Early 90s baseball cards

[JayPowHound]

My folks just moved, so I reinherited my boxes and books of baseball cards. Mostly Topps with some Upper Deck, probably ranging from '89-'94.

I have no interest in keeping them, what are the odds that something in there may be worth finding and selling?

I dont recall having anything super crazy back in the day, but definitely went to card shows and bought some stuff.. my memory just sucks.

So, what should I do with them? Anyone think its worth looking through with some sort of pricing guide? Back in the day I remember using the Beckett guides, I assume its all online somewhere?

[I've seen black diamonds!]

I'll give you a few bucks if you have this one:

[Mazderati]

Or this one.

[sirbumpsalot]

[pepperdawg]

I remember the Ripkin bat card - always hoped to get one - best error card ever (from a pre-teen kid perspective)

I think in subsequent production runs after they realized they crudely attempted to black out the words.....and those cards were worth something too. I think a couple varieties - white and black covering up the words etc.

[Lone Star]

Really old cards become valuable by default- the industry did not produce baseball cards the same way they do today. The late 80s/early 90s baseball card production boom saw an estimated 81 billion trading cards made per year during this time, making all of the cards produced during that era completely worthless. There was way too much supply to demand high prices for any of the cards produced during that time.

https://sportsarefromvenus.com/2020/...orth-anything/

[alpinevibes]

My folks just moved, so I reinherited my boxes and books of baseball cards. Mostly Topps with some Upper Deck, probably ranging from '89-'94.

I have no interest in keeping them, what are the odds that something in there may be worth finding and selling?

I dont recall having anything super crazy back in the day, but definitely went to card shows and bought some stuff.. my memory just sucks.

So, what should I do with them? Anyone think its worth looking through with some sort of pricing guide? Back in the day I remember using the Beckett guides, I assume its all online somewhere?

I went through this a few years back; a few thousand of similar era cards. Beckett is online now, but you pay for a sub to look things up. You can search eBay sold listings, but thats tons of time. Ultimately you have decent knowledge of who might be worth something and then be able to look them up. Slow process for 98-99% of your cards being worth a penny.

I called the local card shops around Seattle and no one was interested in sifting through the mass. I don't think they would've taken them for free. I thought about eBay - listing the whole lot for $100+shipping, but didn't want to hastle my parents with shipping. Ultimately gave them to a friend of brother as a favor for something they'd done for him. Made everybody happy.

[DJSapp]

Yeah, I was part of that card boom in the late 80's early 90's. It's mostly worthless. Hell, you can still pick up full 800 card factory sets still sealed for $50 from around this time.

[AK47bp]

You should google most valuable rookie cards from 85-95 or something. Then scan your cards for them.

Just one good card could be worth a couple hundred. Canseco for example.


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[BC.]

My cards are from the late 70’s/early 80’s....and had a shit ton as many other kids at that time...most completely worthless....but I went through them all and only kept the Hall of Famers that I had and put them into organized sleeves/binder.......The rest of the shit ton I had went into the fire pit....lol...

At least I kept the Hall of Famers....but who knows if they are even worth anything....?

[evdog]

I've got the same but with hockey cards. They're all still sitting at my parents house so I can avoid dealing with them.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Just one good card could be worth a couple hundred cents.

FIFY

[skiHOG]

The sports collectible market has been way up this year. While most of the cards in the junk wax era are worthless, there's still a few that hold some good value. Hell, certain Griffey rookie cards that were selling for ~$500-$1000 in January are now going for $4-8k. Gotta be graded gem mint though.

Cards to keep an eye for would be '89 Griffey(Topps, Upper Deck, Donruss, Fleer, Bowman. Fleer glossy, Bowman Tiffany, Topps Traded Tiffany, and his '88 Spirit Platinum minor league sell for big bucks). The '93 SP Jeter card is sought after by anyone in the hobby. Those are probably the most valuable in that range of years unless it's some rare card like a 1 of 1 or an error(1990 Topps Frank Thomas no name on front).

[The AD]

My cards are from the late 70’s/early 80’s....and had a shit ton as many other kids at that time...most completely worthless....but I went through them all and only kept the Hall of Famers that I had and put them into organized sleeves/binder.......The rest of the shit ton I had went into the fire pit....lol...

At least I kept the Hall of Famers....but who knows if they are even worth anything....?

Same era for me. I've got complete sets from about 1980-1984. I'm sure there are some that are valuable.

[Conundrum]

Gave mine to my gal's nephews who are in to sports and said make money off them if they can. Lazy little shits probably haven't opened the boxes. Funny, I know there were a couple Griffey rookie cards in there. Bunch of Shaq rookies and others of the era. I also offered to pay them $20/hr to rake leaves when they asked for money for basketball shoes and they told me they didn't want to.

[BC.]

Same era for me. I've got complete sets from about 1980-1984. I'm sure there are some that are valuable.

Yeah...complete sets I bet u can get some coin. I don’t think I ever had any complete sets...

[Conundrum]

Older sets, yes. I called a card shop before giving away and they wouldn't even let me drop off complete sets from about '89-'94.

[AK47bp]

I have a Wade Boggs rookie card and a Mark McGuire USA team card. Some full Pirate sets from late 80’s early 90’s. Bonds, Bonilla, VanSlyke, Jose Lind, Mike Lavallier, Bob Walk (best pitcher name ever).

I can remember all these names from like 30 years ago yet can’t remember my wife’s birthday.


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[skiHOG]

Literally tens of billions of cards were printed each year during the junk wax era of '87-'94. The years before and after saw significantly less than that. And, because the print numbers were so high the quality control was abysmal. Even if you have a rookie or HOF chances are the card quality is shit; not centered, print defects, stains from the gum, etc.

The majority of my personal collection is from hand collating complete sets. I've given away most of my sets from mid-80s to early 90s because the cost to ship them is more than the value of the set. Unless every card in the set is near mint-mint or better they are just a waste of space. The exceptions are the Tiffany/Glossy sets that Topps, Bowman, and Fleer put out. They only printed about 6000 total for each year.

[Jacques Strap]

They're worth more to you than they are to anyone else.

Keep and display the ones that you like, put the rest in the spokes of your bike.

[HankScorpio]

I went through the debacle of selling my dad's baseball cards a few years ago. Long short, it was a very time consuming process that was simply not worth my time. You think certain cards are worth big bucks but I never got nearly what they were "worth" according to Beckett. Looking back, I should've just kept them as a keepsake.

I still have my cards from the 80s and 90s - definitely some keepers like a few Jeter rookie cards, but I'd rather keep them and give them to my kiddo in a few years.

[MontuckyFried]

Well, this was surprising. This thread got me wondering about how bad the collectable card market was, so I went to fleaBay to look up a few random things I remember being hot and looks like you can get piles and piles of cards for next to nothing these days. When I was a kid, baseball and basketball cards were hudge, and then the Marvel trading cards became quite the thing to have for a moment. Then after my time, Pokemon cards were a very big thing with the yutes not that long ago. Now they're all pretty much worthless unless you have something SERIOUSLY specific.

I think same thing's happened to comic books. When I was a kid, it was a big deal to collect them and I remember big guides with current market prices. I had a few that were worth a hundred bucks or so at one point in time. Then this year I looked them up and they were worth a couple bucks at most. Traded them in at a collection store for an obscure Sega Genesis game for my kids. Both the comics and the game weren't worth squat. Like $10. Haha.

Anybody else remember the whole Beanie Baby craze in the 90s? Still makes me laugh to think about how many people lost their asses on that one.

[ex-powderbroker]

mcgwire error topps 87 would be worth something.

griffey rookie upper deck.

bike spokes ftw

[char_]

It's like selling antique furniture, style changes and no one wants it anymore.

[TahoeJ]

griffey rookie upper deck.

I have a couple of these. They're worth like $100 or so. Less than they were going for 20 years ago! Crazy how this market completely went to shit.

I have a ton of old comic books at my parent's house too... liked to collect first issues.

I assume the same happened with those?