Nostalgic Good Years through Baseball Cards

In this collection, there are some 700 “Modern Era” baseball cards, being 1980 on.  These 700+ cards made up 99% of the collection.  The majority of these cards range in the $1 to $2 range, based on what I was finding on PSA and Ebay.  While these cards don’t have the value of the 60’s for a number of reasons, there are many cards to get excited about, from good to great players, starters in World Series, Hall of Famers to have in a collection that in another 10, 20 years will do their thing.  I doubt there are any 10’s and problably no 9’s, but who knows.  However, there are definitely cards that purchased in the $1-$2 range can land $5-$15, $20 with some patience.

So, what I’ve done with these cards is break them out into stacks of 50 cards, to the left and below, i.e. the George Brett stack, the Barry Larkin stack, etc.  They have been counted and stacked, mostly randomly, tho double checking that no stack got loaded with one team and that each stack had players the average fan would recognize, starters, that had some level of significance back in those days, World Series champs, Hall of Famers, something a 10, 12 y.o. kid could get excited about having in his/her newly expanded collection!  And, something the more serious collector could triple the $1 risk on some of the cards to $3, $5, $10 or more, if not now, then in a few years.

The Vintage Cards, 1946-1979

The Purpose of my opening up this collection of cards to the public is for others to enjoy them as part of a collection and possibly trade and sell like any investment in a few years.

So, of Note: these cards are intentionally, to the best of my knowledge, priced as an investment for a mother, a father to purchase for their children and for those children to put on the market in 20 years…not to be priced for one to turn around and make 3-10x’s profit.  If a quick flip profit happens, awesome.

The following cards fall into the late 60’s to the early 70’s, maybe a couple in 1966 and a couple in 1971.  The majority of these are 1969, stats of 1968, with players and card quality ranging from a couple few dollars to hundreds of dollars.  The following link has a good description of the baseball card eras.

Just a little history to these 60’s cards, I started collecting these when we moved to Cincinnati in 1967. I started playing Little League Baseball in ’67, fell in love with baseball, and couldn’t get enough of the Reds, and the future Big Red Machine.  We only lived in Cincinnati a couple years before we moved to Phoenix, and while I continued playing baseball through high school, and finished with walk-on tryouts at the University of Arizona in August of ’76, I for some reason stopped collecting baseball cards, until T.C., my son, was born in ’86, which then accounts for the pick up of late 80’s, early 90’s cards, along with another set of Reds World Series Championship runs.

For those interested in a little Cincinnati Reds history.

Vintage Cards at less than $10 per card

1969
#26  Clay Carroll  $8
#45  Maury Wills  $8
#219  Fred Patek  $8
#327 Willie Crawford  $8
#339  Reds Rookie Stars  $9
#350  Richie Allen (2)  $8 ea.
#362  Jim Maloney  $8
#405  Lee May  $8

Vintage Cards in the $10-$19 range

1969
#244  Indians Rookie Stars  $15
#281  Ted Kubiak  $15
#295  Tony Perez  $15
#299  Mark Belanger  $15
#398  Tito Francona  $15
#520  Bob Veale  $12
#587  Joe Rudi  $15

Vintage Cards in the $20-$49

* Hall of Fame   ** World Series Champion

These cards are based on their years’ players PSA card values chart and the PSA grading standards of mostly NM 7’s Near Mints and NM-MT 8’s.  These photos have been cropped to allow full view of the condition of the four corners and offset of card borders.

Vintage Cards in the $50-$99

* Hall of Fame   ** World Series Champion

These cards are based on their years’ players PSA card values chart and the PSA grading standards of mostly NM 7’s Near Mints and NM-MT 8’s.  These photos have been cropped to allow full view of the condition of the four corners and offset of card borders.

All of these cards will make a great addition to any collection, of course for the new young, the “rookie” collector, the one card wanted to fill in a collection, as well as the serious collector.

Again, the photos do provide an idea of quality, maybe a bit more grainy than the actual card shows, but shows quality of the 4 corners and the actual offset of borders, good color representation, clarity, etc.

I very well may have missed a * HOF or
** World Series asterisk, especially a World Series Champion, and if so, feel free to drop me a note and I’ll update.

Vintage Cards in the $100-$199

* Hall of Fame   ** World Series Champion

These cards are based on their years’ players PSA card values chart and the PSA grading standards of mostly NM 7’s Near Mints and NM-MT 8’s.  These photos have been cropped to allow full view of the condition of the four corners and offset of card borders.

Vintage Cards in the $200-$2,000

* Hall of Fame   ** World Series Champion

These cards are based on their years’ players PSA card values chart and the PSA grading standards of mostly NM 7’s Near Mints and NM-MT 8’s.  These photos have been cropped to allow full view of the condition of the four corners and offset of card borders.