[Nati Beastcat]

Used to collect them when I was younger from 87-94.

I dug my old cards out of the closet and looks like I found some hidden treasures Now they have these grading systems if you want to spend the money and after looking at ebay investigate.

Anybody do any collecting? advice ?

[Bimmer84]

Honestly, it depends on your hidden treasures. Can you get more specific? Collecting has gone down over the years, and your standard cards, especially the years you listed, whether it is Topps, UD, Fleer, O-Pee-chee, etc, are not as sought after. Rookies will always cash in some, but even cards like the one time highly sought after Ken Griffey Jr Upper Deck Rookie has gone down considerably. High end trading these days consists a lot of memorabilia and autograph cards, i.e. pieces of bats or jerseys in the cards, and low serial numbers. For example, I have a David Ortiz 2 panel card consisting of different pieces of bats that spell out Papi with the red sox logo, serial numbered 1/3. Meaning I have the first one made, of only 3 in the world.

List some of the cards you are referring to, and I will try to give you some advice. With the price of grading, and the fact the Beckett Grading Services (BGS) is the only one that is "prestigious" enough to use, the cost to get it graded may be more than the value of the card.

At book value, I probably have over $10,000 in cards. Sell/Trade value, maybe $2,000.

I've been collecting since 1989 ( I was 5), stopped for a while, and just recently picked back up in the high end market. By high end, I mean I will buy packs that cost over 200 dollars with my fingers crossed, and they usually consist of only 2 or 3 cards, or buy/sell high end cards (what I value over $100 per car). I also hit trading shows and estate sales as often as I can to look for rare gems and what-not.

[carve]

Yeah....I think things like card collecting are pretty much dying hobbies unless you have something really old and rare. Early 90's is when it started to die. I suppose by the mid 90's you could look at photos of baseball players online and people realized it wasn't that interesting anymore.

[Bimmer84]

The 90s were bad, it picked back up again in the 2000s, and stayed strong until our economic meltdown...

[Kensta335]

Got some Michael Jordan (baseball) rookie cards. Are they worth anything? lol

[Bimmer84]

Originally Posted by Kensta335

Got some Michael Jordan (baseball) rookie cards. Are they worth anything? lol

I believe that was a 1994 Upper Deck Feature. I have plenty as well and they are worth as much as your recycling.. lol

[Nati Beastcat]

Originally Posted by Bimmer84

Honestly, it depends on your hidden treasures. Can you get more specific?

At book value, I probably have over $10,000 in cards. Sell/Trade value, maybe $2,000.

Thanks for the feed back!

I was looking on ebay just to see what BGS 9 or 10 would bring on some of these. I have a Griffey Jr. i'm going to get graded just because... I think it will bring a 9-9.5 I know they don't give 10's for the most part. I guess my 90's leaf Frank Thomas rookie in GEM condition is worthless

To many to list, but dug through about 500 of my 5000 cards and have in mint or near mint.

1994 Bowman's best Refractor:
Derek Jeter (blue chip)
Kirby Puckett

1994 Topps finest:
Frank Thomas
Juan Gonzalez
Rickey Henderson
Roberto Alomar
Greg Maddux
Ryne Sandberg
Manny Ramirez
Robin Ventura
Randy Johnson

1989 upper deck:
griffey jr.

1990 leaf:
Thomas

1966 topps:
Roger Maris
Mickey Mantle


Think if any of these pull a 9.5 or higher they'd be worth anything? Also interested in whats hot right now (what to look for what to buy)? $200 packs!! I remember thinking a $1.99 pack of upper deck was expensive! Like you said even if I have $3000 worth of cards street value is under $1000 and I'd never sell them anyway.

[import36]

i have quite a few baseball, basketball, and football cards from the late 80's. i should probably go back through those to see if there's anything decent among the bunch.

[Maestro]

I never collected when they started selling them in blocks of 100 and 200 cards at a time. When I saw that and saw so many people just buying them in large quantities in hopes to have a win, I knew collecting cards was doomed. I have shoe box of cards which all date back to the 60's and 70's and it was the time when you got 10 and stick of gum and you hoped the gum was not stuck to the good card.

I know I have a few in that box which are worth something, but like most kids I put a rubber band around them to hold them together so a few got dents in them from the Rubber Band

[Cyrax91]

I had my upper deck Griffey rookie card graded at a 9.5. Any idea what that would be worth today? Saw this thread and got curious ha. I have a ton of other cards, but ill probably let them all sit around for years.

[josephr25]

My brothers and I had a bunch of baseball cards; I had a special set of NFL cards collected as a 4th grader (it was an NFL-school program-thing) where we got a pack like once a month.

A nice memory I had was that the bubble gum in Topps packs were rock-hard. I once got carsick while chewing some and threw up in my mom's car

[Bimmer84]

Originally Posted by Cyrax91

I had my upper deck Griffey rookie card graded at a 9.5. Any idea what that would be worth today? Saw this thread and got curious ha. I have a ton of other cards, but ill probably let them all sit around for years.

Depends who graded it. The company used varies the price quite a bit.

[Bimmer84]

Originally Posted by Nati Beastcat

Thanks for the feed back!

I was looking on ebay just to see what BGS 9 or 10 would bring on some of these. I have a Griffey Jr. i'm going to get graded just because... I think it will bring a 9-9.5 I know they don't give 10's for the most part. I guess my 90's leaf Frank Thomas rookie in GEM condition is worthless

To many to list, but dug through about 500 of my 5000 cards and have in mint or near mint.

1994 Bowman's best Refractor:
Derek Jeter (blue chip)
Kirby Puckett

1994 Topps finest:
Frank Thomas
Juan Gonzalez
Rickey Henderson
Roberto Alomar
Greg Maddux
Ryne Sandberg
Manny Ramirez
Robin Ventura
Randy Johnson

1989 upper deck:
griffey jr.

1990 leaf:
Thomas

1966 topps:
Roger Maris
Mickey Mantle


Think if any of these pull a 9.5 or higher they'd be worth anything? Also interested in whats hot right now (what to look for what to buy)? $200 packs!! I remember thinking a $1.99 pack of upper deck was expensive! Like you said even if I have $3000 worth of cards street value is under $1000 and I'd never sell them anyway.

Refractors used to be sought after, but if it is not serial numbered, it won't really get anything anymore for the most part. If you don't mind, could you take a picture of the Griffey Card and post it before you send it in? A lot goes into grading besides clean edges. Surfacing, centering, gloss all play a big part as well. A year or two back I bought an unopened box of 1989 UD... felt like a kid again opening the packs up. I found 7 Griffey rookies in the box, not one worth sending in to grade (mainly centering issues).

[Cyrax91]

Originally Posted by Bimmer84

Depends who graded it. The company used varies the price quite a bit.

Shoot I cant remember. It was a big company though.

[Nati Beastcat]

Originally Posted by Cyrax91

Shoot I cant remember. It was a big company though.

Psa or bgs?

[Nati Beastcat]

Originally Posted by Bimmer84

Refractors used to be sought after, but if it is not serial numbered, it won't really get anything anymore for the most part. If you don't mind, could you take a picture of the Griffey Card and post it before you send it in? A lot goes into grading besides clean edges. Surfacing, centering, gloss all play a big part as well. A year or two back I bought an unopened box of 1989 UD... felt like a kid again opening the packs up. I found 7 Griffey rookies in the box, not one worth sending in to grade (mainly centering issues).

Thought i'd do a trial run today. The Griffey left this morning for grading... its the nicest card I have. Thought if that came back anything less than 9 i'm not sending anything else I have!! not sure how they measure centering but from the naked eye mine looked excellent.

[amanda hor$t]

got a beat up yogi berra from his later years, and a pair of mutombos (they were easy to get from a new upper deck box, worthless now)

as a business, i'd say card collecting wouldn't go far. most people i know who were into that in jr high got into stocks... a paper pic of a ballplayer, or partial ownership in a large business

[silvergray545]

I never really collected baseball cards but I did get two cards that I've held onto for years. I got them back when I was a kid and played baseball. One is a 1997 reprint of the popular 1952 Jackie Robinson Topps card. And the other is a 1997 Pinnacle Sandy Alomar Jr card. It's stamped "Pinnacle All-Star FanFest" not sure what that means. I'm not really sure what they're worth, if anything. Hopefully, one day in the future, I will be able to get a few bucks (not looking to make my retirement on these cards) out of them from somebody that will appreciate them.

[Cyrax91]

Ah! Its PSA for sure.

[kyleb350]

I collected when I was a kid as well (86'-92'). I remember putting the more valuable ones in binders in the mid '90's and the rest in shoe boxes (also have a few whole sets). Having not heard any good news on values going up, I haven't been motivated to check values.

I almost was motivated to check when I saw Chipper Jones was retiring because I can remember have his Topps rookie card ('91 I wanna say?).

[Nati Beastcat]

Originally Posted by kyleb350

I collected when I was a kid as well (86'-92'). I remember putting the more valuable ones in binders in the mid '90's and the rest in shoe boxes (also have a few whole sets). Having not heard any good news on values going up, I haven't been motivated to check values.

I almost was motivated to check when I saw Chipper Jones was retiring because I can remember have his Topps rookie card ('91 I wanna say?).

Cleaned out my closet at home saw them and thought i'd check it out. might have 1k in baseball cards?

[Bimmer84]

Originally Posted by kyleb350

I collected when I was a kid as well (86'-92'). I remember putting the more valuable ones in binders in the mid '90's and the rest in shoe boxes (also have a few whole sets). Having not heard any good news on values going up, I haven't been motivated to check values.

I almost was motivated to check when I saw Chipper Jones was retiring because I can remember have his Topps rookie card ('91 I wanna say?).

I have lots of Chipper Jones stuff as well, but not worth much. The 90s was printed in such an over abundance that it is hard to find value in them.