Category Archives: Collectibles

November 23, 2025

Going Once, Going Twice

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World Series home runs balls brought in some big bucks:

Talk about easing the blow. The Canadian father-son duo that secured not one, but both home run balls that doomed the Toronto Blue Jays team they rooted for in Game 7 of the World Series turned the evidence into some serious U.S. currency Saturday night.

Dodgers fans will never forget those baseballs hit by Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and Will Smith in the 11th flying over the left-field wall and into the first row of seats beyond the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

…

On Saturday night, the balls were sold at auction. Smith’s homer, which provided the Dodgers with the winning run, sold for $168,000 while Rojas’ blast that sent the game into extra innings fetched $156,000.

LATimes.com

That’s a nice nest egg for both. Should keep them in Blue Jays season tickets for a long time.

June 17, 2025

Trash to Treasure

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My going away banner from ESPN is now a collector’s item:

I left it in the basement when I moved. Didn’t think anyone would be interested in buying it. There are a few signatures you know there, but mostly people who did the work behind the scenes to make Baseball Tonight possible. I miss all of you!

November 25, 2024 August 23, 2024

Still Time to Buy History

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The jersey worn by Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series when he called his home run is on auction right now. The current bid stands at $15.1 million.

Please read the article for the fascinating look at how the process of photo matching authenticated the jersey.

Companies such as Resolution Photomatching rely on checks and balances. People hired to do the job train four to six weeks before working on a single item, and they use a three-round system: one researcher utilizes databases to screen images that might include the item; another checks those flagged images; a third makes a call. Resolution often pores through tens of thousands of images per photo-match.

“The IRS doesn’t have photo-matching as a [job] classification yet,” said John Robinson, owner and founder of Resolution, “so their official classifications are ‘historians.’ One of our researchers’ young daughters called him a ‘sports history detective.’ That might be the best description.”

ESPN.com

Get your bid in now!

June 25, 2024 July 15, 2023 March 30, 2023

The Rookie Card of Rookie Cards

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There is a new twist to rookie baseball cards:

Major League Baseball announced before Thursday’s openers that players making their first appearances will wear debut patches on their jerseys. The patch will appear on different places of a sleeve, depending on the team and any anniversary of sponsor patches.

After a player appears in his first game, the patch will be authenticated and placed on a Topps baseball card as part of an agreement reached by MLB and the business wing of the players’ association with Fanatics Collectibles, a division of Fanatics that acquired the trading card company Topps last year.

Chron.com

One patch, one card. What the story doesn’t say if they goes out in a random pack of cards. Here is more from the press release:

When a rookie is called up to the Majors for the first time, the Debut Patch will be placed on their jersey. Following the game in which he sees action for the first time, the patch will be removed, secured and authenticated under the auspices of the MLB Authentication Program for inclusion in an upcoming Topps product.

prnewswire.com

So right now it’s an Underpants Gnomes business plan.

December 18, 2022

Bad Value Estimation

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The ball hit by Aaron Judge for his 62nd home run of the season sold for $1.5 million at auction Saturday night. The homer broke the AL single season record held by Roger Maris. The person who caught the ball could have done better, however:

Cory Youmans, who caught the ball in the left-field seats at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, turned down a private offer of $3 million for the ball last month.

NYPost.com

I would assume the person who offered the $3 million likely won the auction, since the action was well below what he was willing to spend on the memorabilia. I wonder if the collapse of FTX had anything to do with the lower selling price? I also wonder if the rise in sports card value is coming to an end. Predictions like this make me wonder if we’ve reached the height of the market. The value of the ball dropping by 50% in a month is an indicator that might be true.

August 28, 2022

Put it on the Mantle

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A Mickey Mantle baseball card set a record in auction on Saturday.

After more than a month of fanfare, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card with a 9.5 grade from grader SGC — the “finest known example” of a 1952 Topps Mantle — has sold with Heritage Auctions for $12.6 million including buyer’s premium. It’s the most ever paid for any sports item, card or memorabilia.

ESPN.com

Mantle made $1.1 million in his career. $1.1 million in 1968 would be worth 9.4 million today, which also indicates how much the game has grown in terms of value over that time. A one WAR player might earn that for a season today.

August 24, 2022

Sans Cisco

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The San Francisco Giants store is selling a shirt with the city called “SAN FRAN.” This appears to be faux pas:

It’s not entirely clear how a piece of Giants clothing with such a disliked nickname is not only is on display at a team store, but was designed and produced at all in the first place. (It seems highly unlikely that the Giants themselves committed such a faux pas.) I asked an employee of the store if someone was available to speak about the shirt, but they immediately directed me to the team’s PR department. Requests for comment from the Giants and Nike were not answered by time of publication.

Someone — presumably not San Francisco residents — is buying SAN FRAN Giants shirts, though, as a black version of the shirt is sold out online.

SFGate.com

If I’m a Dodgers fan, I’m buying the shirt and wearing it the next time the Giants come to town. Exit quote:

Hartlaub himself wrote that it “would be like walking in the Hogwarts store from ‘Harry Potter’ and finding a T-shirt that says ‘Voldemort.’” 

August 16, 2022 January 4, 2022

Mergers and Acquisitions

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Fanatics is about to buy Topps:

The move was suspected for some time, specifically since August, when Fanatics cemented a deal with Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association for the exclusive licenses to produce baseball cards, ending Topps’ ability to produce them after roughly 60 years of being one of the sport’s and hobby’s most recognized brands.

The deal set to be finalized Tuesday means Fanatics Trading Cards’ MLB and MLBPA rights to design, manufacture and distribute trading cards — originally slated to start in 2026 — will begin immediately.

ESPN.com

The deal is reportedly worth $500 million. It’s sad to see Topps disappear. I hope Fanatics keeps producing cards under the Topps logo.

It’s also sad to see competition disappear. I would expect less innovation in the card business in the next few years. For a business that revolves around competition, MLB is very happy to try to squash competition in most areas it does business.

November 3, 2021

The Million Dollar Ball

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ESPN tells the story of the ball Jorge Soler hit out of Minute Maid Park. People watching the game from a balcony across the street saw where it landed and made a rescue:

So within minutes, Richard’s wife, Shawnda, and Manuel took to the street. Manuel guessed it took them about eight minutes to get down there — and then they discovered that the fenced-off area was inaccessible from where they were.

“I was talking to security, like, ‘Please, just escort me over there,” Shawnda said.

That conversation turned out to be the moment Manuel needed. As the security guards spoke with her, he jumped at his opportunity. Literally. “I guess I distracted them,” Shawnda said. “I didn’t even do it on purpose. I didn’t even know he came down [with me].”

ESPN.com

Their first thought was to burn the ball if the Braves won, but now that it’s the ball that won the World Series, they’ll hold on to the prize to see how much it’s worth.

August 19, 2021

In the Cards

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At the end of 2022, Fanatics will take over from Topps the exclusive license to produce baseball cards:

According to the memo, Fanatics’ deal with MLB and the MLBPA is more than 10 times larger than any the union has ever agreed to. The memo also states that the deal, when combined with other recent deals, is expected to generate roughly $2 billion by 2045.

ESPN.com

Is this a sign the market will collapse like it did in the 1990s? If so, it might be a good time for Topps to be sitting out.

Meanwhile, this is a very nice payday for the players.

August 16, 2021 June 1, 2021

Crypto MLB

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Major League Baseball will expand nonfungible token sales as the year rolls on.

While MLB offers a series of trading-card-style NFTs from Topps, the deal with Candy is expected to include a far broader suite of products.

The first release, on July 4, will be of Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” speech delivered that day 82 years earlier and will be minted just once. Other digital assets, from artistic renderings to tokens for in-person experiences, are expected to roll out on the Ethereum blockchain in the fall and be sold or auctioned on Candy’s platform.

ESPN.com

I understand technology, but I admit I don’t really understand this concept. This article explains it, asking all the questions I would ask, including, “Why would anyone spend tons of money on something that exists just in bits?” I do understand the use of blockchain for creating trust in anonymous transactions, but usually you are getting some physical value from the transaction. We’ll see how this goes.

May 19, 2021

In the Cards

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Get your checkbooks ready for one of the most outstanding baseball card auctions of all time:

Baseball cards these days seem to be at a premium, but the extravagant collection of one Tampa doctor is about to be up for sale. 

But those would-be Target shoppers might want to look elsewhere if they’re worried about paying too much for cards. According to a report from Fox 13 News in Tampa Bay, the collection is valued at more than $20 million with the leading card, a 1933 Babe Ruth Goudey card in good shape, expected to sell at more than $5.2 million. 

SportingNews.com

The collection includes many of the greats from the early days of card collecting.

January 14, 2021 November 2, 2020

Wagner Max

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Honus Wagner, despite dying in 1955, still keeps setting records:

 A Honus Wagner rookie baseball card has sold for more than $1.4 million.

The price was a record for the rare T-206 card of the Pittsburgh Pirates great, the highlight of the Goldin Auctions October Legends Auction. Also fetching a record price was the basketball rookie card of Michael Jordan, which sold for $124,230.

ESPN.com

Wagner led the NL in batting average eight times, OBP four times, and slugging percentage six times. He regularly slugged over .500 with home run numbers in the single digits, all while playing shortstop. One reason the card is so valuable is there were few printed:

The only good thing to come out of 1910 was the now-famous T-206 card, one of which commanded over $1 million at auction in 2000. Pirates secretary John Gruber, making $10 on the deal, sold the American Tobacco Company a picture of Wagner to reproduce in card form to be inserted in Piedmont cigarettes. Wagner, who smoked cigars and chewed but didn’t like cigarettes, stopped the deal, sending Gruber a check for $10. Wagner didn’t want kids buying cigarettes and didn’t think they should have to pay for his picture. The few cards that got out before the print run could be stopped were snapped up and held, making the Wagner T-206 card the most prized sports card on record.

SABR.org
October 2, 2020

Buying Cards

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The sports trading card market exploded with the COVID-19 pandemic. The market was doing well, but really took off with people stuck at home with money and eBay:

By all accounts, it should have been game over for the card industry.

Instead, virtual auction blocks exploded, rewriting record books again and again (and again!) in the past half year.

From May to early June, more than 40 cards sold on eBay for at least $50,000. From mid-May to July, that number rose to 96, with more than 35% going for $90,000 or more.

“I’ve been in this market since 1976 and I have never witnessed such vibrancy,” List says.

ESPN.com

I remember in the early 1990s a number of co-workers spending a lot of time and money on baseball cards before that market collapsed. Firms seem to be better at balancing supply and demand today. The article is interesting throughout for it’s look at both the history and economics of the market.

September 15, 2018

Seeing Eye Hits

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The Orioles will wear uniforms with names in Braille to raise money for The National Federation for the Blind. The reader sending the link writes:

This is pretty cool. I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot a jokes though, about how the Orioles are blind or appealing to their fans who can’t see them play haha

My response was that it will help the umpires identify the players.

It’s an excellent gesture by the Orioles.

April 27, 2017 September 21, 2016 January 29, 2016

Under the Table Contract

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An early and somewhat crooked player contract will go up for auction. The document belongs to the grandson of Andrew Leonard:

It was signed at a time when there was a societal rift over whether baseball should pay its top players or remain amateur. Written on U.S. Treasury Department letterhead and signed by the acting Treasury secretary, the 40-word contract promises Leonard $720 for one year to be a department messenger.

“That contract sheds light on what’s long been believed but not proven, which was that there were professional baseball players posing as amateurs who were getting paid under the table for no-show jobs, and this is tangible evidence that the government was involved,” Ivy said.

The $720 was about twice what a government messenger made annually in the 1870s.

“Andy didn’t do a lick of work for the Treasury,” McCarty said.

Your tax dollars at work! The contract would be worth about $14,000 today, which is a nice example of how owners and players grew the game in a century and a half.

January 9, 2015 December 14, 2014

Topps of his Field

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Sy Berger died. He was the man who invented the modern baseball card and built the Topps empire.

“We came out in 1952 with a card in color, beautiful color, and a card that was large,” Mr. Berger told the Society for American Baseball Research in 2004. “For the first time, we had a team logo. We had the 1951 line statistics and their lifetime statistics. No one else did it.”

The cards also had facsimiles of the players’ autographs below their images, another innovation.

“The design elements of the 1952 Topps set would kindle not only the imaginations of baseball-loving children, but also their collector’s instincts,” Dave Jamieson wrote in “Mint Condition” (2010), a history of baseball trading cards. “Topps was on its way to dominating the field of baseball cards for the next 40 years.”

My thoughts go out to his family and friends. What a great legacy.

August 17, 2013

Piece of History

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An autographed program was discovered in Springfield, MA:

Grant has no other explanation for his fluke discovery of an autographed program of a testimonial dinner that was held in 1950. Bearing the authentic signatures of baseball greats Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Branch Rickey, it was lost and forgotten until Grant came across it this spring.

“I never even knew it was here,” said Grant, a former social counselor and postal worker, who discovered the program in reasonably good shape as he was cleaning out an old desk drawer at his home in Springfield.

“I was about to throw it away and put some paint down there. I thought it was an old report card or something,” he said.

What a great discovery!

July 30, 2013 June 17, 2013

Find More than Friends at Reunions

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John Thorn discovers the historical society near his college owns the oldest broadside advertising a baseball tournament.

Paul asked me if I believed the broadside was important or had monetary value. I assured him of both, and that the artistic value alone would incite appeal. We both recognized, however, that such thoughts were academic, because as a nonprofit organization dating to 1910, the BHS would never test the auction waters with an item of such strong Beloit relevance.

In a way, that’s too bad; I think I have an idea of what price this might fetch and I’ll never have that notion validated. The Society’s acquisition, casually displayed in facsimile for restaurant patrons who rush by it on their way to dinner, is the oldest surviving baseball broadside in existence.

Cool.

April 6, 2013

Wagner, Max

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The Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $2.1 million. This particular card is rare and of high quality. It came in a cigarette package, and only a few made it into circulation because Wagner objected to smoking and did not want to be included in the set. It’s the perfect storm card; it pictures a Hall of Fame player, it’s rare, it’s in good condition, and it has a great story behind it.