Vladimir Guerrero Jr Rookie Card

[thecardguy]

Hey all, I've put together a presentation that tracks the changing value of Vladimir Guerrero Jr's rookie card over time as it gets auctioned on Ebay. If that might be of interest to anyone here check it out below. Have a good one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_eIvb9ASNo

[P2F]

Cool. Thanks for the share and for putting that video together.

[jaysblue]

Interesting video.

I used to be big into cards, though not anymore. Thing is with rookie cards is that they're so expensive at first and if that player ends up flopping that card is worthless after. Kind of like buying stocks I suppose. I remember even when Eric Hinske's rookie card was big money back in 2002/2003. A couple of years later, could have bought one for a couple of bucks. Even Hideki Matsui's card was big money before he even played a game in the MLB. He went onto have a solid career, though I'm sure when Kaz Matsui came up his card was big money at first and then after a year or two was worthless.

Plus the value of a card is in the eye of the beholder. Usually to resell cards, you won't get actual book value unless you sell it to a fan of that player etc.

[burlingtonbandit]

Wow didn't realize baseball cards for prospects go for that high in $. I've been collecting signed baseballs but maybe I should be doing cards too.

[TheHurl]

Wow didn't realize baseball cards for prospects go for that high in $. I've been collecting signed baseballs but maybe I should be doing cards too.

Cards are all about selling new now (opposite of what makes sense and how it was when I was growing up). I made almost $2000 on the Tim Horton's hockey by selling immediately. One year later the cards are selling for about 20% of the prices I sold for. Overall cards are an odd market, if it's not graded it's basically worthless (not 100% true, but certainly is for older cards). The only ones making a shitload of money are the grading services. I have a collection with 2 Rookie Gretzky's, several Patrick Roy's a few cool rookie baseball (albeit OPC not Topps), no dealer will give me shit for the collection.

[Jonn]

One of my earliest childhood memories is collecting Baseball and Hockey cards with my Dad. Really the only time I got to spend time with him through all his working and traveling.

Hobby I definitely want to take up with my kids one day. I have like so many collections back home I wonder what they are worth.

Anyway hopefully that Vladdy Jr card becomes extremely valuable one day. I'd probably try to pick one up if I came across one.

[burlingtonbandit]

Cards are all about selling new now (opposite of what makes sense and how it was when I was growing up). I made almost $2000 on the Tim Horton's hockey by selling immediately. One year later the cards are selling for about 20% of the prices I sold for. Overall cards are an odd market, if it's not graded it's basically worthless (not 100% true, but certainly is for older cards). The only ones making a shitload of money are the grading services. I have a collection with 2 Rookie Gretzky's, several Patrick Roy's a few cool rookie baseball (albeit OPC not Topps), no dealer will give me shit for the collection.

Yeah seems like a complicated market with all the different grades thats why I just stick to baseballs. When I went down to Spring Training last year I was able to get a few autographs and I sold a couple of signed JD and Stroman baseballs on Kijiji which payed for the other baseballs I kept. Nice thing about baseballs is they keep their value if the player gets traded.

[spats]

Yeah seems like a complicated market with all the different grades thats why I just stick to baseballs. When I went down to Spring Training last year I was able to get a few autographs and I sold a couple of signed JD and Stroman baseballs on Kijiji which payed for the other baseballs I kept. Nice thing about baseballs is they keep their value if the player gets traded.

I do the same each year at Spring Training,actually at the Mattick Centre where it's less formal. I still have Synderguard, Stroman, Sanchez, Vlady, Norris, Hoffman, D'Arnaud, Raines and many more prospects that never amounted to much....Kevin Comer, Deck McGuire etc.

[Dick_Pole]

I have like so many collections back home I wonder what they are worth.

The answer is next to nothing. Trust me I checked. Unless you have signed super-duper ultra-rare inserts or something.

Back in the 90's when I collected them it was before selling on the internet became popular so finding the cards you wanted was a tough task which helped keep the prices up. Plus there was always the illusion that they were an investment. I remember paying $50 for a 1972 Topps Carlton Fisk rookie along with Bench, Seaver and Reggie Jackson cards from that year thrown in and thought I was getting a steal since a Fisk rookie booked for $100+. I haven't looked at a price guide in a while but I know an ungraded Fisk rookie can be had for $5 on eBay easily now lol

Cards are all about selling new now (opposite of what makes sense and how it was when I was growing up). I made almost $2000 on the Tim Horton's hockey by selling immediately. One year later the cards are selling for about 20% of the prices I sold for. Overall cards are an odd market, if it's not graded it's basically worthless (not 100% true, but certainly is for older cards). The only ones making a shitload of money are the grading services. I have a collection with 2 Rookie Gretzky's, several Patrick Roy's a few cool rookie baseball (albeit OPC not Topps), no dealer will give me shit for the collection.

Surprised that OPC was unwanted. I thought they fetched a premium because they were in a lot lower print. Guess the Americans can't stand the French on the back.

[burlingtonbandit]

I do the same each year at Spring Training,actually at the Mattick Centre where it's less formal. I still have Synderguard, Stroman, Sanchez, Vlady, Norris, Hoffman, D'Arnaud, Raines and many more prospects that never amounted to much....Kevin Comer, Deck McGuire etc.

Yeah the younger players are a lot easiest to get signed. Once you're a star they are constantly bothered for autographs. I don't even bother to try at the games since there so many damn people.

[TheHurl]

Surprised that OPC was unwanted. I thought they fetched a premium because they were in a lot lower print. Guess the Americans can't stand the French on the back.

I could revisit it as the Yount rookie Topps and OPC are selling for similar now. I'd be so much better off selling my cards one by one online but who has time for that.

[John_Havok]

I could revisit it as the Yount rookie Topps and OPC are selling for similar now. I'd be so much better off selling my cards one by one online but who has time for that.

When you're discussing Topps vs OPC, there's a difference in hockey and baseball cards. Topps is the more desirable card for baseball, and OPC for hockey when they have both versions available. Has to do with print runs back when they were the only the only 2 kinds of cards.

As for some other stuff that's been mentioned about garded cards being the only ones of value ... yes that very true about the older cards (since anything of decent grade is rare as fuck - kids actually used to play with cards!) And there were sooooo many produced that even a 7/10 card probably still has thousands of copies out there.

For grading itself, there's really only 2 companies that the industry takes seriously... Beckett and PSA. PSA grades on 1 -10 scale using whole numbers on the overall card, whereas Beckett grades 1-10 using a .5 scale on 4 different aspects of the card - corners, edges, centering and the card face.

So while you might see a PSA card graded as a 9, that same card might be graded by Becket as an overall 9.5, - with subgrades listed as 9.5 corners, 9 edges, 9.5 face, 9.5 centering. Their system is much more detailed. Both companies will also authenticate signatures.

Other companies like KSA and GMA aren't really taken too seriously by collectors. Theres a couple other companies like ISA and SGC, but again, they're so small compared to the others that even seeing cards graded hy them is rare, with the exception of older cards. Nearly all new cards people have graded are sent to Beckett and PSA.

Thing is, cards these days are all being kept in such good shape by buyers and the cardboard stock is so much better quality than it used to be that even 9.5 is a relatively common grade. The 10 grade from Beckett is really really hard to get so any card rated 10 on all 4 aspects is given a special Black Label that sets it apart from even the other cards that are an overall 10, but only have 3/4 10s and 1 9.5.

A black label 10 beckett card will sell for many many times the book value of a card - book value generally being what a card rated as a 9 would be. That being said, book value is still highly variable depending on sport, geography, and the player.

[admin]

The answer is next to nothing. Trust me I checked. Unless you have signed super-duper ultra-rare inserts or something.

Back in the 90's when I collected them it was before selling on the internet became popular so finding the cards you wanted was a tough task which helped keep the prices up. Plus there was always the illusion that they were an investment. I remember paying $50 for a 1972 Topps Carlton Fisk rookie along with Bench, Seaver and Reggie Jackson cards from that year thrown in and thought I was getting a steal since a Fisk rookie booked for $100+. I haven't looked at a price guide in a while but I know an ungraded Fisk rookie can be had for $5 on eBay easily now lol



Surprised that OPC was unwanted. I thought they fetched a premium because they were in a lot lower print. Guess the Americans can't stand the French on the back.

That's exactly it. Before the internet cards were actually rare and you had no idea how to acquire certain cards. Now days you can search ebay and find hundreds of cards that were once considered 'rare'.

[John_Havok]

That's exactly it. Before the internet cards were actually rare and you had no idea how to acquire certain cards. Now days you can search ebay and find hundreds of cards that were once considered 'rare'.

It's a bit of a misnomer to say that before the internet that cards were rare. The card's rarity hasn't really changed, just the availability and ease of access to the market for the cards. Also, people really didn't know how many thousands and thousands of those cards actually existed back then and the demand, while seemingly high, never came close to outpacing the supply.

Once that whole supply/demand thing was known, the value of all those old cards plummeted significantly, with a few exceptions of course.... which is also why condition of the old cards is everything

[Brownie19]

Upper deck cards were the best when I was a kid.

[Brownie19]

I do the same each year at Spring Training,actually at the Mattick Centre where it's less formal. I still have Synderguard, Stroman, Sanchez, Vlady, Norris, Hoffman, D'Arnaud, Raines and many more prospects that never amounted to much....Kevin Comer, Deck McGuire etc.

I once brought a David Cooper autographed baseball to Tinnish's Christmas party as a secret santa gift. AA and other Jays scouts were there. Nobody could guess it was Cooper.