Top 10 Card Valuations of All Time
, by David Riska, 5 min reading time
Why Invest in Sports Cards If you haven’t been paying attention since 2020, the pandemic, sports card investing has exploded. We have been shocked at the depth and breadth of which sports cards ...
Why Invest in Sports Cards
If you haven’t been paying attention since 2020, the pandemic, sports card investing has exploded. We have been shocked at the depth and breadth of which sports cards are changing hands these days. It’s almost mind-boggling with all the new types of cards hitting the market. For you just coming into the hobby, for instance, there are even stained glass printed cards that are pretty much like art and marvelous to collect.
So you say, am I too late to get into sports card investing? We say NO!
Not only are there so many new types of cards hitting the market, including limited runs, but there are also brand new avenues of distribution, and trading of cards, like vaults and even now NFT’s for cards. If you want to get into sports card investing and just have a lot of fun doing it then you should even check out the live auction site WhatNot.
So now you say, how much money can I make? We say it depends!
It depends on many factors, one of which honestly is just dumb luck, but if you are serious about sports card investing there is certainly some money to be made. In fact, per below, eBay published its 2021 “State of Trading Cards” report listing some of the top-priced selling cards on eBay during that year. So you tell us, is there money to be had in sports trading cards? Again, we say it depends.
Source: eBay’s 2021 “State of Trading Cards” report
So now you say, how do I make money with sports cards? We say have a plan.
Below is a listing from the same 2021 “State of Trading Cards” from eBay report showing the immense growth of sports card sales in 2020, and then broken out by industry. It’s not hard to spot some trends in these numbers. American soccer, or football in other lands, has not only become a popular sport for children to play on weekends but as you can see so have the soccer sports card market values.
We could spend days here analyzing these stats, but most importantly, if you want to make money in sports card investing you need three things:
- A plan
- Some tools
- Experience
The first one, a plan, is free to come up with. We highly suggest that you specialize in something here like “buying rookies” or say “vintage baseball”. There are so many ways to specialize we could not even possibly list them all.
Second, you will need to invest in some tools to assist you in purchasing and selling your cards in the most efficient ways. Again, too many to list, but some biggies include an eBay account, apps to scour the markets for prices and bargains, and some good old fashion tracking tools like spreadsheets or card value tracking apps. Don’t skip this one just because of the investments, you will highly regret it.
The third is experience, there is no replacement for time in the hobby. We have been in and around the sports cards business for over 30 years, and we laugh at how fast it changes and how much we learn every single day buying, trading and selling cards.
Source: eBay’s 2021 “State of Trading Cards” report
Now you say, how do I make the big bucks? We say patience!
Below is the list of the Top 10 sports card values according to Wikipedia in 2023. This list is fluid so it may have even changed since the printing of this article, the important part is to focus on the numbers (millions). Here is the thing, we would be willing to be that most of these cards that were sold have been tucked away in storage for many years by early investors who just bought some winners and just sat on them for dozens of years. Not all though, since the recent rise in sports card pricing has brought the flippers into this market as well. Even to us some of these numbers are just mind-boggling.
Let’s start with number 2, T2016 Honus Wagner, which for many many years was the holy grail for sports card investors to now only be beaten out by another famous contender the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Rookie Card #311, and here is what is crazy, by almost double the value.
Or even the more recent 1992 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems - Green Kobe Bryant card could fetch the current owner $2 Million or more.
Make no mistakes here, sports card investing can and is risky, like investing in any other alternative investment class. So to answer the question is their money to be made in sports card investing, kind of like art, we absolutely say yes for those that are patient and not faint of heart with their money.
Will you make money in sports card investing, to answer that question, we say it’s all on you, but honestly, if you are in it just for the money you are missing the best part of all … it’s a ton of fun which is our biggest return on investment for the true sports card hobbyists . Now go out and buy, sell and trade some sports cards.
Source: Wikipedia Top Priced Sports Cards report
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