How to Value Baseball Trading Cards

Video Transcript

"I'm Walt Case. I own Card Traders of Austin in Austin, Texas. We've been in business for approximately fourteen years, and sell a variety of sports cards and sports memorabilia. A question that is frequently asked today is, 'How do I value my baseball cards?' There is a couple of different ways to do that. Probably, where you want to start is with a guide, a price guide, is published by Beckett Publications out of Dallas, Texas. They will list the cards in their price guide, and they will list a range of values that that card is selling for across the country. Don't be surprised, if you try to sell your card, that you don't get the prices that are necessarily in this book, because it is strictly a guide. There are a couple of things that determine the value of your card, probably the most important is condition. A card that is in really, really nice condition has a much better chance of selling than a card that has bent corners, or has been written on or has creases in it, those cards become almost worthless. Another thing that is a key in determining the value of your card is, how many of those cards are out there? You want to know if the supply of the cards is far greater than the demand, then the value of your card is obviously going to be less, because it is not as salable. The older cards then to have more saleability than the newer cards, because the supply and demand get closer and closer together. It's the old Economics 101, if you have a tremendously high supply and a tremendously low demand, your cards are not only not very salable, they also don't have much value. My recommendation to determine the value of your card is probably visit your local card shop. They will help you determine the condition of the card, they will certainly know the saleability of the card, and can help you in the process of trying to determine what your card is actually worth."