Card certified autograph question: Which retired and current players can hold a $100 (or more) value nowadays?

[George K]

Recently, I've been searching eBay for answers to the following question: Which baseball players have signed certified pack-issued cards from the card makers that are still worth at least $100? - forget their rare issues, I'm talking on the norm.

I only inquired because, in the past, a signed Greg Maddux was usually $100, but I've now learned that there are less expensive possibilities. George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Tony Gwynn, Bo Jackson, Derek Jeter, Ohtani, Trout, Mantle, Mays, and a few dozen more are $100 all day, as far as I can determine. Seems to me that the $100+ club isn't as big as I imagined.

 

[WizardofOz1982]

You can pick up 1998 Donruss Signature Significant Signature George Bretts in the $75 ranger pretty nomally. A lot of Gwynn stuff seems to hang out in that $75 range too.

 

[joey12508]

Recently, I've been searching eBay for answers to the following question: Which baseball players have signed certified pack-issued cards from the card makers that are still worth at least $100? - forget their rare issues, I'm talking on the norm.

I only inquired because, in the past, a signed Greg Maddux was usually $100, but I've now learned that there are less expensive possibilities. George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Tony Gwynn, Bo Jackson, Derek Jeter, Ohtani, Trout, Mantle, Mays, and a few dozen more are $100 all day, as far as I can determine. Seems to me that the $100+ cl

as the population of people who collect of players ages and dies off, the demand is less. the price goes down.
younger fans of collecting go for who and what they know now.
for example the card below, season one GOT Emilia Clark consistently sells over $3000
you could get 9 Ted Williams cut autos for that price.

 

[jmc855]

Recently, I've been searching eBay for answers to the following question: Which baseball players have signed certified pack-issued cards from the card makers that are still worth at least $100? - forget their rare issues, I'm talking on the norm.

I only inquired because, in the past, a signed Greg Maddux was usually $100, but I've now learned that there are less expensive possibilities. George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Tony Gwynn, Bo Jackson, Derek Jeter, Ohtani, Trout, Mantle, Mays, and a few dozen more are $100 all day, as far as I can determine. Seems to me that the $100+ club isn't as big as I imagined.

I think panini vs licensed drastically affects this too. I wont even buy a Clemens Panini auto. That said. Pretty sure if talking licensed, Mariano is 100 plus every day.

 

[George K]

You can pick up 1998 Donruss Signature Significant Signature George Bretts in the $75 ranger pretty nomally. A lot of Gwynn stuff seems to hang out in that $75 range too.

Normally, yes, but even that Brett card is pretty steady at $100 (or so). I imagine during the off-season it 's a lot easier to get more bargins.

 

[George K]

as the population of people who collect of players ages and dies off, the demand is less. the price goes down.
younger fans of collecting go for who and what they know now.
for example the card below, season one GOT Emilia Clark consistently sells over $3000
you could get 9 Ted Williams cut autos for that price.





View attachment 365006

Insane. I guess there are people out there with too much money in their pockets.

 

[George K]

I think panini vs licensed drastically affects this too. I wont even buy a Clemens Panini auto. That said. Pretty sure if talking licensed, Mariano is 100 plus every day.

With Maddux, in particular, I noticed that when he started signing more stuff for Panini seems like the moment when his signed Topps cards started going under $100 on eBay.

When I was collecting Hall of Famers, he was the one person who I didn't want to pay over $100 because his signature is just an ugly scribble and, frankly, seemed insulting to pay that much for that. And like you said, if you collect these things, you really want nicely signed cards with a sweet design and the player's uniform and logos complete.

 

[mrmopar]

I think if you are patient, willing to accept just about any type of card (sticker vs on card, licensed vs unlicensed, etc) and maybe a little luck tossed in, you can get most of the active players for under $100. There are exceptions to that, like the biggest current names (Ohtani, Judge and Trout come to mind immediately) and the retired players with a massive demand, most of whom are now deceased, thus stopping any future supply (Puckett, Mantle, Mays, Aaron, DiMaggio, Williams to name a few).

I also think that there is potential for the market to shift on them. The comment that as collectors age out, the prices drop. True to some extent, but there may come a time when new collectors enter the market, find a shortage of said player, and then the market rises again. I just saw a UD Vida Blue from the early 90s, numbered to 3000 sell for almost $70! It's entirely THAT card and not the norm for a Blue auto, although now that he has died, the supply will dry up. You just never know.

To add to your list, Koufax will probably always top $100. Hideo Nomo is a weird outlier, with huge demand and a very low supply. They almost always sell for $500+. I am not sure you can find a Kershaw for under $100 anymore, although there was a time you may have been able to. Especially since he just joined the 3000K club. Lots of "newer" guys like Yamamoto, Skenes, Soto, Harper, Witt, etc are still riding their initial popularity. Some will adjust, others will remain high.

I am a bargain hunter, so I have shopped for many of these players, waiting patiently for the right card and price. Some have eluded me (Ohtani, Harper, Judge, Soto & Trout to name the better players I don't expect to ever find), others I was lucky to have obtained when prices were much more reasonable (Jeter, Mays, Ryan, Gwynn). Newer player prices are disproportionately more expensive from the get go, which is disheartening for collectors who want to continue a certain type of collection (HOF, Teams, etc). You can't tell me that Kris Bryant will even sniff the HOF at his current trajectory, but you can't find a bargain on his autograph due mostly to his first 5 year stretch. He has essentially sucked since then. Then again, maybe I on some of these players am not flexible enough.

 

[George K]

I also think that there is potential for the market to shift on them. The comment that as collectors age out, the prices drop. True to some extent, but there may come a time when new collectors enter the market, find a shortage of said player, and then the market rises again. I just saw a UD Vida Blue from the early 90s, numbered to 3000 sell for almost $70! It's entirely THAT card and not the norm for a Blue auto, although now that he has died, the supply will dry up. You just never know.

YES! - to everything you said before, and especially this part. I'm like you because I don't want to deal with cards that are too expensive and would prefer to hunt for bargains. Most Hall of Famers who were around in 1990s (and beyond) have signed more than enough cards for anyone who collects and buy & sells these things. I remember reading somewhere in Beckett 10-15 years ago that there were already over 80,000 pack-issued signed Nolan Ryan - and I can imagine with Jim Palmer, Andre Dawson, Wade Boggs, Ripken, Rollie Fingers, and other prolific signers, that there must be triple that or more. Outside of the truly elite like Mantle, Mays, Williams, Koufax, and handful of others, I just don't see how the value of the average modern era Hall of Famer's autograph could ever be worth more $20-40 bucks.

Btw, my jaw dropped when that Vide Blue card sold for that much. For decades those signed UD Heroes cards were undervalued and common at $10-20; the others were Fergie Jenkins, Harmon Killebrew, Gaylord Perry, and Lou Brock. Looking on eBay, I see that Gaylord Perry one went for $199.99!!! - that's insane and I didn't know that there was that much demand for him (not).

 

[WizardofOz1982]

Normally, yes, but even that Brett card is pretty steady at $100 (or so). I imagine during the off-season it 's a lot easier to get more bargins.

I've built master sets of Significant Signatures three different times. They're slowly sliding up a bit but it is still a seriously undervalued set compared to similar ones.

 

[Pinbreaker]

Now that Barry Bonds is signing cards for Topps, his cards seem to be hard to get at a cheaper price.

 

[jmc855]

YES! - to everything you said before, and especially this part. I'm like you because I don't want to deal with cards that are too expensive and would prefer to hunt for bargains. Most Hall of Famers who were around in 1990s (and beyond) have signed more than enough cards for anyone who collects and buy & sells these things. I remember reading somewhere in Beckett 10-15 years ago that there were already over 80,000 pack-issued signed Nolan Ryan - and I can imagine with Jim Palmer, Andre Dawson, Wade Boggs, Ripken, Rollie Fingers, and other prolific signers, that there must be triple that or more. Outside of the truly elite like Mantle, Mays, Williams, Koufax, and handful of others, I just done see how the value of the average modern era Hall of Famer's autograph could ever be worth more $20-40 bucks.

Btw, my jaw dropped when that Vide Blue card sold for that much. For decades those signed UD Heroes cards were undervalued and common at $10-20; the others were Fergie Jenkins, Harmon Killebrew, Gaylord Perry, and Lou Brock. Looking on eBay, I see that Gaylord Perry one went for $199.99!!! - that's insane and I didn't know that there was that much demand for him (not).

Yeah, I can vouch that there are AT LEAST 35k Clemens autos per Beckett PRs, as of 2023. It seems like 1500 to 2500 per year added between Leaf, Panini and Topps is a reasonable estimate to add based on recent years. So, yeah, if most players are similar, not many are going to retain much value until you get into the individuality of each card they get signed on. Some will be high because of things like Dynasty and its high end devotees, Luminaries, or one accompanying a sick patch Then it's major subjectivity though.

 

[George K]

Yeah, I can vouch that there are AT LEAST 35k Clemens autos per Beckett PRs, as of 2023. It seems like 1500 to 2500 per year added between Leaf, Panini and Topps is a reasonable estimate to add based on recent years. So, yeah, if most players are similar, not many are going to retain much value until you get into the individuality of each card they get signed on. Some will be high because of things like Dynasty and its high end devotees, Luminaries, or one accompanying a sick patch Then it's major subjectivity though.

Indeed. Having the autograph on one of the more prestige lines always carries a premium, most times - and alongside a nice patch or relic, even more so.