Vintage Card Book Values?

[NYBBNUTT]

Does anyone know what is going on with vintage card book values. I first noticed this on eBay as I was bidding on a few cards I needed for sets. The bidding got crazy and with shipping the cost was more than the current Beckett book values. I try to pick up vintage cards in decent EX or VG+ condition at 50% of BV. Because if I go to sell or trade them at a card show a dealer won't even give me that value. Also, I just noticed on one of the 'Price Checks' that a 1968 Topps Mickey Mantle Game Card had a recent BV of $150. My Beckett Vintage Collector magazine from a few months ago had it listed for $120? Is it that more and more collectors are caught up in the 'graded card' phenomena and are willing to pay more for a raw vintage card? Just curious. Thank you.

 

[bblair_2002]

When it comes to higher end cards,most people these days use eBay sold values as a gauge more than the Beckett mags. I still use Beckett for low-end trading though.

This is the site that I use:

Search eBay Sales for Sports Cards, Memorabilia and More | 130 Point

Search past or current eBay sales across a variety of categories from Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop, Toys & Hobbies, Collectibles, Video Games & Consoles, Entertainment Memorabilia, Coins & Paper Money and Stamps.

130point.com

 

[NYBBNUTT]

@bblair_2002 thank you!

 

[bblair_2002]

@bblair_2002 thank you!

No problemo!

 

[SymphonicMetal]

My brother started doing card shows this year and he only deals in vintage. Those graded cards sell really well even if the grade is not that high. Oddly while shows seem to be hot, online auctions and sales have gone really cold compared to 2 years ago according to him

I certainly understand the grading aspect since looking at a raw card pictured online does not tell you that much about the condition of the card unless flaws are obvious. So EBAY sold on a raw card is really meaningless since all raw cards are obviously not the same. I don't like dealing in higher grade , raw vintage iunless it is on a face to face basis.

One thing he did tell me (and this is no surprise) is that Mantle continues to be super hot even in lower conditions. He recently auctioned off a 1968 Manltle game card for near book even though it had some advertised flaws. The demand for vintage football is way softer than baseball which is kind of surprising to me since the NFL is the hottest sports product going.

 

[NYBBNUTT]

My two cents for what it’s worth. I don’t think vintage football cards have the nostalgia that baseball cards do. My friend and I bought baseball cards because we loved baseball and couldn’t wait for each series to come out. I’m sure I drove my parents a little crazy making them take me to the newspaper or grocery store. LOL. Book value didn’t exist (and no one graded cards) except the cost of a complete set if you sent away for it. Our cards were meant to be traded, played with and our mom’s made us put them away loosely in boxes. All the protective stuff that you protect yours cards so they remain Mint didn’t exist. And how much fun was it looking for certain players on cereal, Hostess or Jello boxes and then cutting them out? When football cards came out we were still searching for those remaining 7th series packs looking for missing players we wanted. Football cards were a filler for getting through Winter until the 1st series of baseball cards came out.

 

[SymphonicMetal]

My two cents for what it’s worth. I don’t think vintage football cards have the nostalgia that baseball cards do. My friend and I bought baseball cards because we loved baseball and couldn’t wait for each series to come out. I’m sure I drove my parents a little crazy making them take me to the newspaper or grocery store. LOL. Book value didn’t exist (and no one graded cards) except the cost of a complete set if you sent away for it. Our cards were meant to be traded, played with and our mom’s made us put them away loosely in boxes. All the protective stuff that you protect yours cards so they remain Mint didn’t exist. And how much fun was it looking for certain players on cereal, Hostess or Jello boxes and then cutting them out? When football cards came out we were still searching for those remaining 7th series packs looking for missing players we wanted. Football cards were a filler for getting through Winter until the 1st series of baseball cards came out.

Your post was worth a lot more than 2 cents and I agree with most of it. Because I grew up in a football family, I was much more nostalgic about football especially because I could open a pack of football cards and get a player my dad had coached in high school and that I had actually met which was no small feat for a kid in extremely rural upstate NY. Plus as a kid the toughness factor for those old football palyers really was something I really admired and still do to this day. But I totally agree about the nostalgic factor being more prominant for baseball than for football.

Where baseball nostalgia beat football,was local TV broadcasts and radio. I could get Yankees and Mets on local TV and Indians and Tigers on the radio. That was the one aspect where baseball won out over football for me.

And I could not agree more about how the cards we had as kids were not meant to be preserved but rather played with and often roughly handled. That is why coming across nice conditioned vintage is so special. And when you buy an older collection you can see where the baseball was handled much more roughly than football and especialyl basketball and hockey. It is a lot easier to find the other three sports in primo shape than their baseball counterpart.