2018 Baseball Card Thread

Marbleheader

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Topps cards are out, still awaiting the 2018 Bowmans. Here's my big ticket Red Sox card so far, Devers Heritage Red Auto is currently going for about $650 (similar Aaron Judge card from last year worth over $3K). The Heritage this year is modeled after 1969, which I much prefer over last year's 1968 burlap .



The base Topps this year look like this:



There are also 1983 style inserts:

 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The Devers card looks great, I was never a big fan of the 1983 set but it looks nice in a nostalgic way but the base set looks pretty terrible.
 

shaggydog2000

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The Devers card looks great, I was never a big fan of the 1983 set but it looks nice in a nostalgic way but the base set looks pretty terrible.
The Devers card looks like one of those things where a kid can send in a picture to Topps and get a personalized baseball card. I do love it as well, the classic style looks great, but he looks like a chubby 15 year old.
 

Dewey'sCannon

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8 year old me had the entire 1969 set (acquired through buying (2pks for .25), trading and flipping/tossing/colors) except for Phil Roof.


http://www.streetplay.com/thegames/baseballcards.shtml
10 year old me had a shoebox full of those 1969 cards, most of which were acquired by playing "shades and colors," which we still called "flipping," because you'd need to flip the cards over to play. You'd just walk up to another kid in the schoolyard and say, "Wanna flip?" 5 card for a quick game, 20 cards was high stakes, and would usually draw a crowd. Good times.
 

Marbleheader

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The 1969s were notoriously off center, some were printed in white letters, some yellow. It makes cards that are in great shape and properly cut worth a lot. A good amount of Reggie rookies look like this:

 

Marbleheader

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E5 Yaz

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Depending on how the condition grades out, I've seen my 69 Mantle with white letters valued at anything from $750 to $40K
 

santadevil

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Well, I went ahead and made my baseball card order for the year...or at least that's what I tell myself.

Ordered a Topps 2018 Series 1 Hobby Jumbo Box. DACardWorld had it on sale, so I grabbed it, along with the 2018 Topps Sticker Album and a box of stickers for me and the little guy to do. See if I can foster some additional baseball fuel into that kid.
 

Max Venerable

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Man loved looking through those card designs up thread. Interesting to see slow shifts in design sense, then sudden head scratcher decisions like 1987 and 1969.

My favorite is 1986 — not sure if that’s nostalgia or what, those cards look amazing to me
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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LOVE that Devers red ink auto. Would love to grab one, but will probably settle for the blue auto version for now.

Also, agreed with Max - I love the '86 Topps for some reason and have been telling myself I will put together a graded set forever now, even though it would be mostly worthless.
 

santadevil

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I'm so dumb, should've ordered the Gypsy Queen set instead, but I wasn't reconciling dates in my head. Could've grabbed it for $20 extra over the Series 1.

As I'm waiting for my package to arrive, I'm getting more excited about the sticker book than the cards. I started out doing the sticker books when I was little and loved it. I think the little guy is going to have fun with them
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Gypsy Queen are nice looking this year. Grabbed some blasters - nothing great, but nice looking cards and parallels.
 

santadevil

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I'm so dumb, should've ordered the Gypsy Queen set instead, but I wasn't reconciling dates in my head. Could've grabbed it for $20 extra over the Series 1.
So, I've been really slow going through this box. I like to take my time and organize, put the base cards in a binder, read the backs, etc

So I still had 7 full unopened packs from this order in March...I pulled this tonight, which is my biggest pull in any box ever

IMG_20181012_230956.jpg

I don't even mind that the autograph is on a sticker

Santadevil from March 2018, you made the right choice!

(plus, late last night I ordered a Series 2 Jumbo Hobby box that was on sale, along with a Hobby box of 2018 Gypsy Queen

Edit/ Doing some internet sluething, I only found 2 other copies of this card for sale. The first is numbered 1 of 3, the other is number 3 of 3 (and it was graded). Nothing on eBay or COMC that I can find that that that doesn't show a number...just those two cards. Do I somehow have 2 of 3 and it's an error because it's not labeled? Or just wishful thinking?

Also, sorry for the size of the pic, I was trying to make it smaller on my phone, but I don't know how to do that properly
 
Last edited:

DanoooME

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So, I've been really slow going through this box. I like to take my time and organize, put the base cards in a binder, read the backs, etc

So I still had 7 full unopened packs from this order in March...I pulled this tonight, which is my biggest pull in any box ever

View attachment 23877

I don't even mind that the autograph is on a sticker

Santadevil from March 2018, you made the right choice!

(plus, late last night I ordered a Series 2 Jumbo Hobby box that was on sale, along with a Hobby box of 2018 Gypsy Queen

Edit/ Doing some internet sluething, I only found 2 other copies of this card for sale. The first is numbered 1 of 3, the other is number 3 of 3 (and it was graded). Nothing on eBay or COMC that I can find that that that doesn't show a number...just those two cards. Do I somehow have 2 of 3 and it's an error because it's not labeled? Or just wishful thinking?

Also, sorry for the size of the pic, I was trying to make it smaller on my phone, but I don't know how to do that properly
What's the "number" on the back?

I don't think it's the same card as the 3/3 because there's a Mother's Day stripe on that card that isn't on yours. This article says there are parallels to the Topps Salute Autographs numbered 25 or less, which is probably what the 3/3 on e-Bay is. Not sure how many "base" autos there are. I'd say you have the base auto, which is still a really good pull. According to the October Beckett magazine, your card is in the range of $250-$500. I'd say you'd be really lucky to get $500, unless you live in South Jersey or LA. But it's still an awesome get, better than anything I've ever gotten. Congrats!
 

santadevil

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The card says SA-MT on the back

Thanks for the additional info DanoooME. I kind of figured I was missing something and didn't note the pink Mother's Day stripe on each side of Trout on those #'d cards.

I don't plan on selling the card and I had the sad realization last night after I put it in its case, that it was probably the high point of my card collecting career. All down hill from here

But I'm still so excited about it
 

charlieoscar

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Question from another year: A local store that sold all types of collectibles recently closed and held a sale to get rid of things. I dropped in to see what was available and found a factory sealed box of 1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice baseball cards for less than $10. Seemed like a better chance of making some spare change than lottery tickets and I bought it. A quick web check seems to show most people just sell the box unopened but the price is somewhere in the $20-$40 range, so I figure I'll just see if I hit it lucky but I have no idea how cards are packed. Are they just in the box or are they wrapped, and things like that. If I should find anything rare, I want to be sure I don't do anything to damage the card. ANy suggestions on how to proceed?

1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice factory set with five Gold Signature insert cards; 670 cards holographically enhanced that includes Rookie Class, Future Foundation, and the Future Is Now subsets as well as all Series One subsets. Thanks
 

DanoooME

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A 1994 factory set will just have the 670 cards and the 5 gold signatures, which are just parallel versions of the regular 670. There's nothing valuable in it; I don't even think there's an A-Rod RC in there. The 5 gold signatures would be a random pick of the 670 cards in the set, so a star card might be worth a buck at best. Unopened boxes of packs do sell for more because you can open the packs and get just about anything instead of 1 of everything. But that's not what a factory set is and in either case, Collector's Choice was Upper Deck's lowest quality product, basically an entry point product targeted more at kids than anything. I'd pass if I were you.
 

charlieoscar

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...I'd pass if I were you.
Thanks for the full description. I haven't dealt with cards since I was a kid and they still came with bubblegum. I don't think there were very many people then who thought they would be worth anything down the road. Now, I have a bunch of '50s cards that were handled frequently and had team names crossed and replaced if a player was traded, etc. I remember when card collecting "for profit" became the fad and prices kept going up and up...then crashed. A few that I have may still be rare enough and in condition to be worth something
 

[icon]

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Sometimes the pleasure of sitting down with a sealed box of cards and a cold beer while a game is on in the background is worth "Sacrificing" the $20 of possible profit by flipping the box.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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So, once upon a time, I busted cases and cases of baseball product. Like a rip and flipper. Not so much anymore. Back in 2009, I busted TONS of Bowman Draft, and not once, but twice sold a blue refractor Trout auto for less than $100 (back in 2009). Probably the worst card selling blunder one could make. In case you do not know, these cards (even raw, ungraded) sell for thousands - like many thousands.

On the plus side, during this past offseason I purchased tons of PSA 10 Mookie Betts update and Mookie Betts Heritage RC's for around $30 each. Not exactly going to make up for the thousands I "lost", but the first time in a long time that I have bought quantity of a card, or cards, and the value actually went up.

In short, just collect cards you like and not for value, because it rarely works out. Or buy graded vintage, because while it may not go up, it most likely won't go down.
 

santadevil

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I'm actually contemplating getting this one graded. I've never done it before, so I'm a bit scared to do so.

I also have a signed Topps Five Star Mookie Betts rookie labeled to /499 and signed Topps Five Star Pedro Martinez numbered to /10

I know there was a previous ball card thread discussing how to do this, but I haven't searched for it
 

PhabPhour20

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Do any of you guys buy the dynasty boxes? Im just getting back into collecting. Haven't bought any box sets. Just individual cards I want. Any advice would be great.
I've been a collector since 1986. Like most collectors I've gone through many, many iterations of my collection. Things that used to get me excited like the '83 Topps Boggs and breaking wax just don't do it for me any more. I got into prospecting for a while and collecting autos and lots of other things. I've sold them all over time, mostly at a loss.

The one thing I still love, and will always love, are vintage cards of hall of famers. And above all else, they are the only thing that has continued a trend upward in value.

I've never had buyer's remorse on a single of a card I really want. I bought a '48 Leaf Ted Williams 15 years ago for $100. I had it graded a few years ago and it came out as a PSA 6. It has great centering and is probably in the $12-1500 range now. The Brett Lawrie chrome autos I bought haven't quite retained their value the same way.

I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on wax with virtually nothing to show for it. I've pulled a few nice cards and sold them, bought more wax, etc. It isn't worth it.

So, this is just one person's advice... but stick to buying singles. And vintage if you are into it. Much, much less heartache. After all, Satchel Paige is highly unlikely to die in a boating accident or get arrested for spousal abuse. And the demand for these cards just seems to grow over time.
 

opes

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I've been a collector since 1986. Like most collectors I've gone through many, many iterations of my collection. Things that used to get me excited like the '83 Topps Boggs and breaking wax just don't do it for me any more. I got into prospecting for a while and collecting autos and lots of other things. I've sold them all over time, mostly at a loss.

The one thing I still love, and will always love, are vintage cards of hall of famers. And above all else, they are the only thing that has continued a trend upward in value.

I've never had buyer's remorse on a single of a card I really want. I bought a '48 Leaf Ted Williams 15 years ago for $100. I had it graded a few years ago and it came out as a PSA 6. It has great centering and is probably in the $12-1500 range now. The Brett Lawrie chrome autos I bought haven't quite retained their value the same way.

I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on wax with virtually nothing to show for it. I've pulled a few nice cards and sold them, bought more wax, etc. It isn't worth it.

So, this is just one person's advice... but stick to buying singles. And vintage if you are into it. Much, much less heartache. After all, Satchel Paige is highly unlikely to die in a boating accident or get arrested for spousal abuse. And the demand for these cards just seems to grow over time.

Great post. Thanks for the advice. I neat to hear the different angles other folks take regarding the hobby.
 

Traut

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Great post. Thanks for the advice. I neat to hear the different angles other folks take regarding the hobby.
There are a grand total of two ways of looking at it - as entertainment or a business. You should be clear and honest with yourself about which one of those things you are pursuing. And if you choose to pursue both you shall have neither. If you love say Mookie Betts and it brings you joy to have rare and autographed cards of his then by all means pursue your happiness. If you like the thrill of opening packs and seeing what you get - something to me akin to scratch tickets - go for it.

If you are looking to make money, you have to look for undervalued assets, buy them, and then resell them. Hoping you are going to pull the next Mike Trout rare card that is worth 10k out of a 3 pack is like hoping the slot machine will hit. It's a matter of odds and the odds are against you.