Baseball card market
The first American baseball card collection featuring baseball players dates back to 1886-1887: Prices are sometimes out of control. The most famous card was long that of Honus Wagner from 1909 (reference T206) whose price was set at $2.35 million during an auction on February 26, 2007.
More recently, the card, dated 1952, features former New York Yankees player Mickey Mantle (1931-1995), a legend in his sport, a seven-time winner of the professional MLB (Major League Baseball) championship for over $5 million. (Card in photo on the news of this article)
After a slump around the turn of the 2000s, the market has recently picked up to set a series of new records.
In August 2021, a card of Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels), considered the best player of the last ten years, had reached $3.93 million during a sale organized by the Goldin Auctions house. (Info en passant, he becomes the manager of the USA team for the World Baseball Classic, but we have nothing to be ashamed of with Bruce Bochy)
Honus Wagner card
The acceleration also corresponds to the emergence of a new generation of collectors, interested in diversified assets.
Traditionally limited to baseball, the world of collectible cards has expanded to other sports, primarily basketball, which has also been on a roll for a year.
In September 2021, a card of Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was thus bought for $1.81 million.
Today, via the internet, it is very easy even for a Frenchman or a European to collect baseball cards. They are becoming more and more beautiful, often with printing effects that delight collectors. Often when you are a card collector, you don’t stop at baseball, you turn to all kinds of sports. It is a market, which produces its own ratings like a stock exchange and which allows to negotiate to the highest bidders, but also to realize plus values to reinvest.
In France, two official card games have been printed, one in the 20th century (Few have it) and one very recently with 30 players and players from the French team. The version of the French team for the World Baseball Classic is a very likely hypothesis for 2023. Finally, the idea of also creating a « hall of fame » on the occasion of the centenary of the federation in 2024 with the best players of the 20th century will surely be a real opportunity to perpetuate a true collection.
There is also a collector card of Bruce Bochy, made by Glenn Gervot in 2020 before the famous health crisis: here
The Montpellier club, the Barracudas, have also released their card game. The other clubs will certainly follow and one day soon, all the D1 clubs will have released their card game. Collectors will then come out of the woodwork. here
Back of Melissa Mayeux’s card
The card of Melissa Mayeux in the first « deck » of 30 cards edited last June will also delight collectors in a few years. (Especially those that are signed)
Besides, this card game works really well, they are beautiful and will become collector’s items because they will not be reissued, so if you want to own a game that will be at another price in a few years, it’s time to buy it because by the end of the year for Christmas, it may be sold out…
Only one place to get it: here
