How to tell if a basketball card is worth money

As already mentioned, knowing the value of your cards is half the war, even more. Just like in any market, you have to be knowledgeable about it before you’re thinking of becoming a player. The fundamentals of the basketball card game are just like basic marketing.

Here’s how it works: You have competitors, and you’ll have buyers who would buy the cards as high as you want to sell them. Now, you can only do the latter if you know its actual value. If you see the card is worth $1,000, you can probably sell it in the $600-$800 range.

These are some things to consider to find out the value of basketball cards:

1. Check out price guides

Back in the 90s, you’d have to have a Beckett to learn how much a basketball card is worth. You may still use the updated versions now, but it’s a hassle folding sheets of paper every time you have to look something up. On this day of the Internet, you can find any information online at your fingertips and that includes the value of basketball cards.

The best way to know how competitive the marketplace is is by checking eBay and other selling platforms. That’s pretty much like checking StockX for shoe prices. If you’re really quite serious about card-collecting, you can buy or subscribe to special pricing software like Slabstox or Card Ladder.

2. Know the name and the year of the card

Most cards can easily be identified by the player it features, but you can also check the name and the year of the card. Of course, in doing this, you may need to summon the power of the world wide web once again.

Inserts, for instance, have numbers that say 4/63, which means you got the 4th card out of a complete set of 63. After checking these out, look at the card’s price in retail stores and base your selling price on that.

3. Other things to look out for

When you’re dealing with basketball cards, a combination of age and condition could fetch you a very good price. It doesn’t matter if it’s John Havlicek, Pistol Pete Maravich, or Al Attles; if you have a card from that long ago in perfect condition, chances are, some collector is going for it. Even if you have a semi-rare card and you keep it in tip-top shape, you’d still be able to sell that at a considerable price.

One other thing you can do to drive the price of your cards is to get them authenticated by the manufacturer. In my opinion, this is always a must if you have a limited edition card or other rare ones.

Basketball cards are common items in malls and other shops, but you can also check some in online selling platforms like eBay and Amazon. For sure, those are the usual places where to buy basketball cards. Of course, buying straight from a pack guarantees almost nothing, so this option is not the way to go if you’re looking for a specific card.

If you are searching for something specific and not treasure-hunting with new packs, it pays if you surround yourself with friends that share the same interest. Hang out in a few forums and social media groups, and you might find yourself a good deal from different contacts.

Collecting basketball cards is not exactly rocket science, but it’s not for everyone either. Just because you’re a fan of the sport doesn’t mean you will do well in this hobby. Still, if you decide to take it seriously, then the most important thing for you to know is the value of basketball cards. 

The simplest way to up your card game is to know the types of cards. There are basic cards, inserts, patches, autographs, and some really rare ones that are combinations of everything. After that, you need to be proactive yourself, like perhaps subscribing to a card-pricing software, looking up a basketball card price guide, and checking updated prices online. And if you’re looking to score a specific card, it doesn’t hurt to make friends with people who are already in the game before you. Chances are, they could point you in the right direction.

When dabbling with collecting basketball cards, here’s the deal, though: Most of this stuff is cheap and does not carry a monetary lick. You will seldom find something with Michael Jordan basketball cards value or a LeBron rookie card. That’s not how it often works. If you’re looking for basketball cards to invest in or consider making it a permanent source of income, then this is not it. 

Now, let’s say you already know what basketball cards are worth the money, and you already have several under your care; the key is to keep it in mint condition. If you have in your possession a limited edition card or something rare, why not authenticate it with the manufacturer to drive the price up? 

In any case, when you already know the value of basketball cards in your hands, protect them at all costs because you’ll never know what could happen in the future. I’m pretty sure the owner of that LeBron card did not have any idea that it’s going to be worth seven figures down the line. You very well might be the next lucky guy.

Did you like this post? Then check out our other basketball FAQs here.

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How much are my NBA basketball cards worth? A guide to card prices

For more than a year, the hobby of card collecting has transformed from being a simple pastime to one that’s worth a lot of money now. A huge number of new folks have started purchasing cards during this time, driving demand through the roof. While this growth is a welcome development, there are some issues that continue to hound the hobby. One of them is determining the value of a card.

Since those who are new to the hobby are prone to mistakes, they often end up paying more than they should while some sell at a fraction of their true price. These mistakes are caused by not knowing how to properly gauge a card’s value. Let’s take a look at how to overcome this common challenge with a set of simple solutions every card enthusiast should know by heart.

Back in the day, collectors would often rely on Beckett to learn how much a card was worth. This magazine was a popular one because it was the pricing standard everyone followed, especially during the 90s.

This isn’t the case anymore with the hobby reaching new heights. Although Beckett still exists, the majority of collectors depend on online shopping platforms and dedicated software pricing programs to determine value. The most popular example, in this regard, is comparing eBay sold prices.

To access this feature, type the card on eBay’s main search bar. After that step, scroll down through the categories at the leftmost portion of the interface. Do this until you see the “Sold Items” and “Completed Items” box, and check them right after. This will show all the confirmed sales of the particular card and how much they went for. More often than not, the sold prices will give you an idea of how much a card is currently worth.

Along with eBay price comparisons, hobbyists can also resort to dedicated pricing software. Some of these include Card Ladder, Slabstox, and Marvet Movers, among others. They offer an extensive database containing almost all cards within it, their corresponding prices, and how they’re trending in the market. Keep in mind, though, that these software programs require payment on a monthly or annual basis to sustain their continued use. 

Not every card is created the same. Most of these are designed to be mass-produced, while a select few are more expensive than others. There are several factors that should be considered when it comes to the rarity of a card.

Card Sets

First, collectors should remember that there are sets that have a huge print run. The most popular of these in the market are Panini’s NBA Hoops and Donruss. The ones from these products are considered cheaper, mainly because of their massive population in the market.

Next up the ladder are chrome cards, which are considered the standard for collectors everywhere. These products, such as Prizm and Select, boast a sleek look that makes their demand jump up. 

After this tier are the rarer sets, like National Treasures, Flawless, and Immaculate. These products have limited print runs and cost significantly more than Panini’s more affordable options. As such, cards found from these products are rarer and command more interest from buyers.

Parallel and Short Print

Cards that fall under this category are rarer than common offerings in the market. A parallel is a version of the base card that possesses a unique element that makes it distinct, such as a different color or design. Short print cards, on the other hand, are manufactured with a limited number of copies, making them harder to find.

Both of these types are a step up in price. The more limited the parallel or short print card is, the higher price it commands than most common ones. Collectors often pay more for these because they retain their value better over the course of time.

Rookie Cards

Every year, Panini features a list of players who are playing in the NBA for the first time in their wide range of products. 

Since these are the first products that showcase these young players, they command more value than those that feature veterans in the league. The price and demand for the top players in each draft class also go up, as compared to other rookies who are not performing well or not getting enough playtime.

Apart from their rarity, cards derive their value from their condition. In this regard, collectors should inspect the surface, corners, and edges for any dings or scratches. Its centering, meaning the equal positioning of a card’s borders, also needs to be checked. If there are no issues with these parts of a card, its value is likely to be preserved.

After determining the condition, the next step is to preserve it. The first step is to place it inside a plastic sleeve, which serves as the first layer of protection. From there, collectors can insert the card inside a toploader, card saver, or magnetic case. These accessories made of hard and rigid plastic prevent the card from being bent or damaged.

The ideal way to protect a card is to send it to a grading company, such as PSA and BGS. Their professional graders will assess the true state of a card, encase it in a slab, and label it with a grade that corresponds to its condition. This process will help the card survive better, and increase its value.

Entering the exciting world of card collecting can be daunting at first. But once you’ve learned how to determine price and value, things will be a lot easier from that point on. As a result, you’ll get to have more fun with this hobby without the risk of losing money in the process.

Related TopicsCardsNBA CardsNBA Rookie Card

Baseball cards - a whole empire: Americans have been collecting them for 150 years, speculators trade them on the stock exchange - His foot - Blogs . In the US, the main collectible fetish is cards. The scale of this cult is amazing: they have been collected for a century and a half, exhibited in museums, books written about them and sold for space money.

💵 Cards were invented by marketers. They have nothing to do with sports

🏴 ̠ ̠ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̆ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̆ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ˆ ̶-̆ ̶-̠ ̶-̠ ̶̶-̠ ̶-̠ ̶̶ ̶̶-̠ 110002 ． In England at one time they were more popular than in the USA

🎬 Madonna and Tom Hanks can be found on baseball cards

⚾️ The popularity of cards grew due to boomers - the first post-war generation (the same ones that were born after World War II)

First on the cards instead of athletes there were leaders, birds, flags of countries

- I had a large collection of baseball cards. Everything was stolen.

– Did you take something else?

Yes, money. But let's focus on the essentials. I had a Topps card with Mickey Mantle, a unique piece. And others in good condition: 60/40 on the front and 90/10 on the back. All my cards were in packages, and if you take them out and take them, God forbid, with greasy fingers, they will instantly drop in price. I know the first 48 hours are the most important in this kind of investigation. The more time passes, the less likely it is to find them.

Dialogue from the first episode of the second season of Better Call Saul is a great illustration of how baseball cards are treated in the US. The unlucky collector went to the police because of the loss of an impressive and very expensive set, despite the fact that he himself was tied to the drug trade. But the disappointment of losing Mickey Mantle is much stronger than the fear of being caught. Many Americans would probably do the same, because a Mickey Mantle card in good condition can be worth $3 million.

Sports cards are a by-product of tobacco companies. In the 19th century, cigarettes were sold in soft paper packs: they were easy to crumple and damage the contents. The solution was found by the American company Allen & Ginter, which placed a cardboard stiffener in the package. Such protection had almost no effect on the cost of cigarettes, but it became a serious advantage for the buyer. Later, the innovation was adopted by other companies.

Cigarette liners about Russia

To stand out from the competition, Allen & Ginter began to add a bonus to cigarettes: instead of a boring gray cardboard, a smoker was expected to have a beautiful postcard that he could leave as a keepsake. Millions of firms use such a primitive marketing ploy today, but in the 1870s it was a revolution. Manufacturers "hooked" smokers not only on cigarettes, but also on the excitement of the collector.

At first, the most neutral images were placed in the packages: nature, animals, birds, flags of the countries of the world, leaders of states, Indian chiefs. Sports had not yet taken such an important place in the life of Americans, although baseball was becoming more and more popular. In the late 1850s, the first major organization of teams in and around New York City, the National Association, was founded. Ten years later, professional athletes appeared in baseball, and in 1876 a league was created that would become the basis for MLB at the beginning of the 20th century. Growing interest in the game prompted tobacco manufacturers to replace leaders with athletes.

Ball game in New Jersey in 1866. Note: Initially, "baseball" was spelled in two words. The company sold sports equipment and printed price cards to educate customers about the products. On the other side, a player was looking at a potential buyer. And although such cards are considered the first baseball cards, they have not yet received wide distribution. Not everyone was interested in sporting goods, but Americans of the late 19th century loved to smoke.

One of the first baseball cards was issued in 1869 on a Peck & Snyder booklet. This spurred interest in the cards

It is easy to find a picture of any athlete on the Internet. But in the second half of the 19th century, when the first series of baseball cards appeared, this was more difficult. Allen & Ginter approached the clubs directly to send pictures of their best players. By that time, the first photo studios had already appeared in New York and other large American cities.

As a matter of fact, tobacconists placed cardboard boxes with pasted photographs in packs, and did not print them in a typographical way, so only a few copies of the first cards have survived to this day. The quality of photographic paper was then at a low level, and the Americans themselves did not yet realize the value of the collections. By the way, almost no one called inserts cards: then they bought and exchanged baseball or cigarette pictures.

Card set for the 1887 season

The most famous set of inserts of the time was produced in 1887. It was called World Champions, and today the original cards from that collection are selling on eBay for $2,000 each. Interest in photos of players in 1887 was fueled by the events of that season: Detroit became the first superclub in the United States after it was acquired by the owner of a pharmaceutical company, Frederick Stearns.

For the new project, Stearns bought out the entire Buffalo roster, including top Dan Brouters, Hardy Richardson and Jack Rowe, the stars on the World Champions cards. The businessman was not only interested in sports tasks, he wanted baseball to become a popular sport in Detroit. But he did not have enough money and time: after winning the 1887 World Series, Stearns announced the end of funding. Evidence of the rise and fall of America's first superclub was cigarette inserts.

Panini - the successor of cigarette cards in Europe

In the same 1887, the British firms W.D. &H.O. Wills and Ogdens - they have gone through the same evolutionary path as Allen & Ginter. In England, one of the first series was called Guinea Golds, it was dedicated to famous people - writers, politicians and scientists. The people called the cards the worker's encyclopedia, as they were more accessible than books, and on the back there was a brief note on why the portrait of this man was placed in a pack of cigarettes.

The originals for Guinea Golds were taken from the National Portrait Gallery in London

In 1896, a new line appeared - sports, but not yet football: W.D. &H.O. Wills produced a "50 Cricketers" series which was in good demand. The tobacco company was doing so well in those years that from 1886 until the beginning of the 20th century it opened three large production facilities. And this despite the fact that at the end of the 19th century smoking was not yet a mass phenomenon in Great Britain: the bad habit took root already during the First World War. In addition, cigarettes were quite cheap: at 19The 00s pack (sold 10 pieces each) cost two pence - one and a half times cheaper than a pound of sugar and twice as expensive as a box of matches. Now a complete set of those very cards with cricket players is valued at five thousand pounds.

Football cards from Manchester Marcus & Company soon appeared. In response to a series of W.D. &H.O. released its own football line, which included 66 cards of the most famous football players of those years - George Clowley from Tottenham, Matt Kingsley from Newcastle, George Headley from Sheffield United, Jimmy Crabtree from Aston Villa and so on. Singleton & Cole enters consumer race with 19 series05 years. A hundred years later, it was reprinted specifically for retro fans.

At the beginning of the 20th century, almost every tobacco manufacturer issued such cards. But the companies tried to differ from each other: the liners of the cheaper cigarettes were black and white, the more expensive cigarettes were colored. Churchman produced them horizontally, and John Player & Sons used caricatures. Already in the 1920s, not just portraits of players, but illustrations of episodes of football matches began to be placed on the cards.

Birmingham defender Frank Womack on the 1914 card

The production of English inserts ceased during the Second World War, when Britain faced a shortage of paper. In the second half of the 20th century, cards were no longer considered a supplement to tobacco, they began to be sold separately. And then the idea was rethought by the Italian company Panini: in 1961, it released a series and an album for stickers dedicated to the national championship. Nine years later, the first set was released, timed to coincide with the World Cup.

Baseball card production may have disappeared due to robberies and monopolies

Allen & Ginter also had a following in the US. The system of licensing and sale of rights was then still in its infancy, so almost all market participants began to offer cigarettes with inserts to customers. At that point, the cards stopped having the desired effect, and many firms printed them only because others did.

From the 1890s, the American Tobacco Company dominated the US tobacco market, seeking to expand into foreign markets dominated by the British. The monopolist has taken over small businesses, and Allen & Ginter is no exception. At the same time, baseball cards were no longer added to cigarettes everywhere: there was essentially no one to fight for the consumer, and the idea itself, as it seemed to many then, had already exhausted itself.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of smokers was actively growing in the United States, but fewer inserts were produced. For example, in 1898, a large study by German scientists came out that linked bad habits and lung cancer. The cards were an incentive to buy tobacco, and the inserts were also popular with children. In the 1890s, each state had its own laws that related to the minimum age for buying cigarettes: from 14 to 24 years. And in 15 states, at different times, there was even a ban on the sale of tobacco.

It got to the point of absurdity: American newspapers wrote about teenagers who robbed stores, took cigarettes, took out all the cards, and left the rest at the crime scene. Such stories also pushed manufacturers to abandon the liners.

Sweets manufacturers cut cards in half for better sales

Sweets are not as strict as smoking, so Americans continued to be fueled with new cards. As soon as the tobacco companies began to print less of them, the Lancaster Caramel Company became more active. At the end of the 19th century, inserts with the image of baseball players appeared in packages of Hershey sweets. After the largest players in the market merged into the American Caramel Company, cards were already everywhere.

Just then, marketers came up with another move: the buyer received only half of the card, and he had to buy something else, in the hope that there would be a second part of the insert. It is difficult to calculate how much sales increased due to such tricks, but the American Caramel Company felt great until the First World War, when they had to stop making liners for several years. In 1927, the last series of baseball cards inside candy boxes came out from the American Caramel Company.

The appearance of inserts in sweets spurred children's interest in cards

In the interwar years, the culture of sports cards was again in decline. But it was no longer only about baseball, but also about other sports. In 1910, Imperial Tobacco Canada produced the first line of hockey cigarette inserts, but by the 1920s, their production was no longer so large-scale.

NHL inserts can trace not only the careers of players, but also major historical events. Canada entered World War II at 1939th, and the United States only two years later - therefore, wartime laws (for example, on saving paper) in Canada were adopted earlier. NHL player cards north of the border became smaller and black-and-white, and the United States issued the same inserts as before the war for two more years.

Canadian wartime card. They were produced by the O-Pee-Chee company until the takeover by Nestle in 1996.

American football was also gaining popularity, where manufacturers of cigarettes and sweets rushed. In 1884, Mayo Cut Plug Tobacco produced the first such set with 35 portraits of athletes. Later, images of football players appeared on packages of chewing gum, cereals and donuts.

As soon as statistics were placed on the cards, it became easier for Americans to play with them.

In the second half of the 20th century, Topps became the main card company. At first she was engaged in sweets, but later she completely focused on cards. An innovation introduced in the 1950s helped to become the market leader: they began to print player statistics on the back.

At first it was just a line about how the athlete spent the last season, but since 1957 they began to put statistics for all years there. Bowman (Topps' most famous competitor at the time) immediately copied the idea, and within a few years almost all sports cards contained statistics.

The best way to find out how a baseball player performed in the past is to look at the back of his card. Since the end of the 19th century, Americans have been building playing decks from inserts and inventing the rules themselves. The appearance of statistics on the back made it possible to unambiguously determine which card is older.

On the cards of 1974 there are players of a non-existent team

The Panini album cover for the 2018 World Cup featured Kokorin. The company simply did not have time to change the layout after Alexander tore the crosses. In 1974, Topps made a far more unforgivable blunder. She released a set of cards for a club that never existed.

The San Diego Padres baseball team was a total underdog, finishing last in the division time after time. Against this background, negotiations began to move from California to Washington. May 1973 years the club was sold for a then-record $12 million. The new team - "Washington" - was supposed to play in MLB as early as next season.

Uniforms were sewn and photographs of the players were held. Soon the pictures ended up in Topps, where they immediately set up the production of cards. Since only a handful of baseball players participated in the photo shoot, Topps also took old shots of the players still representing the San Diego Padres, but added the caption "Washington" to them.

Pitcher Dave Freisleben cards are the main curiosity of season 1974 years

At the last moment, the deal fell through, but the conveyor was already running. Topps had to urgently issue cards with old photos and old uniforms. At the same time, the Washington edition was already sold with might and main, and many collectors with special pride keep cards with the image of the players of the never-existing team. True, there were so many of them that the price of each copy rarely exceeds $ 10.

The baseball card bible comes from the museum

Cards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are equated with works of art. This is the only way to explain why one of the largest collections is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It bears the name of Jefferson Burdick: all his life the American collected almost everything that caught his eye: posters, postcards, cigarette packages. And cards, and not only sports ones.

Rembrandt, Degas, Van Gogh and baseball cards are all masterpieces of one museum

Burdick donated the collection to the museum at the end of 1940s, but only after he prepared an extensive guide to all the collected cards - this was the requirement of the museum. The book "Catalogue of American Cards" among collectors has received a cult status. It is full of information about both sports inserts and other cards issued in the 19th and first half of the 20th century.

The catalog not only described their origin, but also systematized the search. Many cards have received an inventory number, which usually consists of a letter (denoting the manufacturer) and several numbers (indicating the series). The marking is still used today, and sometimes a number is enough for experienced collectors to understand what kind of rarity they are talking about.

Jefferson Burdick and his catalog

The last edition of the catalog was published during Burdick's lifetime, in 1960, and no new editions have been commercially available for the past half century. Since then, there have been regular conversations about the need to supplement the list with new cards. There are a number of inaccuracies in the book, and the numbering system is considered outdated. In addition, Burdick indicated in the catalog prices that, after half a century, have lost their relevance.

Today, a special company determines the value of a card. It has already issued 80 million certificates of authenticity

In the post-war years, sports cards became popular again, especially among children. They were treated like toys, and collecting was more like how schoolchildren in the 1990s collected caps: they look cool, you can show off in front of friends, but hardly anyone exaggerated their value.

The feeling of nostalgia changed everything. By the 1970s, the children of the post-war generation had grown up, dug up old boxes of cards, and formed a whole culture around inserts. If at 19In the 60s, a dollar could be offered for a rare copy, but a few decades later, a real industry arose, in which millions of Americans were involved.

In 1991, US residents spent more than two billion dollars on sports cards. They were now considered not only part of the collection, but also an investment. Price dynamics indicated this: the cost of some mid-20th-century Topps sets has increased in price by 10 percent annually since 1981. The Americans logically assumed that this would always continue and not only with old cards. The main thing is to ensure the safety of the artifact, for which they no longer buy albums, but cases, organizers, and the most valuable rarities are wrapped in strong plastic protection.

In 1992, for a promotional film about women's baseball, the film studio released a series of cards with Madonna and Tom Hanks. Its employees, like appraisers in a pawnshop, carefully examine the goods and set a price according to certain criteria. In 1998, PSA processed a million cards, and today on eBay, those lots are valued primarily where there is confirmation of authenticity from this company. More than 80 million such certificates have already been issued, however, some of them relate to other sports attributes, such as autographed balls.

The Baseball and Card Crisis

And yet, in the 1980s and 1990s, the industry was filled with people who were not particularly interested in sports, but really wanted to make money. Collectors bought up fresh copies in the hope of selling them in a few decades and providing old age or college education for children.

Increased demand spurred companies to print hundreds of thousands of cards. Topps succeeded (or even overdid it) in this matter: in the 1990s, it flooded the market with a large number of cards, supplementing them with player autographs printed on the printing house and colorful design solutions. But the value of those collections is unlikely to ever be significant: that time was nicknamed the Great Bubble or the Age of Trash Cards. Now collectors are warned on the packaging: "Topps makes no guarantees as to whether the cards will rise in price in the future."

A full set of cards from last season of MLB (and there are 700 of them) costs about $50

The lockout in the 1995 season was an additional blow to the industry. Because of the athletes' strike, that MLB season ended in August instead of the fall. This affected card sales, and Topps, which owned the licensing rights, tried to refocus on other sports. Then came the NHL and NBA lockouts, causing the economic bubble to finally burst.

The boom in the baseball card market was followed by a disappointment in the sport itself. Playing with bats, bases and pitchers seems boring to the new generation against the backdrop of basketball, American football, hockey and even soccer. In MLB, events unfold slowly, there are many matches, and in terms of decibels in the stands, baseball hardly overtakes golf. It takes a lot of patience and endurance to watch the match from start to finish. At least that's what some young Americans think. And if they are not interested in baseball, then they are unlikely to enjoy collecting cards with portraits of players.

One of the rarest sets of the 1990s was released in connection with the Gulf War

The non-stop circulation of baseball cards has led to a paradoxical situation: collectors are willing to pay much more for a set that is at least somewhat different from the standard one. Thus, the Desert Shield, a special edition released in 1990 for US troops, is considered an extraordinary rarity.

The name of the set refers to the Gulf War. Desert Shield is a military operation inspired by Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Tens of thousands of soldiers went to the Middle East, and some received a set released for the MLB 19 season with them on the road.91 years old.

On the left is a card for 20 dollars, on the right - for 14 thousand

It was issued by the same Topps company, which, however, on the occasion of the war, slightly supplemented the appearance of the cards: a small logo of the military operation was applied on top. They did not go to retail; a total of 7000 sets were produced, which is noticeably less than the standard circulation. Moreover, some of the cards were sent to the Middle East by plane, and, perhaps, not all sets reached the place of deployment of the American army.

The soldiers hardly realized that in the future the cards would be very valuable, so many threw them away without much regret. Perhaps somewhere in Iraq a fortune is buried in the sand: in 2018, a complete collection of 792 pieces was sold for $100,000. The regular cards of the 1991 MLB season are absolute garbage.

The first attempt to trade cards as shares on the stock exchange was unsuccessful

Topps started by selling gum with liners. Now cards are her main business. In order not to go broke, in the early 2000s, the company came up with a new way to earn money: for 12 years in the United States there was an online card exchange, where each lot existed in electronic form.

The 1909 card is the most expensive card in baseball history. An image of Honus Wagner was sold for $3 million

Collectors were offered what looked like buying securities. An investor does not need to keep a share of the company in a safe, because it is accounted for in his brokerage account. eTopps, a platform for those who invest in sports cards, worked on the same model.

The actual cardboard copies were kept in the warehouse of the company, which was ready to send the purchase on demand, but it was assumed that the buyers only needed to know what they owned in order to later sell on the same exchange. The model did not work, and in 2012 the project was closed. All buyers were offered to order the delivery of cards and trade them on Ebay.

The cards have their own market index - just like the S&P500

The "major league" of baseball card collecting has formed around the PWCC. Under this mysterious abbreviation is a company that not only evaluates rare items, but also tracks their value. This is how the index of the most expensive cards was formed, which, by analogy with the S & P500 (the American stock index, it is compiled by the analytical agency Standard & Poor's) was called PWCC 100.

On the graph of the growth in the value of assets, the user of the service is hinted that baseball cards are more profitable than stocks of the five hundred best US companies. Since 2008, shares have risen in price by 100%, and the most expensive cards have become even more expensive by 250%.

Thanks to PWCC, there is a renewed interest in selling collectible sets in the USA. It just got harder to make money. Only the rarest specimens can generate income, but now it is much more substantial. Say, in 2017, $50 million worth of cards were sold through the PWCC platform.

Entrepreneur Brady Hill is one of those who made a fortune from this hobby. In his youth, he sold cards to buy a car and drive it to Louisiana to study at a local university. Years later, Hill decided to find out how much the cards he kept in the safe were worth, and he was pleasantly surprised. In the early 2010s, he invested 20% of his family's capital in rare pieces, hoping that this would be a good investment.

Brady Hill with million dollar cards (only in hand)

In 10 years, the 1952 card with Mickey Mantle (there are only 33 of these in the world) has risen in price seven times. Image of Hank Aaron 1953 - at nine. All of these cards are in the Brady Hill collection. In 1983, he watched the young and promising Darryl Strawberry of the New York Mets play. He failed the match, after which the 13-year-old Hill became disillusioned with Darryl. On his father's advice, he traded the Strawberry card for the now retired Mantle and Aaron. At the PWCC auction in May of this year, the Mantle card 19The 52nd was sold for $97,000.

However, it is very difficult to determine in advance when and how the price will rise. Many cards from the list of the most expensive over the same period have significantly fallen in price. “I have cards that cost between $600,000 and $700,000 in total,” Brady Hill said. “But besides them, there are a thousand other cards in my collection that cost noticeably less. In this case, supply must meet demand. There is no point in buying the rarest card if no one wants to buy it from you.

Bradley's passion is balancing between art collecting and trading. It's pretty hard to make money on this, although many Americans hope to one day go to eBay and see a card from their collection with a crazy price tag. Perhaps for this reason, clickbait headlines such as "The 10 Best Baseball Cards to Invest" or "If you have THIS card, you can become a millionaire" are regularly thrown to American fans on the Internet.

***

In 2006, the Allen & Ginter brand (the one that made Americans love sports earbuds) was revived by Topps. But cigarettes under this trademark are no longer produced, now it specializes only in baseball cards. A by-product and the desire to interest the buyer with a pleasant trifle in the form of a beautiful insert determined the image of the company. In the view of Americans, Allen & Ginter is not about tobacco, but about sports.

Photo: Gettyimages.ru/Chris McGrath, Steve Exum, George C. Beresford; The New York Times/Ruth Fremson

The Top 11 Most Expensive Sports Cards in History

As a child, most children have some kind of hobby or passion that they are recklessly absorbed in. Often hobbies are associated with collecting. Collecting coins, stamps, cards, figurines - everyone knows, and some do not stop their hobby even as adults. Of course, collecting doesn't end in childhood. But seriously, even in adulthood, things like coins, stamps, cars and autographs continue to attract and make enthusiastic people spend a lot of money. Pay attention to the 10 most valuable collectibles.

Perhaps one of the most popular hobbies is sports cards. You can buy a new pack of cards almost anywhere. Popular sports are hockey, football, basketball, baseball. The cards you bought today have no value, but by betting on their price increase, you have a chance that one day you will have a very rare and coveted card for many in your hands.

Let's look at The 10 most expensive sports cards that have been auctioned and purchased in recent years . Once upon a time, these cards were ordinary pieces of paper. Some were to draw attention to the pack of cigarettes and the company's brand. Others were released by confectionery companies as a prize or a way to advertise the company and its products, these companies came to dominate the market and still do not give up.

11. Johannes "Honus" Wagner, 1910 - $219,550

Wagner played in major league baseball from 1897 to 1917. Nicknamed the Flying German, he won 8 titles, 6 league slugging titles, and 5 stolen base titles. Possibly one of the greatest shortstop players ever.

Wagner was in the first group of players inducted into the baseball hall of fame. He spent most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates batting average of .329, hitting 3,430, and scoring over 1,700 runs.

Distributed with sweets, these cards are likely to fall into the sticky hands of little candy lovers. As a result, the few surviving cards have risen in price.

10. George Miken, 1948 - $219,550

George Miken is the only basketball player whose sports card is still included in the top 10 most expensive sports cards . He was a 2-meter center who made a name for himself playing for Chicago American Gears and Minneapolis Lakers at NBL and later at BAA and NHL .

Miken was such a significant figure in basketball that under his influence several rules of the game were changed, and they still exist. These changes include the introduction of an attack time limit, holtending, and an increase in the 3 second zone. During his career, he won 7 championship titles.

9. Bronko Nagurski, 1935 - $240,000

Born in 1908 in Canada, he became famous as an American football player in the fullback position in the 30s of the last century, played for the Chicago Bears team. He was also a professional wrestler and even returned to Chicago Bears for one season in 1943 to make up for the absence of players from the war.

A three-time NFL champion , Nagurski was a formidable force playing both sides of the field. The chewing gum company said their annual set will include 240 cards. But at 1935g, only 36 were submitted. This card shows him at his college in Minnesota, but at this time he was a member of the Chicago Bears team. A small discrepancy made this unusual card highly desirable and expensive.

8. Ty Cobb, 1911 - $272,980

He was an outfield baseball player. Played all but one season for the Detroit Tigers . His impressive stats speak for themselves. He was a 12-time batting league champion and a 6-time stolen bases champion. In addition, between 1905 and 1928:

• had an average batting rate of 0.367,
• made 4200 hits,
• 117 successful runs,
• over 1900 runs.

The 1911 card was issued together with cakes from a confectionery company. This is one of the rarest baseball cards, made even rarer by the fact that Cobb smiles, which he almost never did on baseball card images.

7. Lou Gehrig, 1933 - $274,950

He was a first baseman who played for New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939. His name is now associated with the disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease), but he was a 6-time world series champion, was elected 7 times to play in the All-Star Game. He had:

• batting average 0.340,
• 493 scoring runs,
• almost 2000 runs.

Double title holder " Most Valuable Player ", he became the first player whose number was permanently assigned to him. He was one of the most popular players of all time, and his sports card is also very popular among collectors. In 2011, in perfect condition 1933, this card is from the collection of Charles Merkel was sold for an impressive $274,950.

6. Mickey Mantle, 1952 - $282,000

Center fielder and first baseman New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968, Mickey Mantle is another great player in Major League Baseball the best hitter of all time . Winner of the " Triple Crown " 1956, was named " MVP " of the American Baseball League three times and was selected to the All-Star Game 6 times.

He set too many records to list them all here, besides having:

• batting average 0.298,
• 536 scoring runs,
• made 2400 hits,
• 1509 runs.

At the same auction that sold the 1933 Gehrig card, the 1952 Mantle card was valued at $282,000. This suggests that if the three remaining 1952 Mantle cards were up for sale, they would have been valued much more.

5. Jude Doyle, 1909-1911 - $329,000

Jude Doyle was a pitcher who played for New York Highlanders and Cincinnati Red from 1906 to 1910. Due to the length of time between his innings, he was nicknamed " slow Joe ". His career was very uneven, 22 wins and 21 losses. So why is his card worth so much money? " Nat'l ", but unfortunately not on the right cards. Before it was discovered, Joe Doyle cards had already hit the shops, along with the bug that made them so valuable. Less than ten of these cards exist today.

4. Henry "Hank" Aaron, 1954 - $357,594

Hank Aaron is now long retired. Played as an outfielder for Milwaukee Braves, Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers from 1954 to 1976. In All-Star games from 1955 to 1975, Aaron was the Major League Baseball's main force and set many records including runs, extra hits on base, and total bases. He had:

• batting average 0. 305,
• 755 scoring runs,
• made 3771 strikes,
• 2297 runs.

Former Major League Baseball player Dimitri Young spent his childhood and most of his teenage years amassing an excellent collection of baseball cards. In 2012, most of these cards were put up for auction. Since Young's collection was of very high quality, many collectors were drawn to the sale. It was at this auction that Aaron's card was sold for $357,594.

3. Roberto Clement, 1955g - $432,690

From 1955 to 1972, right fielder Roberto Clemente played for Pittsburgh Pirates . He is universally acknowledged as the greatest Hispanic player ever in Major League Baseball history. During his career he had:
batting average 0.317,
240 runs,
3000 strikes,
1305 runs.
Among countless accomplishments: two World Series Championships, four National League Batting Championships, and being the first Latino player to be honored with " National League Most Valuable Player

2.

George Herman Root needs no introduction. career: 714 scoring runs, batting average 0.300 Card 1914 featured Root as International League player Baltimore Orion .

Two years later he was sold to Boston Red Juice and began his rise to fame. Only ten of these cards exist, making each one very rare and highly sought after on the market. These cards were issued in red and white, white and blue, black and white, the first two being more common.

Sold for $199,500 in 2007, the same card nearly tripled in value when it was sold five years later. Until 2008, these cards did not rise above $517,000.

1. Honus Wagner, 1909-1911 - $2.8 million

The Flying German has the honor of holding the most expensive sports card of all time - and by a wide margin. The American Tobacco Company's 1909-1911 Wagner card is very rare, with only 57 known examples in existence. Why so rare?

Wagner was anti-smoking and never consented to the use of his image by a tobacco company.

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