Can you believe that in the 60s and 70s you could buy a pack of baseball cards for 5 cents, and now that pack could be worth over 5,000 dollars! Over the past 80 years baseball cards have been produced. The value of the card has had it ups and downs due to the era of the card. Some years are more desired by a collector compared to other years. The older the card is commonly thought to be the more rare and valued, although there was a span of about 25 years in which the value of the card is nothing until a new unique addition was made.

Baseball cards first started in the late 1800’s early 1900’s coming from Tobacco packs. A tobacco pack would contain one card on the inside. Commonly the card was thrown out or destroyed to due to ashes of the cigarette and its user. Later on Tobacco companies backed out of producing baseball cards and candy companies soon took over. Soon other companies joined in until one major card company now Topps took almost full control of the industry. Tobacco cards are one of the most valuable cards in the world when in good condition. Obviously it is the oldest card producer so the cards are the hardest to find especially in good condition. One example according to yahoo voices Gene Howell is the T206 Honus Wagner card. It is known that only 60 of his 200 cards produced were distributed to the public and only 4 are known to be owned across the world. This card had a value of 20-50 dollars when produced. recently at an auction it sold for 2.8 Million dollars on April 11, 2011. As the years continued cards still continued to have value up until the late 1970’s. Before then in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s players like Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, and Nolan Ryan. Mickey Mantle has 2 cards that are in the top 10 most valuable cards. His cards can go as high as 10,000 dollars if the condition is good. Once the era of cards hits 1975 the prices seemed to hit a rock wall.

It is known by any collector the almost any card produced from 1975-2005 has almost no value at all. Many wonder why this drop of value occurred. The answer is actually makes a lot of sense. Other Companies like Upper Deck started to notice how much cards were being valued, and they started to produce them as well. Now with two companies producing more cards than they did before, there was an over production which caused no rarity or value anymore. A prime example of this is Derek Jeter. He is one the best baseball players to ever play the game. His rookie card which came out in 1996 which would have thought to be by most people to be a highly desired card only has a value between 20-50 dollars. Other big name players who were rookies then like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark Mcgwire cards are only worth 5-10 dollars max. Card producers noticed the decline in value and had to make an immediate change.

By 2007 there were 3 major card companies Topps, Panini, and Upper Deck. The idea of having Autographs on the card from the players became a huge hit to the collectors. Everyone started buying packs again hoping to hit a big star like Albert Pujols or Derek Jeter. Soon after autographs came the idea of putting pieces of game worn jerseys on the card used by the player which sometimes included an autograph as well. With these two ideas flourishing, companies started to number the cards and have them be short printed to lower amount made. For example they would use colors. If the card had a red out line it could be numbered ?/10 saying there were only 10 of this kind made. Meanwhile there could be a blue outlined one numbered much higher. This idea led to players who aren’t well known to still have a card with value do to how rare it is. This had collectors going nuts and buying tons of packs sometimes 100s at a time. Lastly these companies started producing cards of minor league prospects. Minor league prospects is one of the industry's most successful items. They use a brand Bowman, Bowman is a players first card and they have autographs and short prints in this as well. A lot of collectors invest in prospects which causes a lot of these cards to have more value than the established players in the MLB already. One example is Mike Trout. I bought 10 of his autographs when he was in the minor leagues for 40 dollars each. The next year he was called up to the majors and had a great year. That same card was selling for 250 dollars each card. There almost seems to be a whole different world when it comes to collecting prospects.

The value of the baseball card has been a roller coast ride in the past century. at Card could be worth so little hundred years ago and now be worth millions. Although a card could be worthless no matter who the player is. Now companies have to find new unique ways to keep the collector and value interested, and as of right now they are doing a great job!


BIBLIOGRAPHY

"A Top Ten List of the Most Valuable Baseball Cards Ever Made." Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., 09 Aug. 6. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

“T206 Honus Wagner." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

"A Brief History of Baseball Cards." A Brief History of Baseball Cards. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.