1989 PSA 10 Ken Griffey Jr. Prices
mexpo75
Posts: 1,931 ✭✭✭✭
I just was looking at prices for the 89 Ken Griffey Jr, PSA 10 cards. I can't believe it. What does everyone here think? Still going up? Bubble to burst? Will the prices hold?
PackManInNC
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I completed the major 1989 Griffey RC PSA 10 run a few years ago. The last two I bought and paid what I thought at the time was huge price.
Now I am contemplating breaking it up because the prices are just nuts.
But do we think it will continue to rise? It just seems way too high considering how much unopened product is out there.
What is reasonable price on this card?
I’d be wary of anything that has doubled or tripled in a matter of weeks.
Said it before, this feels like 1990 all over again where new “investors” pile into the hobby and drive prices of widely available product through the roof. We are pretty clearly in the euphoric/ mania /delusion stage of the bubble - just check out BO, most think that prices will continue to go up forever...thats delusion. Next stage, and I have no idea when it will come, is the blowoff. And it will happen, it always does. Don’t believe me see US Real Estate 2007-2009. This is the card collecting equivalent of a stripper owning 5 homes, will not end well.
That’s just insane. PSA 9’s average sale $120. PSA 10, $1500-2000. I’m not even going to look at the pop report but my guess it’s in the same range as 86’s Jordan’s.
Edit to add I noticed the $120 price was March sales. Now $200 is more realistic, higher for dead centered examples. Maybe candidates for crack and submit or at least the buyer might think so.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
There are cards that people just WANT. Call them "iconic".
People want the UD Griffey and the Donruss Canseco.
It doesn't matter that Rose isn't in the HOF and the same goes for McGwire, who's 1985 rookie just went for $5,000.00 (another went for $3,650.00).
Will the "bubble" burst? So far, it has not in PSA10 for certain popular players.
Curiosity got the best of me.
Griffey PSA 10. 24,869
Jordan PSA 10. 17,231
Plus untold 9’s that might have a chance.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Since you mentioned Rose, his high grade rc’s are off 50% from the 2016 peak. Same goes for numerous other popular vintage baseball rc’s.
Lots and lots and lots of precedence for hobby boom and bust. I remember all the new collectors that poured into the hobby in 1990 and jacked prices through the roof because we all knew that this demand would last forever, people would want this stuff forever.
I guess it’s time for me to really examine my KG Jr’s. See if any of the 9’s are worth cracking. I know I have a few raw and at least one might be worth subbing.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
I 100% agree about the iconic part and that being in the HOF doesn't matter (only in the sense that their cards will go even higher when they actually get in though) but I've gotta call bullshart on both of those McGwire sales.
The PWCC was textbook shill it to hell and back, knowing you're going to win the auction, but at least you'll get to see what the highest someone is willing to pay and you'll manipulate the market while you're at it. This is what's known in the industry as a "Brent Blue Plate Special." "Winner" has (53) feedback and 90% bids with PWCC.
The $5k sale is horse malarkey and will never be paid for and never exchanged hands. Again, straight out of the price manipulation textbook.
Arthur
Seems to be the same playbook as the 1955 Clemente PSA 8.
Past sales
5k,5k,6k,5k,5k,5k,5k,5k,11k,30k,20k,32k,60k,100k,150k,65k,50k 22k,30k,40k,ect
I can't say if any particular auction is BS or not, but my point was simply that certain players/cards are chased more than they "should" be.
The McGwire card is very tough to get in a PSA 10, out of 45,000 submissions only 302 10's. I would not give you $10.00 for that card as a part of my PC.
The HOF matters sometimes, being banned from the HOF probably does increase Pete's card prices.
People buy what they like.
Canseco was a very very good player, his OPS is 105th all time.
Some HOFers cards are not sought after, see Jim Thome and Larry Walker.
Sorry. Must have been total graded. My bad.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Please clarify.
Munson isn't in the HOF and neither is Mattingly, yet both are very aggressively collected. Both great players and Yankees. Being Yankees seems to be more of a factor than being (or in this case not being) HOFers. Going into the HOF isn't going to effect their card prices too much.
On the other hand, who would have given you $1,000.00 for a Harold Baines rookie before he made it in? His rookie card STILL goes for less than a Pete Rose card from 1981!
Now we're going back 36 years for the HOF to matter?
The HOF is only one factor in why people collect, others are who they played for and championship teams they played on. It's by no means "the rule", but does matter, sometimes.
Perfect (pre 1984) example; Harmon Killebrew and Sandy Koufax. Both were rookies in 1955, yet Koufax's cards worth WAY more than Killebrew's, about 5 times as expensive. Killebrew's cards are also a bit tougher to find in high grade.
Koufax, playing in LA and winning championships has a much bigger factor than HOF.
Joe Jackson says "hi."
Arthur
This is an incredibly ignorant comment. So players aren't collected until they're inducted into the HOF? What about Buck Weaver? Are his cards popular? What about Obaks and Zeenuts? Are those cards popular? The list of cards that are wildly popular that depict players not in the HOF is endless.
Applying a finite, blanket rule to an entire set has a zero winning percentage throughout history. Canseco was nothing short of a phenomenon for the largest group of collectors the hobby has ever seen at one time. That's not significant? You clearly have zero foresight.
I hate using this word but you're a textbook definition of a hater. You continuously pop into all of these threads and just chirp the same thing over and over and that's how bad these things are. We get it. You didn't collect in the 1980s, you don't understand the allure, and you don't want to spend any of your money on it. That's fine. We heard you the first ten times you said it.
Arthur
Card collecting as been around for 100+ years. The 80's launched a broad base collector's base.
Read the "your best card as a kid collector" thread. Canseco, Mattingly, Gooden rookies (arguably the most iconic of the 80's) were pretty much untouchable to the 80's kids.
HOF or not, every generation has their heroes. Today's prices (bubble-ish or not), demand is overwhelming the supply
None of this is accurate. You're basically taking your extremely limited knowledge of the hobby and projecting it onto the entire hobby and saying it's a fact. Your opinion ceases to have credibility.
Arthur
Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew, both Hall of Famers.
Yes but why the big price difference? They are both HOFers.
You sure don't seem to know much about what you are talking about.
You say that the HOF "matters" and of course since all the guys in the HOF are great (NO, I don't want to start a debate on guys like Harold Baines), they are going to have people buying their cards. Not because they are in the HOF, because they are great players.
Koufax was nowhere near being the greatest pitcher of all time. Killebrew is one of the top 8 home run hitters of all time.
You obviously don't want to look at card prices. A PSA 8 Killebrew rookie sells for $2,000.00, a PSA 8 Koufax rookie sells for $8,000.00. Let's bring in Roberto Clemente, the 3rd HOFer from 1955, his PSA 8 rookie sells for 34-42 THOUSAND dollars.
The Hall of Fame is not the "bar" in MANY instances. You said it yourself; Koufax was a Dodger and also an icon to a lot of people of his faith.
People collect great players who they LIKE, guys that played in big markets and guys that won championships.
If you take the HOF out of the equation, a few guys prices will drop like a rock, most will not.
People don't care even a little bit that Rose, Bonds and McGwire aren't in the HOF. Larry Walker and Jim Thome made it in and very few seem to care. Thome has 612 home runs and his rookie sells for $60-70.00!!!!
With that rationale, T206 Cobb, Cy Young, Speaker, Collins they should all be about 10 bucks apiece as none of us were born yet when they played.
I've tried to read between the lines with your thoughts & reasoning. Im pretty sure I can't explain it any simpler:
a Google share = $1386, a Microsoft share = $185, ONE Amazon share = $2476.
Why?, you ask. Because Mr. Market says so. Shares of these companies are bought & sold on the Nasdaq.
You say it's too expensive and not reasonable. ANY item is worth what someone else will pay for it.
Another person on the board is complaining about eTopps. Well I'm sorry. Mr. Market doesn't appreciate them.
In conclusion:
eBay is Mr. Market for cards. It has been since it's launch in the 90's.
You have a buyer and a seller. A market is created.
It won't last, you say. WHO KNOWS!.....same for Google, Microsoft, Amazon. same for Anything!
I've said many times; collect for the fun and hobby, not an investment.
Many collectors of the older players aren't necessarily old, they just appreciate the history of the sports that they collect.
I have a few thoughts on this thread.
Thurman Munson is not in the HoF. Fact checked. To say that he is the only exception to an arbitrary rule is naive. (At least I think that’s the argument being made. I consider my reading comprehension to be above average but some posts in this thread are real head scratchers)
Empirical evidence helps make persuasive arguments. It doesn’t take long to look up card prices. Certainly less time than it takes to craft a multi paragraph post entry.
There are plenty of guys on this board that collect non HoF player for all the reasons stated above. There is a Dave Kingman guy. I dabble in Fred Lynn. There was a huge Ron Santo contingent before he finally made it in. People collect all different things for all different reasons.
We sometimes complain that this board gets boring. Debates are fun. So let’s not all kill the new guy. But new guy should try to educate himself when doing so, else you risk being labeled a troll.
after a piece of art sold at auction it immediately lost most of its value. I'm talking about extremely high end art.
Oy. You just don't base your arguments in facts, do you?
This thread has become bizarre.
Wow, I didn’t know there would be math.
Wow! And I started this thread talking about Griffey prices.
This thread needs some 1983 Nikkie Six !!!!
Or popcorn girl!
not only do i think the prices will maintain, id say by the action on other cards they're undervalued. Griffey has been retired for 10 years and is basically still in every set produced, and this is how deitys are made. And let me tell you his superstar counterparts are next, because if a Jr. 1993 finest base issue is worth $80+, then a 1993 finest base issues of Bonds and McGwire will be more than $10 as well.
Zack Ziegler
I procrastinated over Griffey rookie 10's too much the last couple of years never buying any of his many. And welp, here we are oh well
Happy I did get my 1989 10's of Prime Time few years back before his left the track. 
Has ESPN or anyone ever done a documentary on Griffey? I don't know if his career deserves a 10-part doc, but a 2 hour film with a segment on his impact on the hobby would be an interesting watch.
But back to my original question. Is the Griffey 89 PSA 10, with 3800 graded, to date, have a upside?
Everybody seems to want one. Demand outweighs the fact that these are available.
Disclaimer: I have no 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. PSA 10s in my collection.
Mentioning supply and demand is a flawed argument because even though you know how many are graded (3,800 was mentioned above), you can't put a number on how many of those 3,800 will ever be made available.
You can't assume that all 3,800 are owned by collectors that want to sell them. What if 2,500 of those are in permanent collections never to be seen again?
When you can say EXACTLY how many of those 3,800 are available for sale (impossible to do), then you can discuss intelligently whether the current pricing is fair or not, and where the future pricing might be headed.
Until then it's all conjecture.
Not taking sides here, but supply and demand is never a flawed argument when discussing economics. If prices rise enough, supply from the hypothetical 2500 in “collections never to be seen again” will enter the market. Prices will stabilize once the supply meets the demand.
How many? 1? 17? 1,246?
That depends on the price elasticity of those controlling the supply. At $1 incremental price, few new supply enters the market. At $1000 increase, I bet a whole lot more supply would become available. Each individual seller determines their own price point, which creates the market.
When did the card market become rational? Lately it has been boom to boom.
Hell, even I have a PSA 10 1989 UD Griffey rookie and I'm a NASCAR guy
Love that guy
Kingnascar's PSA Sets
Kingnascar's PSADNA Sets
Just look at the eTopps cards I believe we are seeing the same pattern here the prices are sure to fall.