Those days are long gone, but last night I grabbed my November 1998 issue of Tuff Stuff Magazine off of my book shelf to look up some card values. A few weeks ago, I purchased a bunch of cards from Tromp's Sports Cards that included a pair of Frank Thomas refractors from the 90's.
The first card is this 1997 Chrome "Season's Best Refractors" card:
Although these inserts aren't super rare, they weren't considered easy pulls either. They were inserted into one out of every fifty-four packs, which is close to one per two boxes.
Check out what it booked for in Tuff Stuff back in 1998:
Tuff Stuff's 1998 book value? $45
Beckett's 2014 book value? $12
Tromp's 2014 actual price? $1.40
I'm pretty sure people didn't drop $45 on copies of this Thomas, but it was sort of entertaining to see how much perceived values have changed over the past sixteen years.
The other Frank Thomas I picked up was this 1998 Topps "Mystery Finest Borderless Refractors":
Now these were pretty rare back in the day. Out of the four types of Mystery Finest cards inserted into Topps baseball packs, the borderless refractors were the hardest to pull. Collectors could find them in one out of every eight boxes, which reflected in their popularity and high values back in the day. These days... they're just another insert from another decade.
Tuff Stuff's 1998 book value? $90
Beckett's 2014 book value? $15
Tromp's 2014 actual price? $1.60
While writing this post, I looked at this situation from two different perspectives. It was a little disheartening to see how most card values have plummeted over the past fifteen years... but I also had a little smirk on my face, because patience paid off and I picked these cards up at a fraction of the price.
I wonder what my perspective will be in another sixteen years?
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
20 comments:
Good looking cards, and it's amazing how prices ebb and flow!!
I just think it is humorous how far off Beckett's "book value" the actual price was. Seriously, I wonder whether Beckett prices are reality or whether they are marketing hype to get people to buy their magazine and subscribe to their website to feel better about their "investments".
With cards easier to find online, the values have dropped accordingly or at least settled at a more realistic price point as opposed to what is listed in a price guide.
The best way to find a general value of a card today is to look at eBay's completed auctions.
Pretty cool exercise. One reason I pretty much stick to vintage if I'm dropping money
I don't know if Beckett has much resemblance to reality. Maybe in card values relative to one another.
My first Tuff Stuff was one with Emmit Smith on it. I used to compare the prices in Beckett vs Tuff Stuff, and then say my card was "worth" whatever was the highest value between the two.
I liked Tuff Stuff, although I thought their card prices were way out of control. They were the only magazine I could find that listed Starting Lineup prices.
I enjoyed Tuff Stuff because they always had the best stories though the pricing was quite off. I still have a number of issues that had Griffey on the cover.
That is the reason I purchased Tuff Stuff too.
I use to love getting the old Tuff Stuff's that were like telephone books. It was fun to scan all the old advertisements. Anyone else remember mail ordering cards before ebay?
What an interesting comparison thank you for sharing. Makes me think I should wait too.
I definitely think they do it to make people feel better about their "investments".
Yeah... I typically use eBay's completed auctions to estimate a card's value. But I've said it in the past, it has its own flaws as well.
Yeah vintage rules. These days I buy whatever I like at the moment and try my best not to think of future monetary value... although I will take this into consideration on things like prospect cards and high end singles.
I totally did this too. I'm sure we're not alone ;-)
Me too!
I bought a lot of stuff in the mid 90's through mail order. I wish I could remember the name of the company... but they carried a lot of Signature Rookies products and were based out of Texas. I wanna say the company was called Mail Order Concepts.
My favorite is card show dealers who refuse to budge from book value, although that sometimes backfires on them.
You should do those comparison posts more often. Interesting read. I think I have that Number Crunchers Thomas somewhere (the base version). Oh, and I never bought Tuff Stuff; one of the Toys / Action Figure magazines had the SLU prices.
I'll keep that in mind. I have probably 50 old price guides that I flip through every now and then.
Post a Comment