Buying Un-opned Boxes of Baseball Cards - A New Trend

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article by Beth Decarbo on collectors buying unopened boxes of baseball cards. The rather unusual aspect of the story is the collectors plan on leaving the boxes unopened, possibly foregoing very valuable cards.

As I have mentioned in the past on the AW Blog, as professional appraisers we need to know more than just values and how to research values. We have to know markets, and the trends within the markets. What is popular, what is being collected and what is being passed over. The WSJ article is a very good example. Also, a very interesting point within the article is as the value, collectibility and value of the unopened boxes of cards has grown so has the potential for counterfeit cards and boxes. Again, reinforcing competency in appraising and knowing what you are evaluating.

Decarbo states In this niche field, collectors snap up unopened cartons and packages of sports trading cards. Then, they leave their purchases unopened, the contents forever a mystery.

An unnamed bidder paid $13,000 at a July auction for 17 packs of unopened Topps baseball cards from 1953 to 1969. The packages could contain a valuable Ted Williams card. Or maybe not.

For collectors, "it may be worth more unopened than opened," says Brian Fleischer, a senior market analyst for Beckett Media, a sports-collectibles publisher and card-grading service.

As with most memorabilia, the older the card, the greater its value, Mr. Fleischer says. Thus, unopened items from the 1950s, '60s and '70s are most desirable. At the time, the cards cost between a penny and a dime. Now, they're worth much more.

In October, an unopened wax pack of 1955 Topps baseball cards sold for $1,891 at auction. Yet for all that money, the world may never know if the pack contained rookie cards of Roberto Clemente.

As interest in unopened memorabilia grows, so does the risk of counterfeiting. So the sports-collectibles industry has evolved to snag scammers. Global Authentication Inc. now grades unopened packages and boxes of cards to detect if the seals have been tampered with. The packages and boxes -- with the mystery cards inside -- are graded on their appearance and condition, then preserved in a hard plastic case.

To read the Wall Street Journal article, click HERE.