Crypto currency / Blockchain concept with coin on the motherboard.

All Vintage Cards is excited to announce that vintage sports card collectors can now purchase cards via the All Vintage Cards sports card store using bitcoin.  

“This is a big step in the evolution of digital commerce and especially in the advent of what has become a growing market for cryptocurrencies.  Our stance is that bitcoin is here to stay and that we would like to play our part in helping the digital ecosystem evolve into the world of online commerce.  It’s only natural that card collectors have the ability to utilize their cryptocurrencies in purchasing sports cards” -says All Vintage Cards President, Evan Gibson.  

The All Vintage Cards shop carries high quality vintage sports cards, and was recently launched in 2020, following on years of success in helping collector with a plethora of hobby resources, including numerous resource guides relating to spotting counterfeit cards, along with helping to identify good investments in the hobby. 

Sports card values have been on an unworldly increase of late. 

The rise has given credence to the belief that sports cards should be earmarked for collectors as a part of their overall investment portfolio.  

And I certainly have advocated that cards should be thought of as an entirely distinct asset class, separate from stocks, bonds, art, etc. 

Yet, the hysteria of late has me moderately concerned; I’m noticing signs that indicate we may be in the midst of another asset bubble in the sports card world.  

In this piece I discuss some of my concerns regarding card prices, some of the red flags that I’ve noticed and where we might go from here. 

As always if you have any thoughts on the current state of the hobby–please comment below or feel free to email me at chris@allvintagecards.com

The Ryan Rookie card is the top rookie and most valuable card in the 1968 Topps set.

When talking about the most recognizable and most valuable cards in the hobby, the 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan Rookie card is near the top of the list. 

Ryan was one of the greatest pitchers to play the game of baseball, and from an early age he was wowing scouts with his fastball.  

While he often gets left out of the Top 10 lists for pitchers due to his less than stellar control (Ryan averaged nearly 5 walks per 9 innings over his career), his record as the all time strikeout leader speaks for itself.   Ryan’s seven no hitters are also a major league record.  

Ryan’s rookie card remains in high demand among vintage collectors, with higher graded copies of his Topps rookie (and OPC/Milton Bradley variations) fetching record prices at auction. 

In this piece, we’ll review the career of one Lynn ‘Nolan’ Ryan Jr. while examining his 1968 Topps rookie card, including the existing population, current values and investment potential. 

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of breaking the news to many eBay buyers that the card they spent multiple thousands of dollars on was a fake.

Thankfully eBay has strong buyer protection rules in place along with PayPal guarantees and options to dispute the transaction through your credit card company.  Thus, many of the buyers I’ve spoken to have been able to recover their funds.  

Still, I really hope that eBay can develop a program for sports cards, similar to what they have done with sneakers and watches.  

Despite this, I decided that I should create a guide to help buyers protect themselves from the most unscrupulous of eBay sellers. 

eBay does a good job of shutting down fake listings if enough people complain, but often times many fall through the cracks.  

Note that eBay does require that any cards that have a questionable authenticity be listed as a reprint, yet buyers are still bidding up these cards thinking they’ve found a diamond in the rough.

This guide will help you avoid these mistakes and help you become a better informed buyer when purchasing sports cards on eBay. 

The 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth cards have been on absolute fire of late, with the Lou Gehrig cards (there are two) from the same set not too far behind.  

I often get inspiration for new counterfeit resource guides from the questions coming in to me.  And I’ve had a lot of requests for help of late in authenticating Goudey Ruth cards, with many of them ending up being outright fakes. 

So, in yet another attempt to help fellow collectors avoid getting scammed, this guide is all you need to know in distinguishing a fake Goudey Ruth or Gehrig from the real deal.   To note, the Goudeys can be among the toughest to distinguish in the hobby due to some better than average reprints. 

Also, one quick point too.  I’m not going to get every authentication question right.  Especially when dealing with only photos.  Sometimes, just the wrong angle or the wrong light can make a card look questionable from a photo.  So, all of this to say, buy a loupe and read this article!  

And…one last thing I need to get off my chest.  Often times the game of authentication (especially when not done in person) is a game of weighing the red flags.  For example, if a raw card is selling for only a small discount versus a graded copy, and there is even one small concern, forget about it.  Why take the risk?  And if you are dealing with the same question from a seller on eBay with questionable feedback…move on! 

Of course, once again, if you have any questions on a Goudey Ruth or Gehrig you might have, feel free to email me at chris@allvintagecards.com.

The 1933 and 1934 sets of baseball cards issued by the Goudey Gum Company of Boston are recognized as two of the most popular sets in the history of the hobby. One would think that the company would have continued to do more of the same in 1935.  

Instead, as a sequel, Goudey produced cards that were quite different from the offerings of the two previous years. While they are not as sought after as cards from the other two sets, 1935 Goudeys nonetheless have an appeal of their own.  

The set is known by several names.  The fronts of the cards are divided into quarters, each of which includes a picture of a player. So, the cards are sometimes
referred to as “4-in-l’s.”

The backs of the cards have no biography; they show a section of a large picture. When 6, or in some cases 12 particular cards are placed together in a
proper order, the backs form a complete large picture, of either an individual player or a team. Hence, 1935 Goudeys are also called the “Goudey Puzzle Set”.

In addition, the set is sometimes referred to by its American Card Catalog number, R321. 

The 1935 Goudeys are, for many collectors, fun to collect and interesting to study. In more ways than one the set IS a puzzle. The set was checklisted several years ago, but there always seem to be new and different ways of looking at the 1935 Goudeys.  This article is a combination of old knowledge and new thoughts about the cards. 

For many readers (including myself) the T206 Honus Wagner card is mostly out of reach from an affordability standpoint. 

A recent example for the card in Poor condition sold for $1.4 million at auction. 

So unless you have some serious cash hanging around, the Wagner might not necessarily be an affordable investment at the moment.

Still, I thought it might be fun to examine the current values and populations for the T206 Wagner, while trying to see if we might be able to determine a future value for the card.  

Of course this is just an exercise, and nothing in this article should be construed as fact; we are mostly having some fun with numbers to see what the possibilities are.  

Do you have a T206 Wagner card?  Get in touch with me at chris@allvintagecards.com — I’d love to see it! 

Despite the big move in vintage cards over the past few years, I still think there are great opportunities for collectors looking to invest in vintage baseball cards.

While in the past, I’ve advocated for strip cards as an under the radar investment in the hobby, in this piece, I’m going to take a closer look at pre-war baseball caramel cards.

Many vintage collectors often get consumed with early tobacco cards, such as the T206 White Borders set or the T205 Gold Borders set.  

However, many early caramel cards issued around the same time or a few years later, are rarer and often times less expensive. 

So, come along as I offer up ten vintage pre-war caramel baseball cards that I think could be excellent long term investments for vintage collectors.

This Sweet Caporal pack was recently offered in a Facebook group for $1800 but I soon realized that there was zero possibility the pack could contain any T206 cards.

I recently came across a Facebook post with a seller trying to sell an unopened Sweet Caporal cigarette pack. 

The pack looked to be in relatively nice shape and the seller was asking for $1800, which to me seemed somewhat reasonable given that a T206 card might be nestled inside. 

I hadn’t really explored T206 unopened packs before and the listing triggered me to do some research into the topic.

Could this unopened pack hold a T206 card?  Imagine if it had a Honus Wagner, or even a near mint Cobb portrait.  The possibilities seemed nearly worth the risk at that point. 

However after researching old tobacco packs and examining some of the finer details on the pack, it was quite clear that there was zero possibility this pack held any cards from the T206 set. 

In this piece, I’m going to walk readers through the steps one needs to take in order to assess whether an old tobacco pack might contain a card or not.  

I also speak to noted tobacco pack expert Jon Canfield to discuss the topic in more detail.  

Please let me know if you have any packs that might be of interest.  Feel free to email me at chris@allvintagecards.com

One of the most intimidating situations can occur when a loved one leaves you a collection of valuable baseball cards.

For many, the cards represent a piece of their family member, and selling it can bring up a whole range of mixed emotions.

In addition to the emotions involved, if you’ve never bought a pack of baseball cards, inheriting a valuable sports card collection can certainly be an overwhelming situation. 

Sometimes the collection isn’t worth as much as you might have expected, although there are times when the value of the inherited collection exceeds all expectations. 

This resource will walk you through the different options for evaluating the inherited collection, including how to determine values, how to sell the card collection or holding onto the cards and safely storing them.  

Always feel free to reach out to me at chris@allvintagecards.com with any questions.