Baseball Cards Price

Baseball Card Price Guides?

I use to collect baseball cards as a child and picked up a Beckett price guide to see how much some of these cards are worth. I noticed that the value in the price guide is significantly more valuable than what you can actually get for them say on eBay. For example, a $100 price card in Beckett may only get you $20 on ebay. Shouldnt the price guide make adjustments to reflect the market.

Public Comments

1. Those price guides have always been a joke. Nobody has ever bought cards according to what the guide says. I recently sold the bulk of my collection from the 50s and 60s for $4k. Book value was probably in the range of 25-30k minimum. I kept my favorite cards and put them in a frame so I can remember that part of my childhood.
2. when you sell a card to a card store for example; you usually get 25% of the high price on the book, and that's if it is a top player card. Mantle and Ruth, Jordan might get you 30% if your lucky and the card is rare, or in high demand. Newer cards will bring in more money on eBay, it seems like the new age collector wants the newer card. Hopefully this will help you make adjustments. Oh, here is some proof look Chien-Ming Wang 2003 bowman's best auto in the beckett and or eBay, in most instances now he is selling double book!! If a player died recently, gets into trouble, also they all of a sudden will usually double as well. ie; Kirby Puckett!!
3. The price guides are more like a reference in terms of rarity of the card. People aren't probably going to buy for that price on Ebay, but Card Shops will probably sell you the card that is on the price guide since they can show the customer the price guide and show them the price. More than likely no one is going to buy the card for the price guide value unless you trade cards with someone that will equal the same value of that card.
4. I had a friend who interned at Beckett in 1996. He said that those books are for professional dealers to use to set their prices. They buy them from you at a rate of 55 cents on the dollar. Ebay buyers happen to be a lot of store owners and hard core collectors who know how Beckett does it and stops the bidding when it hits about 55 percent of book.