I knew very little about the cards because there was no copyright information on them at all.
I learned that they were put out by Hygrade, but knew nothing at all about Hygrade.
I thought Hygrade was a hot dog company.
A comment from Chris Stufflestreet mentioned that Hygrade published price guides. That comment rattled around in my head for a while. There was something familiar about that. And then a couple days ago, it finally registered. I have one of those Hygrade price guides!
This is the cover of my book, published in 1987 and I had totally forgotten about it. But I had an idea where it might be and was able to dig it out. The book featured the prices of every card put out by Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and the latest entry into the baseball card arena, Sportflics.
Check out this ad, which has a super special offer for 1987 Topps, Donruss, and Fleer sets. Pick up all three for the bargain price of $124.95. You can buy those sets today for less than $10 each!
There was another Hygrade ad and it includes the cards I featured earlier. They are in the Baseball Card Collecting Kit, which you paid $39.95 for. The cards are the "Card Set of 50 All-Time Greats."
It was fun to look back at the prices for cards and compare them with what they are going for today. It was also kind of scary. Most of the prices for compete sets are down from what Hygrade claimed they were worth in 1987, 23 years ago.
This chart has the Hygrade 1987 "book value," current set average prices taken from Ebay on July 2, 2010, and the difference between the two. If you are looking at baseball cards as a long term investment, look away....you won't like what you see.
| YEAR | 1987 Hygrade | 2010 Ebay | Difference |
| 1969 | $700.00 | $784.86 | $84.86 |
| 1970 | $650.00 | $875.50 | $225.50 |
| 1971 | $750.00 | $696.00 | -$54.00 |
| 1972 | $750.00 | $887.04 | $137.04 |
| 1973 | $350.00 | $310.06 | -$39.94 |
| 1974 | $275.00 | $247.74 | -$27.26 |
| 1975 | $400.00 | $208.60 | -$191.40 |
| 1976 | $200.00 | $157.29 | -$42.71 |
| 1977 | $225.00 | $90.48 | -$134.52 |
| 1978 | $175.00 | $79.80 | -$95.20 |
| 1979 | $125.00 | $69.19 | -$55.81 |
| 1980 | $110.00 | $49.27 | -$60.73 |
| 1981 | $70.00 | $21.20 | -$48.80 |
| 1982 | $65.00 | $43.12 | -$21.88 |
| 1983 | $70.00 | $36.77 | -$33.23 |
| 1984 | $65.00 | $17.65 | -$47.35 |
| 1985 | $65.00 | $25.90 | -$39.10 |
| 1986 | $25.00 | $13.12 | -$11.88 |
| 1987 | $20.00 | $9.85 | -$10.15 |
These are the low values of Topps sets from Beckett Baseball Card Mag from March 2009
ReplyDelete1969 - $1500
1970 - $1000
1971 - $1250
1972 - $750
1973 - $350
1974 - $200
1975 - $300
1976 - $125
1977 - $125
1978 - $100
1979 - $100
1980 - $70
The prices from Baseball Card Mag 10/84 vg/ex-mint prices (earlist guide I have)
1969 - $145-325
1970 - $135-300
1971 - $148-330
1972 - $148-330
1973 - $85-185
1974 - $68-150
1975 - $82-180
1976 - $42-95
1977 - $38-85
1978 - $22-45
1979 - $18-42
1980 - $21-36
Comment- Beckett is high on every set except the 72 set - Hygrade and Beckett both had it for $750 22 years apart.
The price of the sets seemed to raise in the early 1980s and then stayed there