Baseball Card Valuation

Baseball cards can be valued in many different places. The secondary market for collectors is filled with opportunities for cards to be valued by card companies, retailers and individual collectors. So you can expect to find varying degrees of value based on where the card is traded, who is trading it, and what the current market for that player is (which is also affected by that player's current situation - on the field, in the news and otherwise.)

Let's take a look at some of the secondary markets right now, and see where identical cards are being valued in these separate markets. For our purposes, let's use NAXCOM, eBay and Beckett marketplace. Let's pick a few baseball players who are currently excelling on the diamond and see where they fall in. Let's also pick different expected price ranges, as graded officially in Beckett Baseball. One constant we'll need to have for our comparisons is a fairly equal grading of the card as sold in each secondary market (if currently available.)

Starting with Derek Jeter, and the 1993 SP Rookie Card, BGS 9, we come to one variable we will need to address. The seller of the card. Variations in price may be seen based on who is selling each card. In eBay, there is a feedback rating for each seller that will directly affect the "sale-ability" of that card. Beckett marketplace and NAXCOM don't provide quite as much information regarding the seller, but do provide indications of who the seller is and feedback about them. (NAXCOM for example lists seller feedback after ten sales are acheived by that seller.)

NAXCOM currently has two separate listings for the 1993 SP Derek Jeter, BGS 9. One listing is asking $300 while the other is asking $325. Beckett marketplace is showing one listing of a BGS 9 card, at $300. Searching recent eBay completed listings shows that this card at this grading level recently sold in auction for $255 with $10 in shipping, for a total of $265. This card was sold by a seller with a feedback rating of 99.9% positive. One reason you'll see such a large disparity ($60 in this case,) between high and low prices is the method that is used to sell the card. Fixed price sales will sometimes differ greatly from auction prices. If we want to get a better comparison of the actual secondary market for these cards, we'll need to compare fixed prices for the same card, as well as completed auction prices for the same card. Beckett Baseball currently lists the 1993 SP Derek Jeter BGS 9 (mint) card at $350. So you're getting a good price in the secondary market in any case above, based on where on of the market authorities currently values this card.

Let's move on to a more recent card, but a player performing at a high level recently as well. We'll look at the 1999 Bowman Chrome C.C. Sabathia BGS 9.5. Beckett Baseball currently has this card pegged as worth $25. The same card is being sold in the NAXCOM marketplace for $22.25. Fairly comparable. The card sold for $20 with $5 shipping as a "Best Offer" on eBay as of October 2nd, being bought from a seller with a 99.2% positive rating. Taking a look at Beckett marketplace, this card, graded one level down as a BGS 9, is being offered for $50. All but the baseball card offered on Beckett marketplace seem to fit into the range of value as determined by Beckett baseball. Overall, eBay proved to have the card with the lowest price, before shipping, and taking into account buyer risk.

Lastly, let's look at current Anaheim Angel, Vlad Guerrero's 1995 Bowman's Best BGS 9.5 card. Beckett Baseball has this card valued at $250. This card recently sold in auction on eBay at $155 with $4.50 in shipping from a seller with a 99.8% positive rating. The same card recently sold for $162.95 on NAXCOM, and is currently being offered for $195. Over at Beckett marketplace, a seller has this card listed at $300, one grade down as a BGS 9.

So, we can see that if you are willing to assume the risk of buying in an eBay auction, you can often find the best deals there. NAXCOM also has some card listings valued at a very comparable price to the value as listed in Beckett Baseball.