Collectible Cards

Collectible Cards

What cards are collectible?: An experts tells you his favorites and why cards become popular

A child collects a complete set of 1951 Topps cards and keeps them in a shoe box under the bed. Years later mom pitches them in the trash. “21,000 down the drain! The collector cries.

Theo Chen says the story is mostly apocryphal. But Chen, an analyst for the authoritative price guide that makes up the bulk of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly , admits card can be valuable, “otherwise, pur publication wouldn’t be built around a price guide.”

But the value of a baseball card is hard to predict as a player’s batting average. Here are some tips from Chen on how to guess which cards will be batting .500 in the years to come.

Put your money on popularity: The first thing is the player – his popularity, his accomplishments, his place in sport history. There are cases of players with better stats whose cards are much less valuable than other players. It really just comes down to popularity, whether the guy was a flashy player whether he did a lot of endorsements that made him larger than life, whether he played during the right era. Dwight Gooden, for instance, was seen as the potential greatest pitcher of the era. Now, he’s got into off-field problems and his cards are almost unsellable.

Wagner. Collectible Card

Condition is important: Old cards in good shape are worth so much because so many people didn’t take care of their cards. They kept them in shoe-boxes, put them in bike spokes, flipped them, whatever. Ones that survived are tough to find.

Get these cards: Seattle Mariner out-fielder Ken Griffey, Jr. From Upper Deck, and White Sox slugger Frank Thomas are the twin titans of baseball cards. They’re young; they are seen as friendly, nice guys; they are dominant offensive forces in the spot; and they are incredible early numbers that put them well on track toward the hall of fame. Also keep an eye on Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros. If he keeps up the pace he’s been doing, he might be seen as the National League’s version of Frank Thomas.

Jose Canseco from Donruss. Sandy Koufax from Topps, Ricky Henderson from Topps.