I just went through a box of sports cards that I had collected when I was younger. I threw away all the ones that were damaged and seperated the good ones. Here's a small list of the good ones I was able to find:

1. Joe Montana
2. Cal Ripken Jr.
3. Brett Hull
4. Barry Bonds (about 4)
5. Ozzie Smith
6. Curt Schilling (old)
7. Chipper Jones (rookie)
8. Sammy Sosa
9. John Elway
10. Deion Sanders (baseball with the Giants)
11. Jose Canseco
12. Jason Giambi (rookie)
13. Roger Clemens (3)
13. Derek Jeter (rookie)
14. Johnny Damon (rookie)
15. Magic Johnson
16. Patrick Ewing
17. Reggie Miller
18. David Robinson
19. Steve Mcnair (rookie)
20. Dan Marino
21. Joey Galloway (rookie)
22. Reggie White
23. Shannon Sharpe
24. Marcus Allen
25. Warren Sapp (rookie)
26. Jerome Bettis (a few old ones and a rookie)
27. Brett Favre (3)


Right now the average value of these cards is about $2. Will any of these go up in value? Are these worth saving?

I wonder the same. I have probably 10's of thousands of basketball cards. Shaqs rookies were to plentyful so i think they aren't worth much. I always thought my BB card collection would be worth something, but it doesn't seem that way.

Well I really don't think they'll be worth a ton of money unless they're autographed. But I think I'll hold on to these.

Not unless you have a COA or they are a numbered insert...

Most valuable cards are the old ones barely anyone has any longer, or the rarely circulated #'d inserts. In the 90's, every kid collected, so all those sets are worthless.

The card market basically crashed. Most modern cards simply arent worth much and I would classify that list as modern. They simply made too cards and too many people bought and took care of them hoping to cash in someday. It's not going to happen.

All collectibles work this way. Same thing happened with comic books a while back. And I wouldnt bet on autographed stuff. In additon to haiving a COA as mentioned above, it strongly depends on who signs it and how often they sign. It's basic supply and demand. You need something very rare to make any money.

Not quite dude. Even the old cards that are hard to find aren't worth what they once were. It's more of a fact that we live in an electronic age, so kids and adults alike want gadgets not pieces of cardboard. I spent my entire youth collecting baseball cards, while dabbling in basketball, football, and hockey. I still have all of them and I have no plans on getting rid of them. I didn't get my first Nintendo until 1987, so collecting ball cards is all that I did. Today with their being a Nintendo, Sony, and/or Microsoft game system in virtually every house with a child in it, it isn't hard to see why no one cares about ball cards anymore. It's truly a shame, but for collectors like me it's a goldmine since I can find the cards I want real cheap. It's going to come to a point to where ball cards all but disappear from the market and the prices will go back up like they would for any antique.

Clarify on "Not quite" please because your last statement basically agrees with exactly what I wrote.

And the electronic age isnt the reason the lists above isnt worth alot. They simply made too many of those cards. The supply of cards were way in excess of the number of collectors even at the time they were printed. Card makers were making all types of cards with "extra features" and speculators (which are different from real collectors) were scooping up dozens of each rookie card hoping to make tons of money in a few years. But with so many rookie cards there was no one to buy them. Basically a market crash.

And the old cards that are hard to find are still worth a lot. Most of those tend to hold value very well if the card is indeed rare which is what I'm refering to. There maybe some cards which crept up into that status when the market peaked and have since now come back to Earth. I'm not talking about those.

how about you read EVERYTHING in between what you bolded...there's your answer

LOL I did. I responded to the majority of what you wrote.

I couldnt tell if you disagreed with me or not. Thats why I asked you to clarify. Dont take it too seriously. It's just baseball cards.

I wouldn't say the sports card market has crashed, but it certainly has dropped significantly. The fact is that no matter what a book says your card is worth you still have to find someone willing to pay that. The price you get will also be significantly reduced if your buyer is planning on reselling the card. Rare cards, whether old or new, can still command a very good price because the demand is still there. While the number of collectors has dropped it is still higher than the supply of the most sought after cards.

To answer the original question as to the worth of the OP's cards it is nearly impossible to say without knowing the set they are from and the condition they are in.

Oh come on, The sports card market crashed worse then Black Monday. Face it. You spent thousands of your daddy's dollars for a bunch of paper that really won't sell for much anymore. Don't worry, I did too.

OP - your collection is pretty much worthless. I have the generation of gems before that and I still know they aren't worth much. I have Troy Aikman, Barry Bonds, Brett Hull Rookies. Boxed 1989 Upper Deck Sets and multiple Ken Griffey Rookies. All that old bull crap. Many of them might even list for hundreds of dollars.

But you know what? It's like someone already said, they are only worth what someone will pay. And people won't pay for em! Take it from someone who went to years of baseball card shows (We even bought table space and sold things). You know who buys the most? Kids. You know what they want? A shiny rainbow hologram of their favorite player for $3.

I am sure there are some exceptions and serious collectors, but you know what cards they want? Yea neither do I, because you or I don't own them.

</Rant>

Ebay had a lot to do with the prices dropping.

All the money these days seems to come from limited edition/numbered cards.
Like a few others have said, what they're "worth" and what someone will PAY for them
are usually two vastly different numbers.
I have a few sweet cards from collecting periodically over the past few years, some rare
Sidney Crosby's and a prized 1/1 autographed George Brett hof card, but I have no intent
on trying to sell it at this point in my life...who knows what the hell I'll do with em...

Me and my dad have literally closets full of those 5500 card stacker boxes of stuff. Much sorted, much not. It's ridiculous. 80% of the collection should probably end up as kindling for the fireplace. If I had to guess, I'd say we have about 300,000 cards between us. I have one 5500 box full of only good cards and good players. It would certainly be nice for a new generation of children to get interested in them and grow up to be big card spenders, but I just don't see it.

I have this in O-Pee-Chee. And a crap load of other hockey cards that I wouldn't expect to get much money for.

I got a barry sanders autograph.. any idea how much?

this stuff is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

QFT

Yeah, I have a collection. That is exactly what I was going to say. The ones that are going to be actually worth anything are going to be the "inserts" or limited edition ones.

It mostly depends on the card manufacturer and the year. Any where from $15 to $1000 from the info given.

comming from the point that i used to collect and be a card dealer. My dad and i still run a business through ebay selling sports memorabilia. I lost interest in sports cards a LONG time ago, way before ebay! It's a completly saturated market. The companies are to blame 75% for the downfall of their product. Internet just took the ball and ran with it! Beckett extended the market from just trade shows...now the regular dealer couild conect to the collector from home, across borders etc. Then Ebay came along and the market exploded, so the companies continued flooding the market with basically the same crap, just a different face. Jersey cards, autos, letters, equipment. and jock cards all have killed the sports, autos were the first incarnation in the mid 90s when the market was recovering from baseball and hockey strikes, then came jerseies and they were novel! all of them had some sort of sexy apeal to the market. But now it's just rediculous, what kind of kid can afford 50 bucks a pack for premium stuff, or even 10 for basic crap! Everything is so mass produced, and generic! it will take a renisance (sp) for the market to recover!

I have probably 1200 autographed pucks, game used sticks, signed books, 50k+ signed cards, that's just the autographs. I've lost all interest in collecting, i don't want to meet any of these new players, they offer nothing to me.. I have met every single living NHL golden age hall of famer, and quite a few dead ones (when they were alive) that is what drove me, hearing the stories etc. I've met Crosby, Ovechkin, Fleury, all them too...they don't give a **** about you, but when Andy Bathgate or Gordy Howe asks you how you are doing they really care!

In closing, OP your cards, like most of my collection, only posess some sentimental value, absolutly no real value because they are no where near unique!

I too blame the card makers for the crash. There got to be too many different sets and way too many inserts. Every set ended up getting like 10 different "special" subsets. When every pack contains some crap "special" card, they lose their specialness. I still remember in the early 90's when I pulled an "$80" special card out of a Pinnacle pack. It's probably worth $20 now. Honestly, I think the allure of card-collecting was that it was akin to gambling for kids, though I suppose you could rationalize it at the time as "investing".

when upperdeck entered the market everything went downhill. I have about a 100,000 cards somewhere in my basement. There was a time when there was money to be made but greed took over. I can't believe a the worth of some of these cards its disgusting. I was lucky I went to a show in Washington where I sold alot of **** for 50% of book value. I use to do shows in the Toronto area but I got out of it when all people wanted was sp cards and jerseys and so on.

I have to say I made a killing with 90 Leaf baseball and 90 OPEECHEE PRemiere.

I moved from collecting cards to game worn jerseys in 1995 and never looked back.

You are right, that one is pretty worthless. I'll PM you my address and you can send it to me

PS, if you have a few Gretzky's from a few years earlier, you can send those too.

meh, it looks like it's in pretty ratty condition, you probably wouldn't get much for it.
All the money these days is in the limited edition inserts. They've ruined the hobby.

like all of you i agree that the card makers ruined a great hobby, i always enjoyed getting the BIG beckett book and looking through all my cards now i have 2 things that are prolly worth a little money.

1) Joe Montana sighed football with COA
2) Lebron James signed rookie of the month card, number 23/23 with COA

The boom for sports cards sucked me in and I blew a lot of $$$ on them. A few years later, they were barely worth the cardboard they were printed on. This was back in 1990-ish. That being said, that's a decent list but the criteria for determing value is as follows:

Condition (nothing short of mint will do it)
Issue (was the issuing company churning them out, was the edition limited, was the card a "special" card?)
Is it the Rookie card? Almost no other card for anyone is worth anything much unless it's the rookie card.

And, above all...Does someone want to buy it?

I'd suggest digi-photo'ing them and listing them on eBay with a minimum bid requirement. You never know...

PS: Signed cards are NOT as valuable as you think, except from a personal perspective and for those who want very personalized items for a particular player.

I was lucky enough to get a Willie Mays rookie card for my 18th birthday.

I have a Peyton Manning Topps Autograph, bronze (not gold). Dealer said i might get 150-300 for it...I invested heavily in the late 90s as well, until I realized just how much you would have to shell out to get a complete set, and also the sheer amount of cards out there...so I gave up. Haven't bought a card since. I also have some autographed rookie hockey cards but I don't think any of the ones I have went anywhere. Same thing happened with beanie babies....collectability, flood the market. Now nothing but the ultra rare stuff is worth anything. (I know about the beanie babies because my ex used to collect them.) I bought all kinds of 50th anniversary NASCAR diecast stuff too, not worth anything as well. I've always been a day late and a dollar short when it came to collecting.

If any of you have the Honus Wagner card that is valuable, don't throw it away. How much is that one worth?

Obvious brag post. nice hand sir