Is anyone else shocked that 80s baseball cards are almost worthless?

[tuq]

So sad. I think it was 1985, I bought two full sets of Topps cards. Back then I think there was a hierarchy: there was Topps, who was the original and seemed to be the most pleasing to the eye; then there was Fleer and Donruss, in no particular order, sort of the CBA and Triple A of baseball cards. Or so I thought.

I loved the old Topps cards circa 1982-1984. Some of the old-timers like Pete Rose, they had so many years of stats that the seasons were printed in TINY font, but it made you respect the player that much more, even if you couldn't make out the numbers.

Anyone remember the Topps IN ACTION set from like 1982? Good stuff.

[youtalkfunny]

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All,

That sucks. I have boxes and boxes of cards from the 80's sitting somewhere at my parents house, a lot of them all pristine and protected in those stupid plastic things.

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You'd better go check.

If your mother is like everyone else's mother, she probably threw them out.

[mlagoo]

yeah.

i used to make my mom drag me to our local flea market like two saturdays a month just to look for cards, and i spent like every penny i made as a kid on these things. now not only have they not "matured," in a lot of cases they are worth less now than they were when i bought them. bleh!

(although i do still have a soft spot for some of my cards, namely my collection that may be the sweetest ryne sandberg baseball card collection in existence.)

[ImsaKidd]

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I never understood why something that got massproduced through a machine, a cardboard with a picture could worth $10k.

I can understand why autographed or game-worn jeresy cards have value, but not rookie cards. Its a piece of paper that cost $0.01 to produce.

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How much does a $100 bill take to produce?

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$100?

[tdarko]

el d,

be careful in the type of protection the cards are in, you might think it is great when it might not be. i took my jordan RC in to a card shop and it was in a "brick" and hadn't been taken out in forever. this "brick" is about 3" thick and is great protection but the guy freaked out on my saying how he had lost three jordan RC's in the last year b/c of that brick thing. what happens is heat gets trapped inside the casing and actually melts the card, so when you take the card out of the case it peels and is ruined. thankfully my card was fine.

when you get your cards graded though they give you a protector that will take care of the card forever. its so weird how nitty (is that a word?) trading cards are now. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Matt24]

I have over 300 boxes unopened, all from 87-92, mostly baseball. Have 20 boxes of 87 fleer which had a ton of good rookies. Got 40 Hoops 91 or something, they are worth like 5 a piece, ha. I have a ton of cards that I want to get graded including the whole bball 86 fleer but havent done it. Have a bunch of Upper Deck boxes with Jr's rookie too, but I know those have gone down a ton. Ah well. If my poker run keeps going, I'm going to have to sell all them to build back my bankroll.

Fav Set: 81 topps bball I believe. Bird/Magic/Erving on one card. Dad bought a few sets of those for me and my brother for next to nothing.

[nolanfan34]

Yeah, most of the late 80s stuff has very little value. The mid to early 80s stuff is going to gain value if you have grade-worthy cards though. And for an old guy like El Diablo, the mid to late 70s stuff is valuable for sure.

Of course it's all gaining value if you have it like this:

[insert standard nolan unopened packs brag pic]

[offTopic]

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I collected basbeballs cards in the 80s for fun and b/c they were really going up in value. In 88 or so, an 85 Mattingly was $85 (It's now $2.50). The 88 Donruss set is only $10 (I used to buy packs for about a $1!) Basically there's no 80s card now worth over $60. Kind of disappointing.

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I worked in a card/comic store before and during grad school, from around '92 to '98. This was after the Pro Set football boom, but I got to see firsthand the Wild Card fiasco, the Death of Superman, the Valiant Comics boom, the Bowman craze, the onset of Magic, all kinds of wacky stuff.

When you have predominantly kids (and I mean KIDS, not the people that are driving the poker economy right now) that market is not built to last. Couple that with the insane numbers of cards/comics that the companies produced during that era, and it is no surprise whatsoever that they're all virtually worthless right now.

If the pendulum swings, and there's another boom, the same thing will happen ten years later (or sooner). I'd bet three Ken Griffey, Jr. 89 UD RCs and 10 copies of Spawn #1 on it. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[DukeSucks]

I remember when Gregg Jeffries was supposed to be the next superstar and everyone was snapping up his cards. I also have George Brett's Topps card from every year in a display. Too bad the whole thing is probably worth only $5 now

[Matt24]

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I remember when Gregg Jeffries was supposed to be the next superstar and everyone was snapping up his cards.

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My friends and I were just talking about that not too long ago. Gary Thurman was another one.