For baseball card values, there are various sources of price guides which might have different values for the same cards. This article gives you a few tips on how to find out your card’s worth.
Beckett, Tuffstuff, Sports Collectors Digest, Cards trade and Sports Market Report (SMR) are some of the well-known price guides people go through for baseball card values. However, Beckett and Tuffstuff are the most popular ones and out of these two, most collectors opt for Beckett. Beckett offers monthly subscriptions to their site for a minimal fee, for access to all their listed baseball cards. Beckett also provides monthly subscription of magazines bearing the same price information. Such online versions of the card values are also available with Tuffstuff, in their website. Unlike most, Tuffstuff lets you view their archived (the ones not in the magazine) price guide listings for free.
| Player | Book Value |
| 75 Derek Jeter | $47.40 |
| Fred McGriff | $15 |
| Shawn Green | $9.10 |
| Matt Williams | $7.55 |
| Robin Yount | $6.50 |
| Wade Boggs | $3.51 |
| Randy Johnson | $3.10 |
| Jim Thome | $2.49 |
| Juan Gonzalez | $2.00 |
| Frank Thomas | $1.99 |
| Tom Glavine | $1.99 |
| Mark Grace | $1.30 |
Note: Prices may vary with different sources.
How to Know Your Baseball Card’s Worth
The process of finding the value of a baseball card can turn out to be an inaccurate one, however, putting some effort in doing so can be extremely rewarding.
# Sources, as mentioned earlier, are many; such as websites and magazines to find out what worth your baseball cards collection is for. To start with, get your cards organized in a systematic order; like sorting star baseball players in one box, and common players in another. Often, rookie players value more, due to people’s fancy over their potential. If you are unaware about the performance or position of certain players in this sport, then the best place to visit would be the Baseball Hall of Fame.
# The Internet is the best platform which can provide the appropriate resources for checking the worth of your baseball cards. You can visit sites such as ‘eBay’ and see for yourself the valuation of the cards you own. Visiting dealers at memorabilia shows or online auction sites can provide direct access to the source of price-setters.
# Beckett, as I have mentioned, is popular among most baseball card collectors. So, if you plan to visit this website, then details such as card number, year and make are required in order to look up its current value.
# When you visit websites and auction sites of vendors who are into selling baseball cards, you can get an idea about the selling price of the cards. It is not uncommon for prices which you might have come across on the web or in magazines varying from the ones you see on the vendor’s website, for the same baseball cards. This is because it is not always a fixed deal that the prices will be standard everywhere; they may vary from dealer to dealer.
It is a good practice to maintain a log book for your baseball cards and their respective values, which you might have checked online or in magazines. It is also equally important for your baseball cards to be stored in a safe place; viz. soft sleeves, top-loaders, storage boxes, albums and page and screw-down cases. When you make up your mind for selling your cards, keep your expectations low, as some cards might not be as ‘pricey’ as you had expected.
