grade their cards harshly, that is fine. Integrity is good, not good enough for my vintage cards. Another example was a 1961 Topps Ron Santos rookie card, I submitted the card for grading through BVG, the card was returned a BVG 8.5. The card realized a total sum of $88.00 dollars on EBay, I believe that the actual price would have easily been $200.00 plus for a PSA 9.

Grading cards is a nice way to go whether for your personal collection, or for selling. You just have to be smart about who is going to get your graded cards submission.  Good Luck with your future submissions!

Baseball Card Price – Ike Davis NY Mets

Baseball card price

Baseball Card Price – Ike Davis NY Mets

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The NY Mets have entrusted Ike Davis with 1st base and I am so glad, no offense to Mike Jacobs (no pun) also a former NY Met draft pick and he did show potential at one time, enough to land the NY Mets Mike Pizza.  Just not enough of late to land the 1st base job.  What has this done to the baseball card price of Ike Davis, well lets just say that if you do not own them yet, start buying them now!

This month’s Beckett publications has them rising at a pretty fast pace.  My favorite of his rookie cards is the 2008 Bowman Draft picks autograph.  The main reason I choose this card is that the card is autographed and really has little competition that year, at least yet.  Now Ike Davis is also part of the 2010 Topps Finest rookie checklist, but the overall odds of getting that card redemption autographed turns out to be a small percentage of the total run.

The baseball card price of the redemption card which is inserted (1) into every master box of the 2010 Topps Finest product is roughly anywhere from $20.00 to $40.00 that is pretty steep for a chance at an autographed card.  I say spend the $30.00 to $60.00 for the 2008 Bowman Draft picks card, and your chances of getting it highly graded are just as good as the Topps Finest product.  The rest of the Topps Finest checklist also include Stephen Strasburg (which is yet to be determined) but he will most certainly land either somewhere through #6 to #10, that much is certain.  Other notables to the set, and still cheap mainly because they have not a clue about what they are doing with the Florida Marlins, in Florida and Bobby Valentine appears to spreading the drama about his signing, in typical Bobby V fashion, is Michael Stanton a solid hitting and defending outfielder.  The baseball card price for his 2010 Topps Finest are falling and are landing somewhere in the $15.00 range.

Taking a look at the numbers between the two, Ike Davis is having a better year and is hitting for power, but to Stanton’s defense, Ike Davis has played many more games, but still he is a better bargain at their respective baseball card prices for the 2008 Bowman Draft Picks set.  I choose Ike!

Ike Davis – $30.00 to $60.00 – Mike Stanton – $60.00 – $120.00!

The Baseball Card Price – Not For Kids Anymore!

Rookie Baseball Cards

The Baseball Card Price – Not For Kids Anymore!

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Have you seen what the baseball card price is of late on the high end items?  Boxes can fetch up $800.00 and then some, and guess what they only have 1 pack of anywhere from three to five cards.  Now granted those boxes can produce a card in the $10,000.00 range, but even those are far and few between, and they make them every year, so are they really something that will hold a value once it passes that “I have got to have it!” stage, and really how many people can afford it?

Sure they still make the $45.00 boxes, and you can walk into any Walmart or Target and get blister boxes of most of today’s products, excluding the high end products, but most of the time, if you are not buying hobby certified products from a dealer you are wasting your time.  The hits or hot cards just are not the same.  Although I will tell you a story of 1 time when I caught lightning in a bottle.  The year was 2001 and everyone was hitting the Toys R Us, Targets, and Walmart hard as the word was spreading of that guy called Pujols.  As you could imagine, the product was drying up fast and talk of the Bowman Chrome was not spicy as it continues to this day.

So I set out to find him in other sets, and I tried the Toys R Us nearest to me at the time and purchased 22 boxes of Topps Reserve, Topps Chrome, Leaf  Stars and Rookies, and Upper Deck Authentic.  My quest for Albert Pujols netted me, (2) of the Leaf Stars and Rookies, (1) Topps Chrome, and (2) Topps Reserves baseballs and (1) of them was the Albert Pujols.  I did however catch the lightning, but not with those before mentioned.  I was able to pull a piece of the 7th No-hitter that Nolan Ryan threw, in the 2001 Leaf product.  It quickly netted me $980.00 on eBay, more than the baseball card price posted by Beckett Publications at the time which was $550.00!  So there are some gems out there in Blister packs, but I can tell you that over my 10 years plus of purchasing them from time to time, the lightning has fizzled to a tiny spark.

I recommend that young collectors that want to start a collection, check the baseball card prices of cards from yesteryear and start there.  You may be surprised how cheap you may find some of these cards on various engines on the web, and do not be afraid to bargain with people over the baseball card price.  I have found that people that need to sell are always looking to deal.  Just a thought, keep on collecting.

The Baseball Card Price Goes Up And Down!

Baseball card price/ Rookie Baseball Cards

The Baseball Card Price Goes Up And Down!

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No one baseball player has had his rookie baseball card price sway more in the last 50 years then Barry Bonds, not only sway, but become one of the most unwanted. Granted his swaying was created by the mere notion that he cheated, and we happen to know it to be true.

I know that there are plenty of us out there that were left holding the bag with his cards. I know that I have at least 10 1987 Fleer Glossy sets, and at least 50 of the other variety of his cards to include the 1987 Topps, and 1987 Donruss. Heck we can’t even blame the country’s recession or the crippling stock market for this deflating, we can only blame steroids and stupid judgment.

Even with the recession on going, and no one wanting to pay the baseball card price for such a card, I would still feel a whole bunch better, if the graded BGS 9.5 1987 Barry Bonds Fleer Glossy was still worth $250.00 and no one had the money to buy it.  Instead you have to put it up for $48.00 dollars and no one will even look at it. We all know that Ken Griffey Jr. did not live up to our expectations of what we thought he would eventually become, which was the home-run king! But in a few years I am pretty sure, that once he is removed from the game for at least two years, and by the way his stats won’t have any question marks, his rookie card baseball card price will have a steady climb upwards, where Mr. Barry Bonds, will probably be bottom fishing in the Potomac river.

Still collecting baseball cards is the funnest thing that I do.  There are way too many baseball players out there to worry about Barry Bonds and his disgraceful legacy.  Just to name a few from this year alone are  Stephen Strasburg (Washington Nationals), Ike Davis (NY Mets), both of which are making an impact with their respective teams so far.  Keep on collecting!