i agree that mantle signed a bunch, so did williams and Dimaggio. a difference between those guys and ones like rose, feller, ryan, ripken is the amount of additional time the latter group has had to sign. the HUGE auto boom really started in the 80s at card shows. but then it was all in person and there was a limit to how many people they could line in front of a guy. in the 90s with scoreboard and UDA it got ratched up to another notch. now guys like mantle, dimag etc could sign tons more faster.
but, Mantle was gone by 95, dimag and williams only lasted a few years longer with huge numbers signed. feller had another 10-12 years longer than the others. Rose was signing everything in sight until last year and ripken/ryan are still going.
long story short, while there are tons of mantles/williams/dimag autos out there, there are train freight cars full of ryan/rose/feller, and nolan is still going strong. in fact, the ryan foundation is getting so many requests that they are something like 5-6 months behind. that is a LOT of autos!!
to get back to nolan sale prices, the PSA 9 rookie that is up on Goldin right now is currently at $68,000 with 10 days to go. that one is getting into 6 figures by the end. the last 2 i have seen sold both went for over $100k. an SGC 9 went for $100k in April and the last PSA 9 went for $115k a little before that one
@coolstanley said:
Another big time HOF who signed a bunch was Stan Musial. His signed items sell for peanuts.
The cool thing is when you regularly buy/sell/trade in this business, you can accumulate a lotta friggin peanuts and it doesn’t tap into anything else other than boosting your income. So what if any of these guys signed a lot. Speculate as you must while the money makers continue to do just that. I find great humor in reading posts from people who want to moan about how the market is so affected. Shouting into the void where hardly anyone listens.
@CardGeek said:
That's true. That's not the same thing as card values.
Is Ryan a tough signature to get? Some guys have signed so much that there will never be a shortage.
no, Ryan has signed a TON. there is far far far from any shortage.
Indeed, I have more Ryan auto'd cards in my collection than any other player and I wasn't even trying. Some came in large collections, others I just bought because I liked them.
I would certainly get every one graded that had a chance at a 9 or 10.
Eh, if I had the urge, there are other sigs I have which would deserve more consideration. At this time I don’t send stuff in to PSA and haven’t since 2013. Not currently on my radar. But, maybe someday due to boredom. 😉
100,000k premium? Dang. I would hope for 100k Ryan would go on vacation to the beach with you for the weekend. Maybe even let you have first base? JK he would still strike anyone out now.
@CardGeek said:
That's true. That's not the same thing as card values.
Is Ryan a tough signature to get? Some guys have signed so much that there will never be a shortage.
no, Ryan has signed a TON. there is far far far from any shortage.
Mantle signed a TON.
Ted Williams was signing hundreds of items a day for his son's business up until he was about 80 years old.
No shortage of 1989 U.D. Griffey rookies either.
DEMAND causes prices to go crazy, NOT supply.
you must agree that supply is factor. short supply often drives demand. when people see that there is a limited amount of an item or short supply, often demand/prices rise. it is part of the reason why older cards are usually more valuable than newer ones. fewer older ones due to attrition. and the older, generally the worse condition.
supply is the biggest factor as to why 1991 desert shield cards are worth 100x what regular 1991 topps are. that tiny little foil emblem at the top tells collectors there were only about 5000 of those copies compared to 5 million of the regular cards. same with tiffany etc.
There's absolutely no reason these cards should be selling for these amounts! These are the 15th-19th year cards for Ryan.
The only cards I could find that sold for more in these years were the rookies of Gwynn, Boggs, Sandberg, Mattingly, Clemens, Puckett and McGwire. Nolan actually sells for MORE than the Ripken "regular" rookie! Other than rookie cards, Ryan sells higher than anyone during these years.
Here's Tom Seaver Topps PSA10 sales;
1982 $175.00
1983 $115.00
1984 $225.00
1985 no recent sales.
1986 $75.00!!!!!
Why is Gwynn sell for so much more than Boggs?
Why does the Griffey Upper Deck rookie with 4245 PSA10's sell for a little ($8,000.00-$6,000.00) less than the Fleer Glossy with only 120 10's?
DEMAND.
Bringing up Desert Shield vs regular Topps is kind of ridiculous. One of the scarcest sets and one of the most over produced of all time.
But look at what Ryan's Desert Shield cards goes for in a 10, $6,000.00! Just about as much as the Chipper Jones rookie card. His 23rd year card!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
@craig44 said:
i agree that mantle signed a bunch, so did williams and Dimaggio. a difference between those guys and ones like rose, feller, ryan, ripken is the amount of additional time the latter group has had to sign. the HUGE auto boom really started in the 80s at card shows. but then it was all in person and there was a limit to how many people they could line in front of a guy. in the 90s with scoreboard and UDA it got ratched up to another notch. now guys like mantle, dimag etc could sign tons more faster.
but, Mantle was gone by 95, dimag and williams only lasted a few years longer with huge numbers signed. feller had another 10-12 years longer than the others. Rose was signing everything in sight until last year and ripken/ryan are still going.
long story short, while there are tons of mantles/williams/dimag autos out there, there are train freight cars full of ryan/rose/feller, and nolan is still going strong. in fact, the ryan foundation is getting so many requests that they are something like 5-6 months behind. that is a LOT of autos!!
One of the guys you mentioned was Ripken.
His stuff has very little demand compared to what it was.
Amazing.
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
@CardGeek said:
That's true. That's not the same thing as card values.
Is Ryan a tough signature to get? Some guys have signed so much that there will never be a shortage.
no, Ryan has signed a TON. there is far far far from any shortage.
Mantle signed a TON.
Ted Williams was signing hundreds of items a day for his son's business up until he was about 80 years old.
No shortage of 1989 U.D. Griffey rookies either.
DEMAND causes prices to go crazy, NOT supply.
you must agree that supply is factor. short supply often drives demand. when people see that there is a limited amount of an item or short supply, often demand/prices rise. it is part of the reason why older cards are usually more valuable than newer ones. fewer older ones due to attrition. and the older, generally the worse condition.
supply is the biggest factor as to why 1991 desert shield cards are worth 100x what regular 1991 topps are. that tiny little foil emblem at the top tells collectors there were only about 5000 of those copies compared to 5 million of the regular cards. same with tiffany etc.
There's absolutely no reason these cards should be selling for these amounts! These are the 15th-19th year cards for Ryan.
The only cards I could find that sold for more in these years were the rookies of Gwynn, Boggs, Sandberg, Mattingly, Clemens, Puckett and McGwire. Nolan actually sells for MORE than the Ripken "regular" rookie! Other than rookie cards, Ryan sells higher than anyone during these years.
Here's Tom Seaver Topps PSA10 sales;
1982 $175.00
1983 $115.00
1984 $225.00
1985 no recent sales.
1986 $75.00!!!!!
Why is Gwynn sell for so much more than Boggs?
Why does the Griffey Upper Deck rookie with 4245 PSA10's sell for a little ($8,000.00-$6,000.00) less than the Fleer Glossy with only 120 10's?
DEMAND.
Bringing up Desert Shield vs regular Topps is kind of ridiculous. One of the scarcest sets and one of the most over produced of all time.
But look at what Ryan's Desert Shield cards goes for in a 10, $6,000.00! Just about as much as the Chipper Jones rookie card. His 23rd year card!
that is exactly why i compared 1991 topps and desert shield. to illustrate that supply can greatly affect value.
@craig44 said:
there are players who's legacies outshine their greatness. ryan was a great pitcher, but not the best of all time or even the best of his generation. However, he is the "paul bunyan" of pitchers. his fame is greater than the totality of his career. a couple of examples:
Mickey mantle. not the GOAT or the GOAT of his generation, but his fame and legacy have put his cardboard at the very top of the hobby.
Joe Namath. way more famous than great. threw more INT than TD. yet, his rookie in high grade is one of the greatest vintage football cards.
there is no pitcher more collectable than ryan. not because he was the GOAT, but because of the fastball, the k's, the no hitters and the extreme longevity.
Valid and excellent posts using Mantle and Ryan above. There are players with more HR’s and RBI than Mantle, and there are pitchers with more wins than Ryan and championships. What Mantle and Ryan had were physical tools that out of 7+ billion people on the planet only a handful were ever blessed to have.
Palmer and Seaver had better careers and numbers, but at the end of the day there was never a pitcher created like Lynn Nolan Ryan. If you had to pick one pitcher to pitch a one game winner take all series it would not be Ryan - Gibson, Randy Johnson, Koufax, Clemens, Maddux…. Would be the first names thrown out. If you wanted to pick a pitcher who would strike fear in every batter and throw a baseball through a brick wall it would be Ryan.
You can argue who is the best, but telling people who they should like and collect is an entirely different story. Gibson and Clemens might be better but Ryan is more popular worth a ton more.
@CardGeek said:
That's true. That's not the same thing as card values.
Is Ryan a tough signature to get? Some guys have signed so much that there will never be a shortage.
no, Ryan has signed a TON. there is far far far from any shortage.
Mantle signed a TON.
Ted Williams was signing hundreds of items a day for his son's business up until he was about 80 years old.
No shortage of 1989 U.D. Griffey rookies either.
DEMAND causes prices to go crazy, NOT supply.
you must agree that supply is factor. short supply often drives demand. when people see that there is a limited amount of an item or short supply, often demand/prices rise. it is part of the reason why older cards are usually more valuable than newer ones. fewer older ones due to attrition. and the older, generally the worse condition.
supply is the biggest factor as to why 1991 desert shield cards are worth 100x what regular 1991 topps are. that tiny little foil emblem at the top tells collectors there were only about 5000 of those copies compared to 5 million of the regular cards. same with tiffany etc.
There's absolutely no reason these cards should be selling for these amounts! These are the 15th-19th year cards for Ryan.
The only cards I could find that sold for more in these years were the rookies of Gwynn, Boggs, Sandberg, Mattingly, Clemens, Puckett and McGwire. Nolan actually sells for MORE than the Ripken "regular" rookie! Other than rookie cards, Ryan sells higher than anyone during these years.
Here's Tom Seaver Topps PSA10 sales;
1982 $175.00
1983 $115.00
1984 $225.00
1985 no recent sales.
1986 $75.00!!!!!
Why is Gwynn sell for so much more than Boggs?
Why does the Griffey Upper Deck rookie with 4245 PSA10's sell for a little ($8,000.00-$6,000.00) less than the Fleer Glossy with only 120 10's?
DEMAND.
Bringing up Desert Shield vs regular Topps is kind of ridiculous. One of the scarcest sets and one of the most over produced of all time.
But look at what Ryan's Desert Shield cards goes for in a 10, $6,000.00! Just about as much as the Chipper Jones rookie card. His 23rd year card!
that is exactly why i compared 1991 topps and desert shield. to illustrate that supply can greatly affect value.
If you look at the Chipper Jones Rookie from that set, it proves the opposite.
One of the very best 3rd basemen of all time statistically and his card is barely worth more than Ryans 23rd year issue!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
Very low production. Most of it was supposed to have been stolen before it ever made it out of the US. Easy to fake. To my knowledge the only way to tell a fake from a real one is the quality of the foil stamp. If the guy stamping them gets the stamp right the card is going to be called real. It being a military issue makes it very special to a good amount of people.
Pretty much every Topps regular issue Nolan Ryan card was printed in huge numbers. None of them are scarce or even rare.
@Cakes said:
Great information everyone, thank you!
I guess it is official, Ryan has now entered into the same elite status as Mantle? Is Griffey Junior next?
Ryan has actually shared that distinction for a while. If you look at Topps from 1952 until Ryan’s last season outside of the rookie cards each season he and Mick were always the most expensive cards each year in the set. Mantle was always the most expensive card each year except for rookie cards of other players. Once Ryan started appearing on Topps cards he also was the most expensive card each year.
Yeah, cuz Beckett is gospel. LOL. To anyone who dismisses Nolan Ryan as anything other than a hobby icon, leader, and higher demand collectible, go ahead and weave your webs. You just don't know history. I don't blame you if you weren't there. But, for those of us who've known about the allure of Ryan cards for many years and beyond what price guides tell you, it's a no brainer to assess his values. Place him wherever you want. I don't care. He's the KING.
Comments
i agree that mantle signed a bunch, so did williams and Dimaggio. a difference between those guys and ones like rose, feller, ryan, ripken is the amount of additional time the latter group has had to sign. the HUGE auto boom really started in the 80s at card shows. but then it was all in person and there was a limit to how many people they could line in front of a guy. in the 90s with scoreboard and UDA it got ratched up to another notch. now guys like mantle, dimag etc could sign tons more faster.
but, Mantle was gone by 95, dimag and williams only lasted a few years longer with huge numbers signed. feller had another 10-12 years longer than the others. Rose was signing everything in sight until last year and ripken/ryan are still going.
long story short, while there are tons of mantles/williams/dimag autos out there, there are train freight cars full of ryan/rose/feller, and nolan is still going strong. in fact, the ryan foundation is getting so many requests that they are something like 5-6 months behind. that is a LOT of autos!!
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
to get back to nolan sale prices, the PSA 9 rookie that is up on Goldin right now is currently at $68,000 with 10 days to go. that one is getting into 6 figures by the end. the last 2 i have seen sold both went for over $100k. an SGC 9 went for $100k in April and the last PSA 9 went for $115k a little before that one
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Another big time HOF who signed a bunch was Stan Musial. His signed items sell for peanuts.
2025 SEC bowl record 4-10
SEC bowl record vs BIG TEN last two years 2-8
The cool thing is when you regularly buy/sell/trade in this business, you can accumulate a lotta friggin peanuts and it doesn’t tap into anything else other than boosting your income. So what if any of these guys signed a lot. Speculate as you must while the money makers continue to do just that. I find great humor in reading posts from people who want to moan about how the market is so affected. Shouting into the void where hardly anyone listens.
Eh, if I had the urge, there are other sigs I have which would deserve more consideration. At this time I don’t send stuff in to PSA and haven’t since 2013. Not currently on my radar. But, maybe someday due to boredom. 😉
100,000k premium? Dang. I would hope for 100k Ryan would go on vacation to the beach with you for the weekend. Maybe even let you have first base? JK he would still strike anyone out now.
Supply is a factor, but I said "go crazy".
Here's some recent Ryan Topps PSA10 sales;
1982 $4400.00
1983 $1800.00
1984 $1800.00
1985 $3000.00
1986 $5000.00
There's absolutely no reason these cards should be selling for these amounts! These are the 15th-19th year cards for Ryan.
The only cards I could find that sold for more in these years were the rookies of Gwynn, Boggs, Sandberg, Mattingly, Clemens, Puckett and McGwire. Nolan actually sells for MORE than the Ripken "regular" rookie! Other than rookie cards, Ryan sells higher than anyone during these years.
Here's Tom Seaver Topps PSA10 sales;
1982 $175.00
1983 $115.00
1984 $225.00
1985 no recent sales.
1986 $75.00!!!!!
Why is Gwynn sell for so much more than Boggs?
Why does the Griffey Upper Deck rookie with 4245 PSA10's sell for a little ($8,000.00-$6,000.00) less than the Fleer Glossy with only 120 10's?
DEMAND.
Bringing up Desert Shield vs regular Topps is kind of ridiculous. One of the scarcest sets and one of the most over produced of all time.
But look at what Ryan's Desert Shield cards goes for in a 10, $6,000.00! Just about as much as the Chipper Jones rookie card. His 23rd year card!
;-)
Like my real estate friends tell me all the time 'I'm only looking for ONE buyer'.
One of the guys you mentioned was Ripken.
His stuff has very little demand compared to what it was.
Amazing.
Buy em up. Pump them up. Sell them.
Buy, Pump, Hold.... Hold.... Hold.... Hold.... Die.
Fixed it.
that is exactly why i compared 1991 topps and desert shield. to illustrate that supply can greatly affect value.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Valid and excellent posts using Mantle and Ryan above. There are players with more HR’s and RBI than Mantle, and there are pitchers with more wins than Ryan and championships. What Mantle and Ryan had were physical tools that out of 7+ billion people on the planet only a handful were ever blessed to have.
Palmer and Seaver had better careers and numbers, but at the end of the day there was never a pitcher created like Lynn Nolan Ryan. If you had to pick one pitcher to pitch a one game winner take all series it would not be Ryan - Gibson, Randy Johnson, Koufax, Clemens, Maddux…. Would be the first names thrown out. If you wanted to pick a pitcher who would strike fear in every batter and throw a baseball through a brick wall it would be Ryan.
You can argue who is the best, but telling people who they should like and collect is an entirely different story. Gibson and Clemens might be better but Ryan is more popular worth a ton more.
If you look at the Chipper Jones Rookie from that set, it proves the opposite.
One of the very best 3rd basemen of all time statistically and his card is barely worth more than Ryans 23rd year issue!
Topps Desert Shield is a pretty unique issue.
Very low production. Most of it was supposed to have been stolen before it ever made it out of the US. Easy to fake. To my knowledge the only way to tell a fake from a real one is the quality of the foil stamp. If the guy stamping them gets the stamp right the card is going to be called real. It being a military issue makes it very special to a good amount of people.
Pretty much every Topps regular issue Nolan Ryan card was printed in huge numbers. None of them are scarce or even rare.
Apples to oranges.
I just bought a 1991 Score Blyleven PSA 10. POP 8 for $24.00.
A 1991 Score Nolan Ryan PSA 10 POP 88 went for $300.00.
11 times more 10's at 12 times the price.
DEMAND!
Nolan Ryan has huge name recognition.
Younger people don't know a star from a common a lot of the time.
Both of those cards had the same print run. Pop can often be a very deceptive number.
Great information everyone, thank you!
I guess it is official, Ryan has now entered into the same elite status as Mantle? Is Griffey Junior next?
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
Ryan has actually shared that distinction for a while. If you look at Topps from 1952 until Ryan’s last season outside of the rookie cards each season he and Mick were always the most expensive cards each year in the set. Mantle was always the most expensive card each year except for rookie cards of other players. Once Ryan started appearing on Topps cards he also was the most expensive card each year.
Not true. I'm looking at a Beckett right now. Ryan might be the 3rd or 4th or 5th most valuable card, excluding RCs, most of the time.
He's already there.
Yeah, cuz Beckett is gospel. LOL. To anyone who dismisses Nolan Ryan as anything other than a hobby icon, leader, and higher demand collectible, go ahead and weave your webs. You just don't know history. I don't blame you if you weren't there. But, for those of us who've known about the allure of Ryan cards for many years and beyond what price guides tell you, it's a no brainer to assess his values. Place him wherever you want. I don't care. He's the KING.
PAY HOMAGE TO THE KING!