Blast From The Past - 23 years ago This Month

Jimmy_Commonpants

I was looking through some things over the weekend and my box of old Beckett Baseball price guides was in there. I thumbed through them and grabbed a few. I bought it religiously from 1991 through 1995. I love looking at what prices were back then. I grabbed July 1995. It was $2.95. I believe its $9.99 today.

This was an interesting time. The post-94 strike recession had occurred on the vintage; there were even down arrows on a few Mantle cards. The junk wax collapse was complete(I love the "precise" pricing from back then, cards dropping from $0.20 to $0.15). Cards for the stars of the 80's and early 90's were still inflated and would never see these prices levels again. Card lines that had previously been touted as "limited" for the years prior to this time were now found to be in typical supply(there is even a "readers write" question about Beckett removing the SP label from 92 Bowman).

Here are a few highlights that made me chuckle:

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr. $300
1990 Leaf Frank Thomas: $85
1993 SP Derek Jeter FOIL: $8
Anybody remember 1994 ROY Raul Mondesi? every card was going up

But this was the highlight - 1993 Finest Refractors. I didn't remember them being this ridiculously high.

Its almost unreal to think the market was that much larger back then for those cards to command those prices. Wow!

originalisbest

It was all going to fund the retirement account! LOL thanks for the walk down memory lane. I never got into shiny stuff but definitely overpaid for various off-grade vintage back then. If I could do it over again I'd be a lot more selective, but the cash flow at that time would probably still be an issue.

hyperchipper09

Couple months later in Sept 95 I picked up both Don Mattingly's 93 Finest refractor and 94 SP red holoview for $375, which was a lot for me at the time. The good old days though. .

Jimmy_Commonpants

@hyperchipper09 said:
Couple months later in Sept 95 I picked up both Don Mattingly's 93 Finest refractor and 94 SP red holoview for $375, which was a lot for me at the time. The good old days though. .

I was mostly out of collecting from 1997 to last year, so I have a hard time remembering sometimes what I have and what I don't have. Recently found that I have Puckett's 94 SP Red Holoview(had previously thought it was just he die cut regular issue). Looked at the price guide and it was $140 in 95. I have no idea how I got it or what I paid, but I know I wasn't paying that kind of money for modern inserts back then. I finally just got his 93 Finest Refractor a week ago and paid around $75-$80.

stwainfan

$8 for Jeter SP.