Hottest Player To Collect...And Why?
 

Interested in people's thoughts on "the player to collect (card wise) and why." Not just current value or up-side, but long term...could be a modern day player or dead ball era. Where is your money best spent and why?

Seems like you mean invest instead of collect.

Babe Ruth. Because he's Babe Ruth.

If you have more then 10 years continual dollar cost averaging deposits in S&P 500 index with reinvesting dividends. Double down or more I’d you can during recessions.

Cards should be fun, buy whatever makes you smile :-)

Never let emotions dictate your investment strategy. If certain cards bring any sorta of emotion to you don’t use them as investments.

Mike Trout errors and variations.

100% in agreement, however, the flavor of the day appears to be Ben Simmons (NBA) rpa’s.

Ty Cobb all the way for me. Babe is definitely the "icon" for the hobby, but Cobb is the only player unanimously voted into the hall of fame and his records make him fascinating to me. Also, the sport put him out there as "the player to see" 7 years before Ruth and subsequently a lot more collectibles were produced promoting ticket sales and player notoriety for the team.

Gleyber Torres!

No player has been unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame by the baseball writers. Cobb received 98.2% of the vote. Griffey (Jr.) received 99.3% of the vote.

Cobb was not unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame. He did receive 222 out of 226 votes. I still agree with your assessment, but I'm biased. I think Steve's vote was pretty decent too, though I don't think Ruth's cards are as attractive (as a whole) as Cobb's. The period between 1916 and 1932 did not produce, in my opinion, cards as nice as the earlier part of the century. But yeah, Ruth is a great bet.

Prewar - Ruth ( I’ve met people that don’t have any idea who ty Cobb is.

Postwar- Willie mays ( IMO he is underpriced)

Modern - pick a hot rookie of the year candidate and hope you pick right then sell. Any modern player is a bad investment because of PEDS or injury.

I think the player you can count on staying strong is Ruth. Cobb cards have had a recent run, but he did not have the impact on the game that Ruth did, and even though he appeared in three World Series, he never won, and played poorly in the post season batting over 100 points below his regular season average. The only other player who I like going forward is Honus Wagner.

Ty Cobb :)
So many different fronts and backs to collect
e cards and D cards and T cards and....
IMO just more fun to collect

Ty Cobb. Without a doubt.

For Me:

Post War: Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle.

Modern: Trout, Kershaw and Harper.

Would LOVE to collect Ruth, but will never be in my affordability range!

In terms of future values
 

I’d say Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, Mantle, Wagner, Aaron, Mays, Johnson, Mathewson, Ryan, Reggie, Rose, Joe Jax, Jackie, teddy ballgame, Joltin Joe

I definitely agree with the list with the additions of Cy Young and Roberto Clemente.

Babe Ruth will always be the king, but IMHO there will always be a great demand for these other blue chip players.

Babe Ruth will always be the King, but his early cards are all black and white and his later cards are color but ugly. You would have thought the King would have had better photo's to go with. I'd go with Cobb.

I agree they should be added Kevin
 

Thanks Kevin not sure how I missed those two. Lol.

give reggie Jackson love please ..

I'd say the guys that transcend the sport: Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson.

My son and all his friends would say for current cards - PSA 10 graded Pokemon. You should have seen the kids standing around empty pegboard holders with sold out Pokemon packs at Christmas time. I asked, "what about baseball cards?" and they all kinda looked at me weird.

Eddie Gaedel - unlimited growth potential with minimal downside risk.

This... Jackie Robinson has a day named after him ever year... not sure any other players can lay claim to that... each year we will get reminded on 4/15 of not only what Jackie did to make our country better but also what he did on the diamond to make the Dodgers better.

What you're looking for is a player whose greatness isn't yet widely appreciated but will be in the coming decades. That describes essentially no one who has been mentioned or will be mentioned in this thread.

And who no one is presently collecting except you. Very narrow indeed.

In case anyone is keeping track, there are only 22,298 Mike Trout cards on eBay currently.

There are certainly players in the minor leagues that in my opinion are well worth getting a jump on. Here are a few:

Sixto Sanchez
Luis Medina
Fernando Tatis Jr.
Vlad Jr.
Juan Soto

A few years from now they will have a bloated amount of cards but right now they have only a handful of issues.

There are only 3 choices....

Pre-war - Ruth and Cobb
Post-war - Mantle

There's NO competition when combining the factors of popularity, value and status.

And the purpose of that data is what, exactly?

Although I doubt he will ever overtake the Babe and Tyrus among collectors and/or investors, cards of Lou Gehrig have been steadily increasing in value and popularity, particularly his Exhibit R/C. Add to the fact, there are not as many of Lou's cards out there compared to the other 2 icons, his clean lifestyle and tragic end and I see the trend continuing.

Collectible Players
 

Kevin...add one more to the list....Shoeless Joe Jackson. His coupled uncanny ability and “Black Sox” scandal will forever make him a National Cult Hero.

Joe T.

Grhrig Cards
 

Great point! The Iron Man is steadily rising each and every day, led by his 1925 Exhibit Rookie that is now a “monster” card in value.

Pretty funny, Joe. I was typing the below as you posted. Not surprising as we have always thought pretty identically about all things cards...

From a sheer collecting standpoint, I find Shoeless Joe both fun and interesting. He has some popular classics, and then more obscure issues. There are some that get pricey, and other less so. For those who find lots of options daunting, his relatively small amount of cards may be an attractive aspect. As someone who grew up in the 80s collecting rookie cards, I also like how there is one clear-cut RC of Joe Jackson; it is also a smaller sized card, again in keeping with what I knew and liked as a kid (never been a fan of oversized, though can get down with a mini— thanks to the 75s and those Topps League Leader cards I bought tons of as a kid).

Cannot go wrong with the likes of Cobb, Wagner, Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Williams, any ultra popular player. That said I do wish Ruth had some more colorful cards, the likes of his Goudeys and the US Caramel notwithstanding.

Post War, I enjoy collecting so many different players. Mantle chief among them. I like the myriad ways he can be collected— basic run, basic Topps run, and then all the unique issues outside Bowman and Topps.

Modern, I collect Judge. Great looking array of cards, most in retro designs. Yankee fan favorite. Plays the game right. Hits cartoonish bombs that people love to watch. Gregarious persona to boot.

Cobb such a dirtbag...i like Judge if hes the baby bomber version of Jeter. RCs still reasonable. Mantle is always good. I think Ryan is underrated.

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Nolan Ryan has such a great Topps run.

Jeter is probably the Mantle of the current generation. His SP card will probably be out of control down the line.

Even as a "dirtbag", as you so eloquently put it... Cobb will ALWAYS be more desirable than Judge, Jeter, Ryan and ANY OTHERS you can name with the lone exception of Ruth.

Jeter certainly not burnishing his reputation as an executive.

More desirable to whom? This is all completely subjective; there will be people who like Jeter and not Ryan. People who like Gehrig and not Cobb. Judge collectors who don't have any interest in Mantle. And on and on.

Sorry for the error, I read the Cobb HOF info in a book years ago and it stuck with me. I should have fact checked that, so thanks for the correction.

There are literally millions of cards out there for Judge and Jeter collectors though. They'll never reach the same level. For ANY career-contemporary Cobb card it's going to cost you, which is what sures up the value of his more expensive options.

Jeter who? DD is better than Jeter ever was.

I do get that the PreWar players have fewer career contemporary cards— and thus taken in the aggregate, those cards will be worth more money that the average career contemporary card of a modern player. That said, it does not mean the best card of a modern player is not as worthwhile to the collector or potentially to the investor as well, provided the latter is content to shoulder the accompanying risk.

From a strictly monetary standpoint, which is admittedly not my purview, one who bought a PSA 10 Jeter SP early on did fantastically well. And the "entry cost" of obtaining that Jeter back then was probably not even high enough to buy a nice Cobb or Ruth card. The salient point being there are all sorts of good options in terms of players and cards for both the collector and the investor. Multiple avenues for satisfaction that are neither competitive nor mutually exclusive.

Interesting case in point, for the monetarily minded: in the last year, if I paid the usual AH retail dollar to obtain a great Cobb, Gehrig, Ruth, or Shoeless Joe, I would be lucky to be able to break even on the sale of those cards today. In contrast, if I was so inclined, I could make a much greater profit on some Harpers and Judges I purchased in that very same window of time.

Another factor to consider on such a topic is how thin the air is as one progresses from 5 digits to 6 digits, and even upward. Such cards can be much harder to sell than one would think, at first blush. So there are many variables to consider, from which cards, at which prices, to investment horizon. Buying "for keeps," as it were, for a collection, really does a great job of simplifying the situation— and a great job of eliminating the headache that usually accompanies anything money-related.

1. Babe Ruth (no question; unfortunately most of his cards are ugly)
2. Cobb
3. Mantle
4. Wagner (the t206 alone keeps him in popular culture)
5. Lou Gehrig
6. Cy Young (his name is mentioned each year in the award of the best pitcher)
7. Joe Jackson (so long as field of dreams and other black Sox scandal-lore is popular)
8. Walter Johnson (unbeatable record)
9. Joe DiMaggio (unbeatable record and sung about by Simon and Garfunkel)
10. Eddie Plank - bc I just picked up his t206 card and wanted him on this list (I don’t really think he belongs)

IMO, Mantle is the only postwar card (not player-card) on this list. Other players may be more iconic - certainly Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Pete Rose, Cal Ripken- but their cards are so plentiful that I just don’t think their cards make the list.

Then of course their are iconic cards of great players 1933 Goudey Lajoie, 48 Leaf Paige, T206 Magie (error), 1914 CJ Matty, 1888 Anson, etc... but that was not the topic.

“Joe Jax” was right in the middle of Glyn’s list.

This question has been discussed seemingly an infinite number of times. Who the hell knows is my answer. Everyone's a guru just like with stocks.

Magic the Gathering Alpha Set- Black Lotus
Just sayin...

"Interesting case in point, for the monetarily minded: in the last year, if I paid the usual AH retail dollar to obtain a great Cobb, Gehrig, Ruth, or Shoeless Joe, I would be lucky to be able to break even on the sale of those cards today. In contrast, if I was so inclined, I could make a much greater profit on some Harpers and Judges I purchased in that very same window of time."


Are you referring to a green Cobb or his rare postcards? Probably not. How about a 25 Exhibits Gehrig? Doubt it. A 14 cj joe Jackson? Naaaaa. Sounds to me like a straw man card you choose to compare to two particularly hot modern players. How many "hot" cards a year ago are worth far less today? New cards are like penny stocks: you can make a good profit if you sell at the perfect time. But like high risk stocks, if you hold on for too long, you can get burned. Even if the cards of the greats do stabilize a bit, they are safer than Cody Bellinger. I'm not sure that your hypothetical Cobb, jjax, and Gehrig cards would be hard to sell at a profit.

Sure in hindsight those three cards look great. But it's usually hindsight, how many people here were smart enough to stock up a year or two ago?

Has a red Cobb appreciated much? An E95? An M116? If you paid AH high retail could you really sell those at a profit for the most part?

Agreed Peter. I chose 3 cards that have gone up in value in order to illustrate the same flawed argument that Matty made by choosing two modern cards that have gone up in value. Both modern and vintage will have cards that stay the same or go up substantially in a year. You can't cherry-pick a couple of good examples from one side in order to strengthen your argument. Modern cards fluctuate far more. Sure, the e95 hasn't budged, but it hasn't tanked the way a bust prospect card would.

Flawed argument? Not at all. The problem is that your defensiveness over what you collect (invest in) blinded your eyes to even seeing my rather innocuous point.

That point was simply this: there are many paths to the goal of collecting and investing satisfaction. My statement was fact, depending of course on cards chosen. And it proves that not one sector of our shared hobby is the sole answer, or a better answer than another.

I think you need to search inward, if it bothers you to know that a card of someone other than Cobb (even, GASP, a modern player) may generate more hypothetical dollars within a certain period of time, if the sale is timed properly. And of course to realize funds from a modern sale, it must be timed— whereas a long dead or retired player does not have that risk. That is no revelation.

You also seem to overrate the ability to flip the cards you selected. Where modern player cards can be bought and sold in a day trading fashion with substantial price swings in the comparatively short term, try winning one of the cards you highlighted in a top AH and selling it a month or two later, let alone a week. In that short a time span, it is hard to profit. There are different potentialities and exploitable facets to all types of card: the older and newer, the thinly traded and highly liquid.

End of the day, choices like a Cobb rare postcard are fantastic if that is what one likes to collect— such a card is also a great store of value now and into the future. Yet depending on one’s predilections and investment goals, if any, there are certainly other equally worthwhile cards. Accept that.

Not every book is accurate...especially (IMO) about Cobb - the more recent bios of him, with far more research, paint a very different picture than the previous ones.

Call it revisionist history if you want to, but those books may have helped spur the new interest in collecting his cards.

I think that maybe if you read some of my past few posts, you will find that I've been very vocal about supporting any form of card collecting: modern or vintage. I hope the hobby flourishes on all ends. As for my post, well, you made an intellectually dishonest argument and I pointed it out. It's really that simple.
Speaking of "searching inward," judging from your posts, it appears that it is you who is overly sensitive about your modern cards. You flip out on anyone who disagrees with you. You nearly imploded when someone pointed out there are 24,000 Trout cards on eBay. Settle down. It's only cards.

You call that an implosion? You’re seeing things.

We both know that data about Trout was cited in a pejorative way, and that type of superciliousness is indeed something I am tired of seeing, when I try to take a break from work and chat card collecting.

Jackie Robinson surely lands somewhere in the top 10 most collectable players of all time and probably top 5 on my list

They dont have to reach the same level. If you bought 100 93 SP Jeters 10 yrs ago you will have done well for yourself. You dont need to flip Cobbs to do well. Thats where I'm coming from ....thats what i thought this thread was about. *shrug* So, maybe buy some undervalued Ryan RC or some 2013 Judges and see what happens.



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I think Jackie is top 3-5 all time iconic baseball player (hell athlete), no doubt, and I basically state as much in my initial post. I just think that there are so many of his cards out there that when it comes to player-cards to collect for investment (and I think this thread intended investment) I think the much less populous, prewar studs are the ones to collect. But, admittedly I am totally biased bc I love the old old and rare stuff.

Regarding old vs new- nobody wins that fight. Everyone has their opinions. The good news is we are all on the same team bc whether it’s a t206 Wagner, a 1952 Topps mantle PSA 9, or a 2017 Judge, they are all cards and their success keeps the hobby and investment relevant and thriving. Go cards (regardless of era)!

Curious, what’s your full name?

Frank.............you always crack me up. :D

Modern cards are vintage’s hope for new blood. Kids want heroes not history. That’s in the modern cards of judge trout and now Ohtani. Got no dog in this fight except I hope modern cards stay popular for my vintage collection.

Modern cards are vintage’s hope for new blood. Kids want heroes not history. That’s in the modern cards of judge trout and now Ohtani. Got no dog in this fight except I hope modern cards stay popular for my vintage collecting

You can say that again. :D:D

Are the Trout and Otani cards being coveted by kids? Doubt it highly as the father of two boys who love baseball. Average collector of these cards is probably a 35-55 years old man. Next time you are on line at a store or show waiting to pay for something look at the person standing in front and behind of you. That’s what we call today a “grown ass man”.

As a former little league coach making an educated guess, I’d say the level of interest in baseball cards in those under 15 is essentially non existent. Yes there are some young kids at shows with their fathers who collect. Young kids today ain’t playing with cardboard pieces believe me. Some interest in Magic and other card games. Baseball cards? With amazingly rare exception, no. Ask your friend the school teacher the last time he or she saw them on a school playground.

This is an excellent point. A player that is collectible is very subjective to different individuals. The almighty dollar plays the biggest part in most of these forums on who is collectible (profitable).

I setup at a 3 day show in St Louis last weekend. While most of the collectors were older, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of young kids who were looking over the new cards on the tables next to me. I noticed kids with want lists who were really excited when they found cards they were looking for.

The OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of collectors. There is very little subjectivity for this board on this topic. Have you read the other posts? Have you followed the hobby for any amount of time? Ruth and Cobb reign supreme atop all others when it comes to collecting... and whether or not you agree with it... is inconsequential.

No one is arguing what is subjectively nicer, cooler, better, more important to collect. Those are not factual arguments. That's personal taste. If you want to collect every Mackey Sasser card every printed, go for it. Sounds like fun to me. If you want to open up a museum to Kevin Maas or Bake McBride, go for it. Sounds cool. But if someone is going to argue that modern era cars are a good investment I beg to differ. Yes, there is the occasional amazing obscure piece that someone is going to pay boku bucks for. But what is driving sales of cards today is a lottery aspect of burying supposed relics in boxes and people rushing to find them and make money.

People line up at 6 am in the morning outside the sneaker store in my neighborhood a few times a month. Like 200 people deep. It's because there is some new Jordan shoe or something being released. People line up and buy a dozen pairs and sell them to grateful people in Japan for 10 times the sticker price. Cool. Nice business model. God bless. It doesn't mean they are Michael Jordan or foot ware fans. I have seen people in card store literally cracking open cases of the Topps Heritage card and throwing them into garbage cans as quickly as they can looking for the supposed rareties.

My 13 year old nephew collects baseball cards, primarily recent cards with an emphasis on the Cubs. I gave him Javy Baez and Willson Contreras rookie cards for Christmas, along with a Donruss blaster box, and he was very happy. A few years ago I gave him a bunch of my doubles from the late 70s and early 80s, and he went through them picking out the Hall of Famers, which he put in his album. So this is a kid who collects current cards but is also interested in older cards.

I would assume that most of the people buying high-end recent cards at shows (autographs, relics, refractors of Trout, Bryant, Ohtani, etc.) are adults, simply because they're the ones with the money for that stuff. Same goes for the people paying $100-$150 for hobby boxes. But I'm sure there are plenty of other kids like my nephew, buying individual packs with what money they have and picking up a nicer card if the opportunity presents itself.

Or getting their parents to pay for the boxes. :)

Yeah upper deck ruined it by starting the trend to price kids out of the hobby!

I sure they are coveted. Why wouldn't they want the biggest star or the hottest rookie? Those are the players I hoped to pull in a pack as a kid. The kids aren't the ones paying 4 or 5 figures for the rare autos or superfractors. But I bet they'd be very excited to find one in a pack.

I am curious as to the time frame and price you think they were 10 years ago and what they are now. I know at some point more than 10 years ago when I was doing shows they were over 100.00 each and looking at EBay today, I see plenty of them selling for less. So, if there was profit to be made on Jeter, it is just fluctuation in price. On the other hand A-Rod SP rcs were also over 100, how did you do on those investments? I sold all my Mcgwire rcs for 100-200 back in 1998. Do you think those buyers are happy with their investments?

Modern cards are a game of hot potato. You have to get in at the right time and out at the right time. Even Hofers can see a loss if you aren't careful. Non-Hofers are pretty much guaranteed to lose you money long term. Of course there are a few exceptions such as Michael Jordan or Tom Brady whose cards just keep going up. I thought this thread was about who to buy and not lose money on. If that's the case, then Ruth, Cobb, Wagner and Gehrig are the best bets.

If you happen to catch them VERY early a modern player's cards can of course go way up. But once they have a strong year or two, or are considered an elite prospect, the market seems to price them as though they already have had a HOF career and it seems (to me anyhow) there really isn't that much room to grow. Perhaps a bad example because of overproduction, but look how cheap Pujols rookies are for the most part -- and he is about to get his 3000th hit to go with 600 HR, very few careers are going to match that.

I started going to baseball card shows in 1973 I was 12 and most of the people in the room looked like adults to me. I met some other kids Rob lifson stands out. And it seemed like a long time until that changed but in the mid 1980's kids made up at least half of the crowd.
Now there were collectors of every type I knew guys who would not buy a card newer than 1920. I knew a lot of collectors who collected Goudey's and play ball's as kids who loved 1930's cards. I grew to love them too. It was very personal stories of games guys went to Gehrig Joe D Dean Hubbell ( William's but I don't many red sox fans) Teams they saw 35 tigers gas house gang 36 thru 39 Yankees. Then Mantle and May's
Card collecting is a personal thing. Those guys who collected in the 30's are very old now or passed on. And those sets do not get the attention they once did. I see that happening one day to the 50's and so on. Baseball has trouble drawing kids. Not my kids they go to games. But they don't collect. I collect more memorabilia now than cards. Things change over time but iconic cards are just that not just name but image. Wagner Ruth 33 Cobb t206 52 Mantle rookie is best example Jackie 47 Griffey rookie. They will always endure. I hope..

Jeters on ebay less than $100?? Do send me a link

And you can overpay on any card and lose $$$

What about guys out there that are undervalued? With some luck you can do ok.. buy em cheap, raw, slab em, etc.....thats why I say Ryan in a previous post...Lemieux, Messier (in NY especially) and even Gretzky in the hockey world...

Value!

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As of right this moment, i would have to say Ohtani cards. There's a new Bowman product just being released right this week i think that has a 1 of 1 superfractor (or some similar designation) rookie card of Ohtani's in it that already has a standing offer of $60,000 for it, even before it is pulled from a pack. As long as it grades at least a 9.5 and Blowout Cards gets it by May 11th, as I understand the conditions. And as the old saying goes, "all boats rise with the tide", so all Ohtani's other rookie cards are going ballistic right now.

As pointed out by other posters though, with these modern cards your best bet is to get them directly from packs, if possible, and then quickly dump them for a big profit. This is exactly why the Breakers are in control of the new card distribution market out there and why Topps and Panini are gearing their products to create these manufactured rarities that drive modern collectors insane with prices and values. It is essentially nothing more than a legalized form of gambling in my opinion.

Not bad for a guy with a 4.40 ERA so far.

Just go to EBay, type in 1993 SP Derek Jeter, then sort by completed auctions and lowest price. There are plenty that have sold for less than 100.

Youre right. Dings, creases, and 6's. Not what i was talking about ...we are talking about cards you can make money on. So yeah i agree lower end modern cards are not a good investment .....

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