The Pathetic State of Baseball Card Collecting

As a kid, I lived and breathed collecting baseball cards. Sadly, through high school and college, I didn’t really give a rip about it. Then, post-college, I casually picked it back up again since I had the world’s biggest and most amazing baseball card shop, eBay, at my finger tips. I love vintage cards especially, and I don’t think I own a single card made in the 21st century. Pre-1970’s baseball though? Love. Why am I boring you with this? I’ll tell you why, I stumbled upon a travesty recently. Although at first glance, my find wasn’t as tragic as this Blake Griffin Clippers rookie card, the tragedy I found actually sold on eBay…which makes it worse. Here it is:

That’s a 2011 Bowman Bryce Harper baseball card. Limited edition, autographed, and only 25 of them made. That’s cool. I’d pay $15 for that. The kid has never played a regular season game in the Major Leagues, but he’s touted as the next Babe Ruth, so I’ll roll the dice for $15 bucks. Welp, that card above just sold on eBay for $2,180.55. That is in US Dollar bills. What. The. F**k. Am I in the Twilight Zone right now? Over $2 grand for that card!? Now, I want to make it clear, I’m not knocking the seller, Triple Crown Tom, he’s got some amazing stuff on his website. He threw that card on eBay for .99 cents. The consumers are the ones that bid the hell out of it. Stoked for him, saddened for the consumer. For those of you that have zero idea on value of baseball cards, I’ll randomly pick a card for you to compare. Here we go. An amazing 1951 Bowman Willie Mays Rookie card.

That’s Willie Mays, folks. One of the greatest players to ever live. Pitchers feared him, hitters wanted to be him, runners studied him, fielders could only dream of equaling his talents in the outfield. The Say Hey Kid. That exact card you see above, professionally graded and authenticated can be bought right now on eBay for $1,499.95. That’s a ton of money for a baseball card, but guess what, it’s $680 less than you’re dropping for some kid who hasn’t done squat at the big league level. Unreal. Sad day for the hobby of baseball card collecting.

-bp

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