Baseball Card Values
Most baseball cards are not terribly valuable. A great many are so common as to be practically worthless. The value of a card is generally based on its age, condition and rarity. An older card it more valuable, because as time goes by, there will be fewer and fewer copies circulating around. After the print run stops, the remaining cards will either wind up in the hands of collectors or simply vanish, raising their value exponentially. A card’s condition is also important, as a well- cared-for card will most likely be better protected from decay and the elements, thus increasing its lifespan. Collectors, also, value a card in perfect condition above any other kind. Finally, rare cards are valuable because of their very nature. When there’s something wrong with a card or when a player wishes that his card is pulled or when anything happens to stop production on a baseball card, the few that are already released to the public become extremely valuable, because not only are there not any more of them, there’s only a small amount to begin with.
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To determine the value of a card, a collector can either get it appraised by a baseball card expert or look in a price guide. An appraisal is the more accurate option, but, since the collector is often shipping his card out to the appraiser and having him do the work, it’s expensive and time consuming. Looking in a price guide is generally as accurate, however it can’t give the kind of analysis that a specialist could.
The Value Of Old Baseball Cards
The most valuable cards in the world are all very old, with even the most recent one dating back to the 1930’s. A 1933 Babe Ruth card is worth nearly five thousand dollars. A 1914 Ty Cobb is worth as much as six thousand. A 1914 Shoeless Joe Jackson could be worth nine thousand. But the two most valuable cards in the world are of people almost nobody remembers. A 1933 card of Nap Lajoie, a little-known Philadelphia second baseman, is worth nearly thirty thousand dollars, and the rarest card in the word is a 1909 card of a man named Honus Wagner, worth upwards of four hundred thousand dollars. A good condition card recently sold at auction for 2.3 million dollars. It became so valuable because it combined all three aspects of value: It was very old, very rare and in very good condition.
