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Baseball Card Examiner
Showing entries for Category: Value

POSTED May 27, 1:54 PM

There's been lively debate recently amongst baseball card bloggers regarding the future of the hobby. Much of it is speculation and opinion, but a few common themes keep popping up.

    • Ebay: Many believe that eBay is the future of the hobby. The already wide acceptance of the site among collectors and dealers alike has rendered it the most accurate price guide for the hobby, superseding old standbys like Beckett and Tuff Stuff. (You and I have already seen the power of eBay at work in the Ten Under Ten post. Many of those cards carry price guide list values of $35 and more.)

    • Shops & Shows: Even to the casual observer, it's obvious that there aren't as many baseball card shops or card shows as there were ten or fifteen years ago. This trend is bound to continue as shop owners realize that they must diversify and lower prices (and thus possibly not meet rent and/or stay open in their current incarnation) in order to compete with eBay and other Internet retailers.

    • Graded Cards: A 'graded' card is one that's been scrutinized by a third party and given a definite condition grade. Different third party services (like Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) and Beckett Grading Services (BGS)) use different scales for grading, but most are between 1 and 10 or 1 and 100. While prices for ungraded or 'raw' cards generally fluctuate, many collectors gravitate to buying cards with a standard grade already assessed.
    This is an important swing in the hobby because standard Beckett and Tuff Stuff price guides currently do not cater to graded cards, though they do publish special guides. The follow-up question arises that if graded cards are the future standard for most collectors, how does that affect the values for raw ungraded cards? Will those cards have value? Or will they only achieve value with the stamp of approval from a third party grading service?

Categories: Baseball Cards , Ben Henry , Value , Speculation

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Ten Under Ten

POSTED May 22, 11:49 AM

Mention baseball cards to the random person and perhaps a sly smile will flash across their face. The names Mickey Mantle and Honus Wagner will undoubtedly come up, as will the assertion that a mother, grandmother or other hardline... Read More

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A Valuable/Valueless Argument

POSTED May 14, 11:36 AM

Who was the greatest center fielder in New York in the Fifties? What is the best baseball card set ever—before the war and after? Who had the funniest name? The largest head? And how about the ugliest mug only a mother could... Read More

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Caring for Your Collection

POSTED May 11, 2:29 PM

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I should display my collection: boxes in my closet, in random stacks around my apartment, or in pages in a binder? Displaying and caring for cards is one of the biggest topics in the hobby, with Ultra Pro just... Read More

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How Much is my Baseball Card Worth?

POSTED April 29, 5:22 PM

I get this question a lot, and in all fairness it’s probably the most-asked question in collecting. It’s a good question to ask, especially since a card’s worth is one of the easiest ways to determine if the... Read More

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