Newbie question on valuing on card autos
 

Forgive me if this has been covered, but couldn't find it searching the history. I'm new to collecting vintage on card autos and had a question on the best way to determine fair prices when buying. Is it the value of the non signed card plus the cost of the auto on a generic item like a ball? Some cards don't come up that often, if ever so tough to find pricing history. Is there a better way? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

An example would help. It really depends. I don't feel that there's a formula.

example
 

Like an early Eddie Mathews ('53 or '54) or Bob Gibson ('59 or '60). Graded PSA authentic. Clean autos. Cards themselves probably would grade vg-ex to ex.

Thanks.

I think it will always be a personal value made by the person interesting in buying it. For me, I'd rather have a card signed by a player issued during their career. Others prefer baseballs or another medium.

A good example of a player who I think is more valuable on a card would be Mickey Mantle. Signed baseballs are available any time you want one really. But the bidding gets pretty spirited when its a signed card from the 1950s.

Sorry. Double post.

Packs,

Thanks for the insight. I figured it would come down to what it is worth to you.

Well 59 Gibson is his rookie so that is more valuable than a 60. Same with Mathews, since his rookie is 52T a lot of people get his 53T instead so there's a bit more competition.

Another factor is the when the player died. A Richie Ashburn 55T might cost $20 but a Perez Steele would be $500 or so (it's been a while since I paid attention) since he had such a short time to sign the PS.

Bender07

Thanks for your thoughts. Very helpful.

JimStinson
 

Hi Scott and welcome aboard , IMHO when it comes to signed cards the value is not combined , It becomes whichever is greater, the signature or the card. That is the reason signed cards are the favored medium of forgers , Where its possible to turn a $5.00 card into a $500.00 card, For example a 1952 Mantle in reasonably decent condition is favored unsigned instead of signed because the signature is far less value than the card. Perhaps because you are dealing with two different areas of collecting. The card collector and the signed card set collector. Using the same comparison take a card of a common 1950's or 1960's common player that may have had a tiny window to sign the card and the card becomes extremely valuable with the signature and of almost no value without it
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In my opinion, its a great idea to look at "sold listings" on ebay to start getting an idea of what you're looking for costs, generally. keep in mind that later, if you find the same(ish) card NOT on ebay, you can usually count on paying a little less.

I think that this is one of those things that you just get a feel for as you browse prices over time. Ebay is the largest source of research material that I know of.

There is basically no correlation. For example in the last year I've sold what should be some very common autographs on very common cards at decent prices, simply because of what card they were on. For example, 1963 Willie Stargell autographed card for $1,000, 1965 Catfish Hunter autographed card for $550, 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle autographed card for $8500 (when it was signed on basically the equivalent of a PSA 2 to 3 quality card) and several others that escape me at the moment. Some other examples that come to mind are the 49 Bowman autographed cards of Hodges, Ashburn, Doby, Lemon, etc. very common autographs AND very common cards, but put the combo together and it sells at a premium.

Mike

Thanks to all for the advice. Looking forward to starting my autograph collection.