How to know if a Baseball Card is Valuable

If you have come across some baseball cards and are not sure what they are worth please read this article. Whether you break out your collection as a kid, or inherit a collection this will help you get started in figuring out what you have.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Dont get overwhelmed, and dont blindly trust other people. I have seen friends and family members Rip each other off due to greed and jealousy. Most cards will fit in 2 basic categories. Pre 1985 and Post 1985

2. look at the back of the cards for the last year printed on the back and then add 1 year for instance if its has stats for the player for "1968" then it is a "1969" card. separate the cards into to sections. Pre 1985 and post 1985. Cards made before 1985 are more sought after by collectors in general. If you want to break it down further Pre 1975 are even better.

3. 
   pack of 100 penny sleeves

   Be careful when handeling them, collectors and buyers have a trained eye and can spot creases and worn corners like a super hero! I highly recommend putting any cards pre 1975 in "penny sleeves" and then in an individual "Top loader" you can find these at a local card shop or online (Ultra Pro is a good brand). I dont like the classic " 9 card notebook page because sliding the cards in can damage them especially older Topps cards. cards from the 80's up are ok to put in pages

4. 

   25 pack of Top loaders

5. when you have the years separate, you have a couple choices. 1 is go to beckett.com and get an online price guide for $4.50 that is good for 1 month. You can also order a paper edition, or call (Phone: [phone]) them for info on ordering a paper edition. Another option is go to a local bookstore like Barnes and Nobles or Borders and buy the Becket monthly magazine. The most accurate way to see what you will actually get for a particular card or cards is to go to ebay.com and type it in the search engine and see what they are going for. Typically on average you get about 10 to 25% of the high book value. So if the Card books at $100 plan on getting $10 to $25 for it on average.

6. I recommend going by the Beckett pricing structure. there are other price guides but as far as I know most all dealers use Beckett. If your cards are pre 1973 I would be really careful toting them around unless you have them in Top loaders and dont let dealers pillage through them unless you are right there the whole time.

7. Use the Price guide and know what you have! If you have 500 cards from 1968 and dont want to look them all up, then look in the price guide for all the cards that book over $100 for that year and take them out that way. Dont get ripped off, it happens all the time.

8. Hope all this helps, have fun with it!
   PEACE

[AdirondackTrina]

on 2/23/2009 Great ideas, especially the warning about loading valuable cards into notebook pages! Ü

[lastgunslinger]

on 2/22/2009 That's awesome! I definitely have to pull out some of my old baseball cards and see if they're worth anything. Thanks for sharing! 5*