So I just dug up my old baseball card book?

Streeter

Gold Belt
Joined
Mar 28, 2016
Messages
21,862
Reaction score
14,137
Got all the good ones from 1970 to 74 (Mays,Ryan, Aaron,Rose,Bench,Clemente the works) plus a 65 Mantle, and 58 Koufax and Dysdale. Got those from my uncle as a kid . I got everything from 1979 to 1990 I collected myself. Maybe not everything but most the ones worth having some multiple copies.

The oldie oldies were kept in a shoebox by my uncle (not terrible shape but not mint either definitley) everything from 79 to 91 is in good shape considering I kept them in plastic pages in a binder (I didn't know any better :( ) but those were made alot but seems the big names still have big value even at near mint but it falls off a cliff after 84.

Anyone think it's worth trying to get appraised or just pass it down to my son . Any card collectors here with any experience? Was thinking of maybe selling the collection if I could get decent value. Juat wondering if a poster here with card collecting experience would know where to bring them to find out the value?
 
Last edited:
I just did the same thing last night. I split open a huge taped up box of collectibles from my early teen years that I hadn’t opened since I moved out in 2001.

Willie Mays passing brought me way back to those years, and I used to have a shoebox full of baseballs that he and a bunch of other legends signed for me as a kid that I was hoping to find and out on display in my office. The baseballs are gone, but I’ve got thousands of old cards from the late 80s-early 90s and was wondering if any of them were worth a shit. I remember hearing a while back that the production numbers were cranked way up at that time so there’s a surplus of availability which kills value.
 
I just did the same thing last night. I split open a huge taped up box of collectibles from my early teen years that I hadn’t opened since I moved out in 2001.

Willie Mays passing brought me way back to those years, and I used to have a shoebox full of baseballs that he and a bunch of other legends signed for me as a kid that I was hoping to find and out on display in my office. The baseballs are gone, but I’ve got thousands of old cards from the late 80s-early 90s and was wondering if any of them were worth a shit. I remember hearing a while back that the production numbers were cranked way up at that time so there’s a surplus of availability which kills value.
Late 80s to early 90s aren't worth much but a few like Griffey rookie and Pedro or limited production cards. That would cost more to appraise than what its worth .

I'm looking at trying g to sell my old cards from the late 60s an early 70s I got about 150 to 200 big names from those years and each mint 9 values at 1000 or more each but they aren't mint 9. If I could get like 25 to 30k for the lot of those I might . They literally been in a box for 20 years and while I might like to pass them down my kids have less thsn zero interest in baseball. May as well get a really nice vacation out of it .

But it probably wo t even be worth that sadly
 
you gotta remember, he's gotta pay to get each one appraised, he's gotta frame them, store them, display them, and still turn a profit. He takes all the risk here. No way he can pay the almanac price. Best he can do is half.
Is that his pitch to everyone so he can justify ripping them off?
 
I would absolutely have those cards graded.

There are several mid 80's and 90's cards that can be valuable if they are gem mint.

I would never sell them.

(My best baseball card is a 1983 Topps Ryne Sandberg rookie)
 
Last edited:
broke open an almost full box of NBA unopened packs that had been in my attic at least a decade or more. The Jordan's were selling like crazy for 4 digits but this one did not have one in it. Found a Shaq that was supposed to be worth about $500, got it graded for i think $75 came in at like an 8, ebayed it and ended up pocketing about $225 which I immediately turned around and bought a watch that I wear just about every day. Also had fun opening the packs with a couple of friends, laughing about the players we remembered and getting excited when we found a decent player.

I'm also the guy that just went through his long box of comics and framed about 20 and hung them on a wall in the basement that my wife, just returned from a business trip, will likely discover today.

So yeah I'm on a heavy dose of nostalgia and maybe not thinking clearly but I'd suggest you take your top few that have sentimental value, a couple from your uncle's kind gift, a couple that you loved getting as a kid, and display them somewhere.

Then do a big e-bay hunt and see what the actual sold cards are going for. Then decide if you want to go through the bother of opening an account, mailing them off, paying a shit ton to get each card graded, waiting months, being disappointed in the grade, listing them on e-bay, and hoping you get paid properly, then mailing them off.

You can also go to a local card shop if they still exist in your area and get way less $'s but do it quickly and easily.

I also suggest you read Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker and The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian if you want an even heavier does of baseball card nostalgia
 
Get these graded

Got all the good ones from 1970 to 74 (Mays,Ryan, Aaron,Rose,Bench,Clemente the works) plus a 65 Mantle, and 58 Koufax and Dysdale.
 
I have a bunch of good vintage cards from the 50s and 60 and I should get them graded. It's just a matter of wanting to deal with the grading company and their bullshit fees.
 
I have a bunch of good vintage cards from the 50s and 60 and I should get them graded. It's just a matter of wanting to deal with the grading company and their bullshit fees.
This. they want a nice chunk to grade each card and I got literally a few hundred oldies (by oldies I mean 58 thru 73) .

I went to a few card shops and one owner offered me 15k on spot for my book but I know Thats waaaaay low like Rick Harrison low. I have over 120 big name cards from 69 to 73 all pf which hover around 1k each even at Mt 8 (they're mostly not Mt 8 but not awful either) . I found a card dealer that said for a few bucks he would go thru my bookend tell me what to throw in glass n grade
 
Last edited:
This. they want a nice chunk to grade each card and I got literally a few hundred oldies (by oldies I mean 58 thru 73) .

I went to a few card shops and one owner offered me 15k on spot for my book but I know Thats waaaaay low like Rick Harrison low. I have over 120 big name cards from 69 to 73 all pf which hover around 1k each even at Mt 8 (they're mostly not Mt 8 but not awful either) . I found a card dealer that said for a few bucks he would go thru my bookend tell me what to throw in glass n grade
We’ll I could be wrong but it seems to me baseball’s popularity is rapidly waning and not many kids are going to care about an old Joe Morgan card very much. So I’d take my top 10 that I’d be willing to sell, get them graded and sold, then decide if I wanted to continue turning cardboard into cash or not

Personally if you don’t ever look at them or display them and have no children who would appreciate and preserve them I’d monetize and invest or buy something I wanted more or was practical. It sounds like you have a car or a vacation sitting in a book you never look at or enjoy to me

Good luck whatever you choose to do with em
 
Sell them don't past down to son he will fuck it up. Wish I still had mine while I'm sure it wouldn't be worth much as my collection was of guys from the 90's it would still be cool to just have. I had Randy Johnson Pedro and Barry Bonds and a Roger Clemons I had other cards of course and some big names but these are the ones I remember.
 
Sell them don't past down to son he will fuck it up. Wish I still had mine while I'm sure it wouldn't be worth much as my collection was of guys from the 90's it would still be cool to just have. I had Randy Johnson Pedro and Barry Bonds and a Roger Clemons I had other cards of course and some big names but these are the ones I remember.
Those guys aren't worth nearly what you think unless it's Gem 10. I had 2 gem 8 Bonds Fleer update rookies neither broke 100 bucks . Got all the rookies from 83 to 91. None is really worth shit unless it's Gem 10.. the Nolan Ryans from those years are worth more than those usually. Unless it's Topps Tiffanny/ Fleer tin or atcl mi imum an Update/traded rookie card in at minimum Gem 9. Market was just so saturated. Honestly if your not certain they are at least Gem 9 it's not worth getting graded unless you plan to hold for 30 years.

All the cards I got worth serious money are my 50s , 60s, and early 70s cards which aren't perfect mint but because there so old noone then took impeccable care of them so the grading scale isn't as tough as it's so rare to get perfect the great condition ones still fetch good money.
 
I sold a Mickey Mantle card when i was a kid in the 80's, got $250 for it. I don't want to even know what it was probably worth even back then ( im sure i got ripped off ) can't imagine what it must be worth now.
I was never really a fan of baseball, i think my aunt got a baseball collection at a yard sale and gave them to me.
 
I recently dug up a stash with unopened sealed boxes of one Upper Deck basketball box and one Upper Deck hockey box. These would probably be around the time of Larry Johnson and maybe year after Jaromir Jagr. Kinda want to open, but I already opened multiple boxes of that long ago and can't really think of anything in there that would excite me today.

Also had several unopened '91 Upper Deck Baseball Final Edition which had RC's of Pedro Martinez, Ivan Rodriguez, Dmitri Young. I thought I opened one set but can't find that opened one.

A baseball podcast has a host who says he tries to get certain cards graded so whoever gets them after he dies won't get ripped off. Makes some sense.

The majority of cards I had graded were ones where I thought the player would be good but didn't turn out that way. I would like to grade '93 UD SP Jeter RC, '01 Bowman Pujols, '01 Topps Ichiro.

Curious if anyone had unethical graders steal the card and swap in some shittier condition card.

Twice recently I bought a blaster box or fat packs where I just bought what the employee picked and both times I ended up with an auto card. One of the fat packs had a Dave Winfield auto and Jose Ramirez bat card in same fat pack.
 
My pack pulled autographed card hot hands continued today when I bought my 2nd 2024 Topps Series 2 hanger and got what could potentially be the very best card I ever pulled from pack: Wyatt Langford rookie card auto limited to 50 copies! I saw on eBay there are other versions with higher production runs to like 299 or something. Bad thing is it's one where sticker was signed then stuck onto the card.

I thought some compared Wyatt to the next Mike Trout. He handled shorts stints at AA and AAA last year. MLB numbers not great so far this year. I suspect he'll put up better numbers than Dylan Crews.
 
99% of sports cards from the mid to late 80's to 00' are worthless, regardless of who the players are or the condition of the card. Every kid who grew up in that time had a beckett and saw what the old cards were worth and saved their collections of future hall of fame players from the heavily overprinted card sets expecting them to be worth money some day.

Dealers on ebay sell multiples of HoF rookies in pack fresh condition from your prized childhood collection for less than a dollar a piece, it's sad.
 
Back
Top