....Cal Ripken's rookie card. What's puzzling to me is that the card isn't even his rookie card.
This one is, which was included in the 1982 set. The update card was his first solo Topps, but not his first Topps.
Anyway, I was curious about pricing on the set, so I went back through the archives of Baseball Digest to find card dealer ads that featured the 1982 traded set.
This is the ad for GS Gallery, from the February 1983 Baseball Digest....
...From the blow-up, you can see that they were selling the set for $7.99
Now we fast forward twelve years later, to 1995. This time the ad is from Larry Fritsch Cards. His prices are often on the high end, but look at what he is selling the 1982 set for....
... He wants $295! I wonder how many of them he sold? My guess, not too many, because look at this current screen shot from their website...
....the set is now going for $200. Who says that there is inflation? But I bet he still doesn't sell many of these, since they can be found on ebay for around $100.
What kills me is that some people actually sell this card & the '82 Orioles future stars card (which is the most viewed card on my blog, naturally) on eBay for less than $5. A few months ago, someone sold one for $1. Now, I'm no expert, but I know he could've... and rightfully should've, sold it for at least $20. It bugs me when people do this to themselves or to the other people trying to sell that card. If one person's selling it for $30, which is still a steal, and another person's got it priced for $3 or something? Man...
ReplyDeleteOf course, as a buyer, that's great. BUt if you buy in order to resell later... well, that selling part gets awfully tough if you're being undercut like that. And obviously, the $3 seller isn't making anything from it... so... huh?
I guess that is part of the trade-off of Ebay. The site brings more customers to a card seller than any other site would, but it also brings uninformed selling competitors, too.
ReplyDeleteLarry Fritsch prices have been over priced for years. Back in 1987, I bought a Fleer factory set from him and he took out the World Series set that was included in the factory set. He then listed the World Series set separately.
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