Hello fellow owners and growing readership! This blog will be dedicated to the time honored tradition
of collecting baseball cards. In the photo above you will see one of my prized cards, former KC Royals outfielder, Bo Jackson's autographed Sweet Spot Signature card by Upper Deck. The center of the card features Bo's autograph on actual baseball leather complete with red stitches and as you can see the Kaufman stadium backdrop is pictured on either side of the card, awesome!
Another card that was long on my list, and purchased a few years ago was the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I opted to buy this card in a graded condition. When buying pricier cards online this is the way to go. A third party company such as Professional Sports Authenticator or PSA receives the card from a seller and judges the cards condition. Once that is done, it is slabbed in plastic with a label and a condition rating never to be touched again. In the case of my particular Griffey card it is a PSA 9, Mint Condition. The grading scale goes from 1, being poor-fair, to 10, a gem mint and most valuable. The price difference between a Griffey in PSA 9 vs PSA 10 is substantial. A psa 9 will fetch around $40-50 on Ebay, whereas the psa 10 version will command at least $200, if not a tad more.
A card which has long been on my wish list is the 1975 Topps George Brett rookie card.
Well, chime in and tell me about your favorite cards you own or are on your wish list.And remember to keep collecting!
It's a fan duty.
I received a pack of baseball cards for my birthday. No George Brett 1975 rookie card because they were Opening Day April 2011 cards. The pack had 6 player cards, 3 of whom I had heard of. And then it contained a SPECIAL card - Richard Nixon throwing out the Presidential First Pitch on April 7th, 1969. Not sure any of these cards will ever be valuable enough to receive any PSA rating.
ReplyDeleteI think I saw one of those Brett cards at FanFest. Anything with his signature on it was from $150 - $300. I'm a big fan... but apparently not big enough.
ReplyDeleteI also got to see the historic "pine tar bat". Good stuff man.
The 1975 George Brett Topps card is a true classic. I added it to my collection a few years back, though didn't go the graded route.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to pick a favorite. There's the 1979 Ozzie Smith Topps, 1983 Willie McGee Topps, and a few of my more recent favorites include autographed cards from the factory - 2007 Topps Chrome Troy Tulowitzki autograph and 2003 Bowman's Best Dan Haren autograph.
A few years ago I started collecting Rockies team sets - Topps and Topps Heritage. I have all of the cards back to 1993, series 1, 2, and update/traded. Topps Heritage didn't start until 2001, of which I have all of those, including Short Prints.
My all time wish list includes a few pricey cards - the 1959 Topps Bob Gibson ($49-300) and the 1953 Satchel Paige ($285-600). Prices from Beckett Marketplace.
Only THREE favorites out of the thousands stored in your bedroom all those years?? Think of how much space you could have saved if you only had three cards! Much more room for action figure baseball players ;-)
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable article.
MOM
Oh for some clothes pins and bicycle spokes!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Regan! Baseball cards are a passion of mine, too. Anytime I'm sent to Target on an errand, I make a point to pick up a little pack of cards - guilty pleasure, I guess.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite cards? The 1975 Brett RC is a true classic. Mine is ungraded as well. I also have a 1989 Score autographed Bo Jackson - signed in person at Spring Training. As far as favorite cards: One of my favorites of all time is the 1982 Fleer and 1980 Topps George Brett - both cards are just sentimental favorites of mine. I have an '82 Fleer PSA 10. (I also really like my Saberhagen '84 Fleer RC that you got for me - thanks!). You mentioned the Griffey, but another card that I was zealous for in my youth was Bo Jackson's 1986 Donruss The Rookies - that card cost me several weeks of allowance.
As far as collections, I'm pretty proud of my World Series Champion Topps Team sets. I have every World Series Championship team dating back to the 1984 Detroit Tigers (I collect their following year's Topps set, so the stats from the previous year are visible. Actually,I still need to get the 2011 SF GIants team set, but I soon will,
Excellent job, Regan!
Oh, and if you haven't bought any packs of 2011 Topps, I'd encourage you to do so. They have randomly inserted Diamond Giveaway cards every so many packs. Each card has a code that allows you to unlock an old card online. You can trade them or have the actual card delivered.
ReplyDeletehttp://diamond.toppscards.com/
Tonight I unlocked a 1968 Gil Hodges manager card. The other day I traded a 1972 Claude Osteen for a 1985 Bret Saberhagen. I swapped around a few other cards to get a 1979 John Stearns and a 1980 Willie McCovey. My online collection also includes a 1979 Johnny Bench. Hopefully I can gather enough cards to trade for a 1959 Bob Gibson, as there are 2 that have been unlocked.