The Hobby is seeing some interesting moves in prices and themes in sports collectibles in 2021. Modern sports cards have been taking it on the chin for the endless and countless base set issues. At the same time, high-end iconic vintage cards are still seeing strong demand. Th reality is simple in that they aren’t printing 10 million of them — and these guys don’t get involved in new scandals, they don’t get injured, and you don’t have to worry about how their upcoming games will pan out.
Heritage Auctions has just seen some serious prices paid for certain iconic vintage cards of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson and others in their Fall Sports Collectibles auction. Most of the lots were tracked managed to handily exceed the base auction expectations. Some came in around estimates, but some simply blew the estimates out of the water.
Collectors Dashboard evaluates high-end sports collectibles as an alternative asset class. This means collectibles are attracting the same capital that could have been invested into stocks or bonds or other traditional investments. With vintage sports cards frequently commanding tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, these definitely fall into that alternative investment class category. Collectors with a passion to own a collectible frequently have to compete directly against investors whose only desire is to make a profit in the future.
So what happens when you get some of the greatest vintage baseball cards ever produced coming to auction at the same time? Well, that would be a bidding frenzy of course. And these cards hit prices that shattered some expectations. Collectors Dashboard collected prices from this last Monday and we before, and we now included the prices fetched after the buyer’s premiums have been considered.
This auction also had nearly 50 graded examples from the late 1800s, with 46 examples of the notorious 1887-90 Old Judge N172 cards up for grabs. The reality is that you rarely see this big of a selection at any one time of that elusive set come up for grabs.
These cards have been ranked by date or genre but these are so far among the highest bid vintage baseball cards in the auction.
All images shown below for each have been provided by Heritage Auctions and the images are after each specific graded example.
PRE-WAR HEROES: COBB, RUTH, DIMAGGIO
1909-11 T206 Old Mill Ty Cobb (Bat Off Shoulder) PSA NM-MT 8 had a bid of $92,500.00 and $111,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid as of Monday is $115,000.00 and $138,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $150,000+ Heritage Auctions noted that the population for the card in this grade is just two (2) and that only one (1) card exists higher.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’S PREMIUM: $210,000.00 after 34 bidders.
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1909-11 T206 Old Mill Ty Cobb (Red Portrait) PSA NM-MT 8 had a bid of $75,000.00 and $90,000.00 after buyer’s premium on November 12, 2021. The bid as of Monday was $97,000.00 and $117,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $100,000.00 Heritage Auctions notes that the population of this card in this condition is one and that none are known to exist higher.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’S PREMIUM: $312,000.00 after 41 bidders.
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1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #144 SGC NM/MT 8 had a bid of $120,000.00 and $144,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The Monday bid is $125,000 and $150,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $150,000+ Heritage Auctions has called this card an absolute masterpiece of the species that’s seemingly untouched by the nine decades that have passed since its printing.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’s PREMIUM: $288,000.00 after 37 bids.
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1938 Goudey Joe DiMaggio #274 SGC 96 Mint 9 had a bid of $77,500.00 and $93,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid as of Monday was $80,000.00 and $96,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $200,000.00+ for the DiMaggio rookie, Heritage Auctions noted that this is the nicest graded example known. Some collectors argue that the 1938 Goudey cards are not of the same caliber as other Goudey and Play Ball cards of the era. That said, that’s for each collector to argue about.
FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $276,000.00 after 40 bids.
POST-WAR HEROES: ROBINSON, MANTLE, MAYS, CLEMENTE, KOUFAX
1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson Rookie #79 PSA NM-MT 8 had a bid of $170,000.00 and $204,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid last Monday was $175,000.00 and $210,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $350,000.00+ Heritage Auctions explained that over 1,500 examples have been submitted but only eight command a superior assessment. This card exceeded expectations and this is impressive because there was a total of seven (7) graded examples of the 1948 Leaf card alone and there was a total of 33 Jackie Robinson cards collectively up for grabs in individual lots.
FINAL PRICE AFTER PREIUM: $444,000.00 after 26 bidders.
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1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson #50 PSA Mint 9 was one of the iconic cards that did not exceed estimates. It had a bid of $180,000.00 and $216,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. Last Monday’s bid was $190,000.00 and $228,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $400,000+ Heritage Auctions notes that the card’s surfaces are entirely immune to both wax and gum stains.
FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $360,000.00 after 26 bids.
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1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle Rookie #253 PSA NM-MT 8 had a bid of $220,000.00 and $264,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid as of last Monday was $230,000.00 and $276,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $400,000+ Heritage Auctions noted that only 10 climb higher in PSA grade.
FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $420,000.00 after 28 bids.
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1952 Topps Willie Mays #261 PSA NM-MT 8 had a bid of $165,000.00 and $198,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid last Monday was $165,000.00 or $198,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $200,000.00+ Heritage Auctions explained that only 11 are rated higher.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’s PREMIUM: $204,000.00 after 25 bids.
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1953 Topps Jackie Robinson #1 PSA Mint 9 had a bid of $100,000.00 and $120,000.00 after buyers premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The current bid is $115,000.00 and $138,000 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $150,000.00+ only one example grades higher according to Heritage Auctions. This is an incredibly tough card to find in higher conditions.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’s PREMIUM: $252,000.00 after 48 bids.
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1955 Topps Roberto Clemente Rookie #164 PSA NM-MT+ 8.5 had a bid of $125,000.00 and $150,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid last Monday was at $125,000 and $150,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $150,000.00+ the card is ranked in the top one third of one percent at .0028% according to Heritage Auctions. Most of these graded examples have off-centering that is just too difficult to argue with the graders about, but not this example.
FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $186,000.00 after 32 bids.
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1955 Topps Sandy Koufax Rookie #123 PSA Mint 9 had a bid of $190,000.00 and $228,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid last Monday was $210,000.00 and $252,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $400,000.00+ Heritage Auctions determined this card to be in the top .003% finest from 9,000+ card submissions. This super-high price here is amazing considering that the Koufax card has the largest graded PSA population (over 9,000 graded) of any other player in the 1955 Topps set and with the entire set’s PSA graded population is more than 178,000 cards when tallying up all graded player cards.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’S PREMIUM: $384,000.00 after 31 bids.
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1968 Topps Johnny Bench Reds Rookie Stars #247 PSA Gem Mint 10 had a bid of $75,000.00 and $90,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid stood at $75,000.00 and $90,000.00 after buyer’s premium last Monday. With an estimate of $80,000.00+ the card according to Heritage Auctions is one of only 15 examples for the grade. This 1968 Topps set is notorious for being hard to find in stellar and nearly perfect condition due to the colored edges and as the paper shows any blemishes.
FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’s PREMIUM: $93,000.00 after 28 bids.
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MICKEY MANTLE ENCORE
Mickey Mantle deserved an encore in this auction. On top of a game-worn autographed jersey he also had a prized 1952 Topps card (#311) in a very well-centered SGC 4. That card had hit $70,000 after 34 bids, with a buyer’s premium taking it up to $84,000 for the prized card. Its auction estimates was just $50,000+ and it was being tracked by about 150 bidders. FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’s PREMIUM: $99,000.00.
Another PSA 5 example of the 1952 Mantle was trailing the SGC 4 example after first, and that was despite a higher grade. By our view, the centering was less perfect in comparison. This had a bid of $57,500 (or $69.000 after the buyer’s premium) a week earlier. FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $105,000.00 after 30 bids.
And lastly, a PSA 8 grade of the 1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle had already hit $67,500 (or $81,000 after the buyer’s premium) days ahead of its close. FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $114,133.20 after 31 bids.
Images above provided by Heritage Auctions.
MORE MODERN LEGENDS
1986 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie #57 SGC Gem Mint 10 had a bid of $130,000.00 and $156,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid last Monday was $165,000.00 and $198,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimate of $250,000.00+ Heritage Auctions notes that only one card ranks higher in condition and this is one of only 25 examples graded in this condition. FINAL PRICE AFTER BUYER’s PREMIUM: $192,000 after 22 bids. One issue which may have put some pressure on this sale was that there may have been too many “rookie Jordan” choices. There were 9 lots not of the red Fleer set alone. There were also 13 other graded examples in various conditions of the exact same 1986 red Fleer Jordan rookie.
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1993 SP Derek Jeter Rookie #279 SGC Gem Mint 10 had a bid of $82,500.00 and $99,000.00 after buyer’s premium on Friday November 12, 2021. The bid last Monday stood at $82,500.00 and $99,000.00 after buyer’s premium. With an estimated $250,000.00+ Heritage Auctions notes that only four SGC examples have been graded Gem Mint. FINAL PRICE AFTER PREMIUM: $108,000.00 after 12 bids.
