"How Much are my Cards Worth?"

 

I get this question a lot. 

The correct answer to this is probably the same discouraging answer your parents always responded with, when you were growing up, and bragged about the expensive card you just found in a pack:  "It's only worth as much as what someone is willing to give you for it."  This is the best answer to this question.

However, there are a few resources that us collectors can use to narrow this down a little.  The most well known and authoritative guide for sports card pricing is Beckett.  For $4.99 you can pick up their magazine (one exists for each major sport) and this includes pretty comprehensive pricing.  You can also visit their website, and sign up for the online price guides which are $3.99 per month per sport.

What do these prices mean? 

The price you pay, or the price you receive for a card depends on many factors.  The biggest factor however, is who initiates the sale.  If you own a card, and you decide "I am going to go sell this card", by perhaps going to a dealer at a card show, or on an online auction, you will get much less than the book value,  for the card.  On the other hand, if you want a card, and you decide "I am going to go buy this card today", you will most likely have to spend the "HIGH" book value in order to get it. 

Here's an example:

1985 Topps Mark McGwire Rookie July 2002 Beckett Value:  $40.00-$80.00

Looking on Yahoo, I found dealers offering this card for $200, $149, $45, $50, $125, and $65.

However, looking on Ebay, this card has sold for $21.50, $22.09, $17.09, $20.50, and $28.89 in the past few days.  I could then expect to be paid about the same if I went to a dealer and offered to sell the card to them.  You can see this is quite a difference from the retail price. 

So here's my advice:

  • If you plan to sell the card through a store, or some method where you can wait for customers to come to you looking for the card, you can expect to get up to the "High" book value. 
  • If you plan to go out and buy a specific card from a dealer, you can expect to pay up to the high value.
  • If you plan to sell a card immediately, either at an auction, or to a dealer, you can expect to receive less than the "Low" book value.  Probably around half of the "Low" amount.
  • If you plan to go dig around the bargain bins, or scavenge at a baseball card show, you may find some cards for sale at the "Low" value, but most likely not the specific player or card you were looking for. 
  • If you want to feel good about the value of your collection that you plan to keep for awhile, go ahead and look at the high value, just don't depend on cashing them in to pay for a credit card bill that you just found.

 

Z-Man,

September 27, 2002

 

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