I’ve always viewed sports cards as an alternative asset. Vintage sports cards are equivalents to your other stocks, bonds, or mutual funds.

Some view baseball cards as pieces of cardboard. But once you dig into the supply/demand dynamics, it is clear why sports cards should be considered investments. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been in this first as a collector. I agree that the popularity of breakers and flippers gives rise to a bubble-like, greed-infested hobby. 

But I also think it’s fine to be both a collector (in it for the love of the hobby) and an investor at the same time.

Yet, with many vintage sports cards out of budget for most collectors, a new stock market-like dynamic has evolved.

Fractional sports card ownership allows a collector to buy a small piece of a high-priced card at whatever amount they desire.

In this piece, we will dive into the details of this burgeoning new market. 

The 1933 Goudey set gets all the fanfare for being the first card set to issue packs of cards with gum.

But the underappreciated 1934-36 Diamond Stars Baseball card set deserves more attention. 

The 108 card set covered a three year period from 1934 to 1936, offering up real competition for Goudey. 

The lack of serious collector interest likely stems from the omission of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, contracted by Goudey at the time.

In this piece we take a closer look at the 1934-36 Diamond Stars set, showcasing the most valuable cards in the issue. 

The 1933 Goudey Baseball card set is one of the hobby’s most coveted treasures.

The card design is one of the most beautiful of all pre war card sets.

Colorful renderings of some of the hobby’s most popular players, the set is anchored by not one, but four Babe Ruth cards!

Plus, oh yeah, there’s the added bonus of two Lou Gehrig cards in the set, two of the hobby’s most valuable cards. 

The 1933 Goudey cards are not rare (aside from the Nap Lajoie), but are tough to find in great condition.

Sports card collectors have continued to bid up the big names in the set. 

For investment purposes, Goudey baseball cards should remain an excellent long-term investment. 

Here we explore the most valuable cards in the 1933 Goudey Baseball card set. 

PSA recently announced that its Standard grading service would reopen to collectors, at a new price point of $100 per card.

Recall that PSA shut down everything aside from its premium grading services in early 2021. They have not been able to keep up with the steep increase in grading demand.

The latest changes come amidst many changes at PSA.

Starting with the acquisition of its parent Collectors Universe, followed by the departure of CEO Joe Orlando and replacement by Nat Turner.

I’ve had a few weeks to digest the acquisition of Topps by Fanatics and wanted to provide a few comments. 

First, let’s just say that the deal comes as absolutely no surprise. 

I wrote about the possibility back when Fanatics had acquired the MLB licensing rights.

Fanatics pulled the rug right from under Topps and stole the one thing that keeps the heartbeat alive for the company – it’s licenses. 

So, I would imagine, that Fanatics could pick up Topps for pennies on the dollar, and get access to all its brands, designs and trademarks. Plus, Fanatics needs that MLB license that Topps holds through the end of 2025 in order to make cards with team names and logos from 2023 to 2025. 

Thus, yes, a Fanatics takeover of Topps would make a lot of sense. 

However, I also noted that pride might keep Topps from selling out to Fanatics, and it seemed as if Fanatics might want to blaze their own branding trail.

Yet, the deal, honestly just made way too much sense for Fanatics.

I started collecting in the mid-80s, when Fleer, Topps, and Donruss ruled the streets during the junk era. 

As a Red Sox fan, I tended to emulate my hometown idols, guys like Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, and Mike Greenwell. 

But, every so often, there were players that you could not ignore. As a kid, one of those guys was Ken Griffey Jr. 

Griffey somehow emerged unscathed from the steroid era, ending his career as one of the best to play the game.

Griffey’s rookie cards came out near the peak of the junk era, so most collectors view his cards as poor investments.

I wanted to look at the best Ken Griffey Jr pre-rookie and rookie cards to see if there might be some good investments for collectors. 

I’ve written quite extensively about the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie Card.

Covering everything from authentication (here and here), to fake Jordan’s in fake flips, to different PSA grades, investment potential, even scandals involving the Jordan rookie card.

To me, especially since I grew up opening packs of 86 Fleer basketball cards, it’s one of the most polarizing cards in the hobby.

But, over the last year or so, prices on the Jordan rookie card have fallen off a cliff. 

It wasn’t all that surprising. After all, Jordan’s PSA 8 Fleer Rookie card went from $3,000 to $25,000 in a little more than a year.

Plus, we are seeing many similar excesses wrung out in other speculative areas of the capital market (high growth stocks, bitcoin). 

Card prices can’t go up forever, and sometimes a correction is warranted. Helping to restore sanity to a market, where rational thinking can take over. 

In this piece, I dive deeper into the rise and fall of the Jordan rookie card, trying to determine what the future holds.

Has the Jordan Rookie Card reached rock bottom?

If you were a hockey fan during the 1980s, you were lucky enough to witness some of the best hockey players ever to play the game.

Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, and of course the great Mario Lemieux, three players that often are discussed among the ten best hockey players of all time. 

In terms of hockey cards, the Mario Lemieux rookie card is right up there with the most valuable hockey cards in the hobby. 

Of course, Lemieux’s rookie card was released in the midst of the Junk era; thus, between his two major rookie cards (1985 Topps and O-Pee-Cee), there’s plenty of supply to go around for everyone.

In this piece, I’ll look at the two key rookie cards for Lemieux, examining the scarcity, current values, and long-term investment potential.
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Christopher “Christy” Mathewson was one of the premier pitchers during the ‘deadball” era, posting stats that to this day are among the tops in baseball’s record books.

Throughout his career, “Matty” was considered not only one of the best pitchers in the game but someone that epitomized what a star baseball player should be.

Christy Mathewson’s baseball cards, even over 100 years after his retirement, remain red hot. 

Here, I take a look at the top baseball cards of Christy Mathewson, providing collectors with more information on the cards, along with overall investment potential and scarcity. 

There aren’t many players that had the same sort of impact on the game of basketball as one Lew Alcindor.

Alcindor’s dominance on the court was evident early on, as he won three NCAA championships with the UCLA Bruins and then six NBA championships with the Bucks and LA Lakers. 

Not only was Alcindor a great basketball player, but a prominent cultural figure for the African American community.

Alcindor boycotted the 1968 Summer Olympics due to the unequal treatment of black players. He also changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabaar in 1971 as a testament of his faith and to stand up for black Americans. 

The Lew Alcindor rookie card has taken on a renewed identity of its own in recent years, skyrocketing to among the hobby’s most valuable basketball cards, even despite a somewhat abundant supply.

As follows, we’ll examine the 1969 Topps Alcindor rookie card in detail, taking a closer look at overall value, scarcity, along with our take on future investment potential.