It’s hard enough for a family to be proud of one member being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. What about a family that has two brothers inducted into the Hall of Fame. This is the legacy of Paul Waner and Lloyd Waner. Both brothers played most of their baseball careers for the Pittsburgh Pirates from the 1920s through 1940 before dabbling with other teams at the end of their careers.

If the Waner brothers were playing baseball in the modern era, it would be all that the sportscasters would be able to talk about. Many father-son legacies have been seen over time in baseball, but two brothers on the same team and both destined for the Hall of Fame — ask a statistician what the odds are about that possibility if you get a chance.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates collectibles as an alternative asset class where the capital used to purchase high-end sports memorabilia may have otherwise been invested into stocks, bonds or real estate. It is also obvious after seeing how high some card prices are that passionate collectors are frequently competing directly with investors who are simply wanting to buy the exact same asset to make a profit in the future.

Investors and collectors alike obviously want to make money on their purchases eventually, but all parties should understand that there is no guarantee for a profit. Many traditional investments lose money and that can easily be the case in the alternative asset class of investing in collectibles.

Again, all you would hear about is the Waner brothers in the modern era of sports if you had this sibling duo playing baseball and for the same team today. And what is fairly surprising is that their baseball cards are still quite affordable considering the prices that have to be paid for other key vintage Hall of Famers with historical significance.

The older brother was Paul Waner and he was born in 1903 and commanded the nickname “Big Poison.” Lloyd Waner was born in 1906 and he was called “Little Poison.” According to the PSA website, the Lloyd brothers are the current record holders for total combined hits of 5,611.

Paul joined the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1926 and played there through 1940 before ending his career in 1945 in New York. Big Poison ended his career with a respectable .333 batting average, with 3,152 hits, as well as 1,309 RBIs and 113 homers.

Lloyd joined the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1927 and played there into 1941 before three years as a journeyman before ending his career back in Pittsburgh in 1945. Little Poison ended his career with an (almost as respectable) .316 batting average, and his career ended with 2,459 hits, and 598 RBIs and just 27 homers.

Paul played in the All-Star game in 4 seasons and won MVP in 1927, and younger brother Lloyd played on the All-Star team in one season. At the time of Paul’s career, Big Poison became the seventh player to reach the 3,000-hit club and he won the National League batting title in two seasons with averages of .362 (1934) and .373 (1936) — after the batting of .380 in 1927 in the same year he won MVP.

One trait that Lloyd was rather well known for was a great eye on the ball and he is credited for striking out more than 15 times in a season only three years in the major league.

After adding up the brothers’ baseball careers, Paul “Big Poison” Waner ended with better stats than little brother Lloyd “Little Poison” Waner. Both brothers careers technically ended in 1945, but Paul was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1952. Lloyd’s election into the Hall of Fame was in 1967, about two-years after his older brother passed away.

So, what about the “affordability” of this duo’s baseball cards? Collectors Dashboard has pulled some of the key cards spanning the Waner brothers’ careers.

The 1933 Goudey set has 509 PSA graded examples of all Paul Waner cards and 432 PSA graded examples of all Lloyd Waner cards. Of the regular grades without qualifiers and half-points, Paul’s most recent population report was dominated by 82 examples at PSA 2, 100 at PSA 3 and 73 at PSA 4 — Lloyd’s most recent population report was dominated by 60 examples at PSA 3 and 74 examples at PSA 4.

As for those prices, recent eBay and other auctions were shown to be as follows for the 1933 Goudey cards:

• Paul Waner — PSA 4 for $533.98 on 5/18/2021 and a prior PSA 4 sold for $430.00 on 2/5/2021… and a PSA 3 for $275.00 on 4/21/2021.
• Lloyd Waner — PSA 4 for $374.00 on 4/28/2021 and a prior PSA 4 for $930.00 on 3/87/2021… a PSA 3 had lost sold for $205.00 back on 1/23/2021 but a PSA 6 sold for $679.99 on 3/14/2021.

There were also cards from the visually more attractive 1934 Goudey card set, but only for Paul Waner. His population report had 367 PSA graded examples in total and those non-qualifier grades were dominated by the 75 examples at PSA 4 and 56 at PSA 5. Paul Waner’s 1934 Goudey saw a superb PSA 8 sale at $2,306.00 on 4/14/2021, but more reasonably priced cards not in the so-called “investment grades” were seen as follows:

• 6/15/2021 for $153.50 in a PSA 3
• 4/14/2021 for $430.00 in a PSA 5.5
• 4/5/2021 for $525.00 in a PSA 6
• 3/11/2021 for $389.98 in a PSA 3.5
• 2/15/2021 for $360.00 in a PSA 5

The 1935 Goudey 4-in-1 split panel cards also included variations that were unusual in that they featured both Waner brothers in the cards. An SGC 4 example was available as a Buy Now at $300.00 or Best Offer on eBay, followed by a PSA 7 example for $1,500.00 from 707sportscards and a PSA 5 for $495.00 from the PWCC Vault.

Jumping to the 1940 Play Ball black and white photo cards has examples of both Paul and lloyd Waner in the set. Paul Waner’s cards only feature the name Big Poison rather than Paul, and his total population report from PSA was 1999 examples. Big Poison’s population was dominated by 39 examples at PSA 4 and then 31 at PSA 5 and 30 at PSA 6. Lloyd Waner’s 1940 Play Ball total population was just 283 total cards, and the non-qualifier card examples were dominated by 29 cards at PSA 4, 32 at PSA 5 and 37 at PSA 6.

SGC’s population report fr the 1940 Play Ball cards (our photo used herein) included 64 SGC graded examples of Big Poison that were dominated by SGC 4 to SGC 5 and Lloyd with 73 total graded examples that were dominated with 10 cards at SGC 7, 16 cards at SGC 5 and 10 cards at SGC 4.

The estimated PSA price guide does not distinguish between the values of bothers Paul and Lloyd Waner in the 1940 Play Ball set and the recent sale prices have been a bit inconsistent from month to month. Here are some of the more recent sales:

• Paul Waner (Big Poison) PSA 6 for $125.50 on 4/13/2021
• LLoyd Waner PSA 5 for $125.99 on 6/5/2021

It is important to understand that these are not the only years with cards for Paul Waner and Lloyd Waner. There were cards in the traditionally blurry 1939 Play Ball set, and there were examples in the 1934 to 1936 Diamond Stars. Some of the other card sets featuring at least one of the Waner brothers included the 1933 Uncle Jack’s Candy, 1934-36 National Chicle Batter-Up, 1941 Double Play, the 1928 W502 (Hand Cut), 1936 Goudey Premiums and the 1935 Schutter-Johnson set.

The Waner brothers are unique in the last 100 years of baseball. There are plenty of cards available for vintage baseball collectors and investors to own, but not in such large quantities that they are heavily watered down or with far more supply than the market can absorb. It is not easy to put an apples-to-apples comparison on the pricing metrics, but the cards in the larger population grades are still rather affordable considering the Waner brothers’ historical baseball significance in the first half of the 1900s.

Even in the age of overpaying for cards was common, the most expensive Waner card of 2021 sold for just $12,000.