Time was baseball cards were worth something besides sentimental value. I nought my wife’s engagement wring with the money I received selling a set on 1967 Topps.
That ship has sailed.
As I mentioned recently, I recently rediscovered a foot locker full of various card sets, as well as a couple of smaller boxes in the basement. Thought it was time to see what I could get for them so I bought the latest edition of the Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide. I usually don’t buy baseball books, especially at full price, but I figured this was an investment.
In case you’ve never seen one of these things, they’re about 8 ½ x 11 and this one was more than 800 pages. It would have been more if they used a readable font size; they should include a magnifying glass with the purchase.
The book carries a lot of information, including the highest and lowest prices for sets and individual cards according to whatever metrics they use. So you can understand my disappointment when I saw that my set of first edition of Upper Deck, which came out in 1989, was worth about $60 (although the high price for one Ken Griffey Jr. card was $100; go figure). I also have the first runs for Score and Donruss for what that’s worth, which is apparently not a whole lot.
Similarly, a 1970 Topps Tom Seaver in mint condition is just $30. I looked up a few more individual cards from the same set: Thurman Munson’s rookie card is about $200 as was Hank Aaron. The reader’s eyes are drawn to the larger figures in the columns.
I should have sold them years ago when there was the market was high. On the other hand, now I won’t feel so bad about throwing them out. Kind of liberating.
is available on Amazon.com,
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