Leroy ‘Satchel’ Paige was one of baseball’s most legendary pitchers and a trailblazer in that he was the first black baseball player to play in the American League. 

He played for an amazing 21 years in the Negro Leagues and was ready to call it quits at the age of 41, but then joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948.

While most baseball fans are familiar with the legend of Jackie Robinson, many aren’t as familiar with the story of Satchel Paige. 

It feels like collectors are finally starting to give Paige’s cards a bit more respect, as all of his baseball cards have increased significantly in value.

In this piece, we examine the baseball cards of Satchel Paige and help collectors determine whether his cards are still a good investment.

If you’ve followed along here, you might know that our definition of a vintage card is ‘loosely defined as anything pre-1980; however, we certainly have made some exceptions in regards to some other early to mid 80’s sports cards.

Thus, the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie card certainly toes the official line of a vintage card, however, it is now basically the pinnacle and must-own card from the 1980s for vintage baseball card collectors. 

The 1980 Topps set, while still generously produced, didn’t quite have the same sort of massive overproduction as other later 80’s sets did.   And Henderson himself is still probably one of the more underrated players of his generation, one of the best five-tool players of all time. 

Thus, it seemed like a good time to review Henderson’s 1980 Topps rookie card, which has experienced a bit of a renaissance of late; a recent Gem Mint (PSA 10) copy of the card sold for $180K at auction. 

As follows, we’ll examine the population reports for Henderson’s rookie card, current values, and take a look at his career, while providing thoughts on the future investment value for the card.

When I think of Lou Gehrig’s best card, six cards come to mind: the 1932 U.S Caramel, the two 1933 Goudeys, the 1933 DeLong, and the two 1934 Goudeys.

Each card is beautiful in its own right and each showcases different qualities that make them alluring to collectors and investors.

However, I’m here to say that Gehrig’s best card for collectors looking to make a long-term investment is his 1932 U.S Caramel card.

I was only 9 years old when I started collecting back in 1985. I got a few packs of 1985 Topps and was hooked; as a kid that loved baseball, those little pieces of cardboard were everything to me.

I was obsessed right away and it consumed my entire being, ranging from riding my bike three miles to the nearest baseball card store and setting up tables in my basement for a ‘baseball card show’ amongst friends.

My brother soon opened a baseball card store and I was quickly thrown into battle as a high schooler peddling cards and negotiating purchases. I lived through the peak of the ‘Junk Era’ in which cards were massively overproduced, yet at the time, I didn’t grasp the realities of what was happening with the values of cards.

I returned to the hobby several years after college and slowly started getting interested in cards again –which ultimately led to the launch of ‘All Vintage Cards’. 

I’ve discussed my thoughts about the current market exhibiting signs of being in bubble territory, but this time I wanted to examine the current market environment in relation to the last big card bubble from the 1990s.  

While I lived through it, I sort of always chalked up the bursting card bubble to overproduction but figured there had to be more to it. 

Thus, I went into the archives, did some more extensive research, and spoke to other people in the hobby. 

Thus, here are the results of my exploration into the sports card bubble from the 90s’.   

Note, if you lived through it and have a different perspective, or if you just want to leave your thoughts on my findings, please leave a comment!

An authentic 1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card.

With the unfortunate passing of baseball great Hank Aaron, there has been a lot of buying activity with his 1954 Topps rookie card.

There are some pretty good 1954 Topps Aaron fakes out there, so this counterfeit guide will help you avoid getting scammed.

Of course, like anything, even before you read this, make sure you check out our guides on ‘Buying Cards Safely on eBay‘ and our first piece dedicated to authenticating vintage cards. 

As always, after reading if you have any questions on authenticating your Hank Aaron rookie card, please shoot me an email at chris@allvintagecards.com

I typically stay away from writing about cards from the Junk Era.  This website as you might have noticed is dedicated to ‘vintage’ cards, whose definition is still a bit fuzzy among collectors -although usually consensus is that ‘vintage’ is anything pre-1980.  

So, when a reader wrote in recently asking my thoughts on the investment potential for Barry Bonds rookie cards I started to think about it for a while. 

Immediate reaction — ‘eh Junk Era, don’t bother’.   But then I started thinking–hmm, there is still an outside shot at the HOF….so maybe, just maybe some of Barry’s rarer cards from the 80’s are worth another look.  We write about Jordan rookies all the time and it’s from the same exact year, so maybe, just maybe it’s something I need to examine a bit closer.

And so I did.  This piece will take a look at the Barry Bonds rookie cards, and try to determine whether his cards might have good appreciation potential over the next few years. 

As always if you have any questions on Barry Bonds rookie cards, shoot me an email at chris@allvintagecards.com.

I think we all know about the craziness going on with the Jordan rookie card, but of course other vintage basketball cards have been moving up in price as well. 

Still, with a few exceptions (think the Dr J rookie card) the 1970’s era for vintage basketball cards still feels like a bit of an underappreciated part of the market.

Basketball seemingly came into full force in the 1980’s, with the arrival of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and of course, Michael Jordan himself. 

So, I thought it would be a good exercise to identify ten basketball cards from the 1970’s that look like good investments from a buy and hold perspective.  

Sure there’s been a lot of hysteria in the space (thanks Gary V) but I’m ignoring ALL that noise and looking for vintage basketball cards that I still think represent attractive value and should be good investments for the long term.

So, as always, if you have any comments or questions on any card on this list, feel free to reach out to me at chris@allvintagecards.com

**Oh and note this is in no particular order so feel free to pick and choose off this list**

I’ve covered the Jordan rookie card quite extensively, both from an authenticity standpoint (here, here and here) along with the investment side of investing in the card (here and here).

We’ve spoken about unopened vintage wax packs on the blog, but I have recently become slightly obsessed with vintage basketball packs.  Knowing that a 30+ year old pack that once sold for no more than 50 cents could hold a treasure worth in the multiple thousands is fascinating, to say the least.

I was buying ’86 fleer packs as a kid, and never did I realize that I should have had my parents mortgaging their house to buy every single 1986 Fleer case in existence to hold for 35 years. 

I purchased a couple of unopened 86 Fleer packs a few years back on eBay before I became more knowledgeable on packs, and know I likely bought some resealed packs.   I’ve also been a part of a few 1986 Fleer pack breaks, one of which a Jordan rookie card was pulled (not my spot, unfortunately).  

When I learned about the 1986 Fleer sequence, I became slightly obsessed with the topic, wondering if a) it might be possible to identify what packs actually hold a Jordan rookie card and b) if those packs could still be found available for sale at a discount.

Thus, this post will discuss 1986 Fleer packs in detail–both the numerical sequencing and the investment case for unopened 1986 Fleer basketball wax packs. 

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.