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We have a football card thread and a hockey card thread but not a baseball card thread. Baseball cards are the coolest! I don't really collect new issues at this point. I'd be interested to see what's out there, and if someone wants to throw together some information on that I'll edit it in here. Last I heard Topps has an exclusive for MLB cards and other companies were doing player cards with college logos or no logos to try and get around that. Right now my main card focus is dabbling in low grade T206s, a series of tobacco cards made from 1909-1911. The crown jewel of that small collection is a Christy Mathewson dark cap with Sweet Caporal back that I picked up for under $50 raw in the fall. It has some pretty serious back damage from being pasted into an album book, but I was able to soak off the attached construction paper and the paper loss and glue stains weren't quite as bad as I feared. It still only graded out as a SGC 10, but it did qualify for a number grade, and a Matty in a 1 is still a $200-300 card. From the front, it displays more like a 2 or 3 with no front paper loss and no major creases. I don't think I'm going to sell it though, a 101 year old card with bright and beautiful art of one of the greatest pitchers ever is a fun conversation piece. And The Christian Gentleman is one of my favorite deadballers. I'll try and take some pictures at some point. My ultimate collecting goal is to get seriously into 1953 Topps, which is my favorite looking set ever. Every now and then I see a nice looking low grade Mantle and it ends up being juuuuuust a little too much. Some day... I also collect autographs and baseball art to a degree. As one tends to do with age unless you want to be one of Those Guys, I've transitioned more towards collecting stuff that looks cool on display as opposed to chasing random guys to sign baseballs. (This is also why I'm more into cool looking old cards than new issues, probably.) If there's interest I can talk about that whole autograph racket more. Every now and then I pick up a new bobblehead or statue for the desk, but I'm not sure I really qualify as a collector of those. And since this is going to be a popular question: what about all of those rookie cards you have from the late-80s and 90s? They were massively overproduced and are mostly worth under $100, in most cases far under. oldfan fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Mar 12, 2011 |
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Mar 12, 2011 22:11
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Harlock posted:Speaking of signatures though, in this day and age of exclusive autograph deals/signing events, is there still a method to acquire signatures through writing letters? Or are some players contractually obligated not to sign? Has this been a viable method for other Baseball fans? Some guys sign through the mail and some guys don't, and then you get into some other related issues like pre-prints and fees (some guys will only sign through the mail for a charity donation or whatnot). This is a pretty good place to find out addresses and whether a guy signs, what he signs, how reliable he is, etc.
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Mar 12, 2011 22:25
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trem_two posted:Every dollar I received for birthdays, Christmas, from the tooth fairy, all of it went into baseball cards. At the time I was quite sure that the 1986 Topps "Traded" set was going to be my ticket to a comfortable retirement. Oh those rookies... Good news: you have a bunch of really cool rookies, including Barry Bonds. Bad news: a sealed factory set of 1986 Topps Traded is worth a whopping $15 even with the Bonds rookie.
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Mar 12, 2011 22:37
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One of the random cool things I have on my desk is the set of Washington Nationals Presidents bobbleheads. The Nationals of course have the president races, and in 2007 did four bobblehead days at the stadium, one for each president. I ended up eBaying the entire set for I think $30. I collect offbeat political nostalgia items too occasionally, so this was right in my wheelhouse:    Not anything worth money, but they're cool looking.
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Mar 13, 2011 01:07
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I might be able to help...post a picture of the entire bat, a closeup of the handle, and the knob and I can do a little digging to see if they're style matches.
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Mar 13, 2011 06:01
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Bats have players' names on them and most have their jersey number. That writing is consistent with the style that Trammell wrote his number on bat knobs for much of his career. The bat type more generally fits Trammell's bats - he used that shape of handle with no tape and that pattern of tar. The bat appears to have low to moderate use. The actual marker signature looks good. Trammell mostly used Louisville Sluggers during his career, but he was also known to use Worths, LLS, and, wait for it, SSKs. Trammell actually endorsed SSK equipment in the mid-80s. He used their gloves for more of his career, but there's at least a few pictures floating around with him and their bats. So, it's the same thing with any game used bat. It's a consistent style match. Unless you can find a photo of that particular bat in Trammell's hands or have great provenance, you can't be sure that it isn't a game model that was used by someone else, or a BP bat. It's almost certainly not a fake, because it's an awful lot of trouble to go through to forge a bat that might sell for $150-200 at auction.
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Mar 13, 2011 06:42
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WillBBC3 posted:Big time collector here, great stuff all around. Anybody here post on Net54 or the CU forums? Great folks to make some trades/transactions with. I lurk on Net54, GUU, and occasionally CU. I should probably be active in the trading communities, but I tend to skew more towards looking for the occasional super-bargain find instead of paying fair market price and those people all know what they're doing! Once every couple of months you find a ridiculously low eBay BIN or something too cheap at a flea market and it feels much more cool than paying wholesale market.
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Mar 13, 2011 18:44
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JediGandalf posted:Yeah I tried to find some photos of the bat being used in game but I'm turning up nothing. Trammell would have used hundreds and hundreds of bats over the course of his career so you probably won't be able to photomatch it. JediGandalf posted:Tangent: When I was about 8 years old I found a baseball that was signed by lots of well known players. Signed by Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Gene Tenace to name a few. Not knowing what I found, grabbed my bat and started to play ball with it. I destroyed probably at most a thousand dollar baseball into rubbish. Not a single signature was legible. Go me! Given the time period and that those guys were all A's, there's a very high chance that it was actually a stamped souvenir ball and not real autos.
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Mar 13, 2011 19:39
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DrBagpipes posted:Is there a difference in signability between the $3 Rawlings balls and the $19 ones? If I mailed one off, would it be less likely to get signed than the official MLB one? The quality of the leather is hugely different. The official ROMLBs sign much nicer and last much longer. You can get a case of 12 for in the $140-150 range online. Target usually has them cheapest of the brick and mortar stores, $15 or so. I'd only send balls to guys who are known to sign larger objects through the mail since between the cost of the ball and the cost to mail it twice it's not an entirely insignificant expense. Never hurts to send an initial letter asking if you can send a ball.
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Mar 14, 2011 03:15
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Mariano has bizarre TTM habits. It's like playing the lottery, obviously he gets a shitload of mail and once every homestand he picks up a pile and starts signing for a little while. And then he stops and presumably dumps the rest of it. I'd probably aim a little lower and send him an 8x10 or a magazine or something like that instead, which has the advantage of being both cheaper and sticks out more.
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Mar 14, 2011 03:33
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ozymandius1024 posted:Supposedly that's Hall of Fame 3B Eddie Mathews autograph on a baseball bat. My jaw about hit the floor when I actually saw who it was, and I had no idea how she'd get her hands on something like this (we didn't have a lot of free funds at the time). That's a not just a regular bat but a Mathews signature game model Louisville Slugger, which itself means the autograph is very likely authentic because you really can't get those to forge very easily. The autograph looks 100% legit for a Mathews bat anyway; if you ever want further piece of mind you can send it in to PSA or JSA and I'd bet dollars to donuts it would pass easy. Awesome piece.
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Mar 14, 2011 05:49
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WillBBC3 posted:Then there is 707 Sportscards. Their pricing is just high enough to keep me away but just low enough to have me look at their store constantly. They were complete jerks to me at the National last year. I once stood at their booth (I think at one of the Philly shows) trying to get someone's attention for like 5 minutes to actually buy something. I ended up just walking away. I've always shied away from actually joining Net54 because they have a phone component to their registration and that kinda creeps me a little.
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Mar 15, 2011 03:46
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Jimothy posted:On the flip side though, my dad has a complete 1951 Bowman set from when he was a kid with a couple copies each of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays's rookie cards. He got them appraised like 20 years ago and said the set was worth a little less than three grand so I have no idea how much it'd be worth now. They're not professionally graded or anything though but they are pretty cool. That's an awesome set. 1951 Bowman Mantles in good condition can be worth, well, a lot depending on condition. It's his rookie card, although 1952 Topps is more sought-after. Mays isn't far behind. I'd see if PSA is grading at a show near you sometime soon. No need to grade the commons, but Mantle, Mays, Williams, etc. can be big bucks in good condition.
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Mar 15, 2011 04:51
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Jimothy posted:I've mentioned the idea to my dad before, but it's one of those things where I don't think he's interested enough in going to an expo by himself since he'd have to travel a ways to get to one, living outside of Tucson. He'd go if I went with him, but my parents live 1200 miles away so it makes it difficult to plan. How much could I expect a PSA guy to charge for grading probably half a dozen cards? It depends. PSA, SGC, and BGS (the major grading companies - PSA is the most popular in general, SGC is very popular for vintage stuff, and BGS is very popular for modern high-grade stuff) all charge on a sliding scale based on your declared insurance value of the card. Depending on condition, these are cards that you're going to end up declaring for somewhere between thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, which means we're talking anywhere from $30-40 a card or a couple hundred a card. There are ways to get around these fees. Dealers don't pay as much as you or I would. Auction houses usually get stuff graded for free if you're looking to sell. For something like a complete 51 Bowman set or a good condition 51 Bowman Mantle, you might be better off dealing with a major house as opposed to eBay or selling them to a vendor to begin with if you're looking to move. Can't hurt to consult with them, at least. Some questions to consider in this process would include: - What condition are the cards in? Ultimately, is it worth getting them slabbed? - Does your family plan to sell? This might be even a little extra complicated because you have duplicates so you can sell some and keep some or what not. - How are the cards currently being stored? If they're 1s or 2s in a cool, safe, dark place and your family has no plans to sell them ever, probably not worth getting them graded. If they're 6s or 7s in screwdowns on the mantle - no pun intended - exposed to light and elements, or if you're looking to cash in, probably worth getting them graded.
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Mar 15, 2011 19:41
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Chief McHeath posted:The OP needs to read in big red letters, "THE CHANCES OF ANYTHING YOU OWN FROM 1985-1995 HAVING ANY VALUE IS INCREDIBLY SLIM." It's in there, although not in big red letters. I tried taking pictures of a bunch of my stuff with my BB and boy oh boy they did not come out good due to glare. Working on a secondary solution.
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Mar 16, 2011 00:49
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FlamingLiberal posted:The Jeter SP rookies are hard to find in really good condition because of the material used on the card, so I believe that the PSA/BGS 10s are pretty valuable. Same with the A-Rod SP rookies, and the diecut versions of each are probably the most expensive regular issue of the 90s.
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Mar 18, 2011 21:40
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The last sets I actually collected were the first two years of Topps Heritage (and the original Gallery Heritage inserts). Those cards own a lot.
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Mar 19, 2011 03:11
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stuart scott irl posted:What happened that the bottom fell out of the baseball card market? People stop caring? Overproduction, then overexposure, then putting out too many low numbered insert cards.
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Mar 19, 2011 04:01
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I CHALLENGE THEE posted:That's an Upper Deck SP A-Rod rookie, one of the few cards that is worth decent money from that time period, especially in top condition because the foil and borders can get ugly. Although a lot less than it was before STEROIDS.
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Mar 19, 2011 06:07
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zakharov posted:I got into this special event through a family connection. How do you recognize so many autos? Most of those guys have very recognizable graphs, the only one I didn't get immediately was Maxwell. stuart scott irl posted:Man if I were a baseball player my signature would be way loving uglier than any of those, to the point where people probably wouldn't want it So basically Miguel Cabrera or Fernando Martinez.
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Mar 27, 2011 02:45
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The broken bones posted:I've been checking out Property Room lately and they have a lot of cards, dunno if anything on there is worth anything though. Anybody found anything good there? I took a look and it's all either junk or going for more than it would on eBay.
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May 9, 2011 03:17
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TASTE THE PAIN!! posted:Hey now, I feel sorta weird asking this since I don't really do much baseball posting, but I have a ball with multiple signatures I'm considering selling and I'm not very knowledgeable about memorabilia. I'm wondering whether it's worth it to get it authenticated first since I know it's legit, if the fact that there are multiple generally unrelated signatures makes it less desirable, and where I should sell it if I do. Don't just want to throw it up on ebay blindly and take what I can get. So if anybody could do me a solid and PM/IM me to advise I'd really appreciate it, and maybe I could get you a forums upgrade or something afterwards for your troubles. There are definitely people here that can help you (I'm one of them), but we need a lot more info, such as who the signatures are, what the condition of the ball and the signatures are, etc. Pictures are useful if possible.
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May 10, 2011 21:35
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That's a slightly tough one. It's going to cost nearly as much for someone not buying certs in bulk to get that authenticated as it would be worth authenticated. It's sort of interesting start to a theme ball for "great pitchers of the post-war era" or "famous no-hitter pitchers," so I think it would only be worth slightly less than individual balls of the three - but you're still talking about under $100 total even with a PSA or JSA cert, depending on condition and whether it has HOF or no hitter inscriptions. Non-certified, probably under $50, again perhaps well under. Gibson's really the only one of those with significant financial value; Feller and Larsen, while nice signatures for the collection, are already in everyone's collections because they never turned down autograph requests and did a million shows. Tickets to Mets games are really, really cheap on Stubhub (an official Mets ticket supplier, so you don't need to worry about getting ripped off) right now, especially if you can wait until day of game (sales close two hours before first pitch and are usually cheapest in the hour before that). I would suggest that you keep the ball, since it probably has more sentimental value for you than it's worth, and buy cheap Mets tickets on Stubhub.
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May 10, 2011 23:23
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Strong Sauce posted:Edit: Anyone surprised to konw that Bob Feller is still alive? He isn't 
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May 10, 2011 23:38
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TASTE THE PAIN!! posted:edit: Hmm, I was only looking to get a couple hundred tops for it but it looks like that might even be a stretch. Oh well, we'll let it appreciate for another decade or two. I'm still curious about if the random selection of autographs hurts it in terms of appreciation in the long run though, as well as where I should get it authenticated. PSA/DNA or JSA are the current en vogue third party authenticators, although that changes every now and again. It's not an entirely random selection of autographs so I don't think the value takes a massive hit - they're all pitchers and they're all from a relatively close time frame - but yeah, signatures are worth more on single signed sweet spot balls, team balls, or specific theme balls.
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May 10, 2011 23:40
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Holy hell that's a lot of (mostly not very valuable) Jeter rookies!
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May 11, 2011 23:22
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Still, that's probably a couple hundred for the lot.
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May 12, 2011 00:41
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Farchanter posted:5. My great-grandfather gave my mom a seat from the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium when he moved to Florida and decided it couldn't come with. I can actually see it from where I'm sitting now, my brother keeps stuff on it sometimes. This is apparently worth a couple hundred dollars at this point, so I think my family's trying to sell it at some point down the line. I just took a picture of it, in case anyone more versed in Yankee lore can give it a better description. I don't exactly want to get hopes up but I suspect that is worth significantly more than just a couple hundred bucks. Treat it well and don't try to refurbish it or repaint it or anything of the sort, a bad restoration is literally the single worst thing you can do to an original piece with historical value (watch any episode of Pawn Stars for more on this).
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May 14, 2011 08:24
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Olbermann's an incredibly active collector, yeah. He shows up at some of the major auctions and shows, and is very very very active buying online. He might have the largest private collection of stuff in the world at this point, and it's not even all high-end stuff. Although I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a T206 Wagner unless he bought one privately. He's been one of the critics of the value of that card compared to others in the set like Plank and the Doyle and Magee errors.
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May 26, 2011 06:50
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Pillowpants posted:My mother and aunt have a ton of 1950 Boston Braves memorabilia, ranging from signed bats to a baseball with the entire teams signature and lots of pictures too. I'm curious as to how much this stuff is worth, and whether or not I should try to get it from my family since they don't seem to be doing anything with it. Depends on condition and exactly what it is. That's the famous "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" Braves-era team, but it's a few years before Aaron and Mathews came around. It's probably worth some money, perhaps as a lot with an auction house where a Boston Braves or Warren Spahn collector might buy all of it. If you can take some pictures or give a fuller account we could probably help some more.
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Jun 5, 2011 15:14
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Mantle and Maris were the ones that looked clubhousy, still a cool ball.
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Jun 17, 2011 03:25
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DaFuente posted:Last week I randomly bought a pack of Bowman Chrome on a routine trip to Walmart and came away with a Bryce Harper auto redemption. It's a 1:3000 packs thing. I'm not sure if this means I should just stop collecting immediately or what. The thing sells for anywhere between $350 and $500 on eBay, which is way more than an autograph of guys like Hank Aaron or Sandy Koufax. That pisses me off in ways I shouldn't need to explain, but it's also half a mortgage payment, so now I'm a big Harper fan. The plan for now is to hang onto it until he gets called up and sell it as soon as he hits his first hot streak. If your sole goal is profit, sell it as soon as you get the card in hand. His cards will likely never, ever be higher in value than they are now, even if he turns into Barry Bonds.
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Aug 16, 2011 05:12
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DaFuente posted:My main fear right now is that once the redemptions come in, the market will be flooded and the price will drop. Especially since it will arrive in the offseason when interest will be lower. I probably should have sold the redemption card, but gently caress it. I've never pulled anything cool from a pack of cards and I'd like to at least GET the card. The actual card will go for a lot more than the redemption for somewhat dumb reasons that aren't worth explaining, so you made a good move redeeming it. I don't think the market is going to be flooded on Harper auto'd rookies though, and Bowman Chrome is always going to be one of the most coveted prospect/rookie autos that isn't a super short print. All that said, if you want to hold onto it, hold onto it. I held onto a Topps Traded Josh Hamilton auto that I pulled in 1999 that was worth a decent amount, watched it plunge to a couple cents, and now it's worth double what it was in 1999. It wasn't as an investment, I just liked the card.
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Aug 16, 2011 05:32
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ElwoodCuse posted:I just don't want to deal with shipping a card to them. I've only done direct drop offs, they usually come to the big shows and will take submissions right then and there. It's usually cheaper that way, too.
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Aug 16, 2011 06:14
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I usually stick jerseys in smaller shadowboxes, but I also don't have a ton of wall space anymore.
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Aug 16, 2011 23:54
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streetlamp posted:Does anyone use GMA grading? If it isn't PSA, SGC, or BGS, it's not really an "accepted" grading company. As always, buy the card, not the slab, though.
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Aug 22, 2011 03:57
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Dan Hollis posted:I won a severely miscut Mike Schmidt rookie card off eBay, so my "Hall Of Fame Players I Like" rookie card collection is progressing nicely. I'm trying to find a Pete Rose rookie that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Be very very very careful with the Roses. That's probably the most counterfeited card of all-time.
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Aug 29, 2011 01:06
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ElwoodCuse posted:Is that the one that the guy on Pawn Stars brought a stack of into the store? And it took Rick like 10 seconds to say "nice try, dude" I think so, but Rick's also bought an obviously fake Lou Gehrig jersey and an Al Pacino autograph that was signed by a different Al, so consider how bad those fakes must have been.
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Aug 29, 2011 03:22
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My "never actually buy the beater" cards like that are the 53 Mantle and Robinson. One of my life goals is to actually build that set. I almost bought a Jackie the other day, but got outbid out of where I was comfortable.
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Aug 31, 2011 04:36
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WillBBC3 posted:I'm right with you on both the 53 Mantle and Jackie. I was outbid on a Jackie about a month ago. I haven't been that frustrated at a sports card auction in years. Really, really pissed me off. I almost bought a PSA 2 Mantle that presented more like a 5 or 6 at the Philly show about a year ago. Still kinda regret that, but funds were tight at the time. A 3 showed up on Net54 a couple of days ago in that price range, come to think of it. Dan Hollis posted:What is the oldest card you guys own? I might pick up some cheap 1909 - 1912 cards just to have something from that era. eBay has a bunch of these cards for under $20 (poor quality, no-name players of course.) I own some T206s. This is the crown jewel of that collection, for the time being:  Speaker beaters show up for reasonable prices every now and again. Big Train goes for a bit more, although I do love that hands at chest pose.
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Sep 1, 2011 23:28
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