VALUE OF 1/1's

Warman

How do you put a sale value on sports cards that are numbered 1/1? Beckett doesn't put a value on rarer cards (anywhere from 1 of 1's to /10's, etc.) How does an appraiser determine values for these cards?

Stingray

I guess it is worth how much some one is willing to pay for it. If that makes sense.

Stingray

mikeschmidt

I think Beckett does have a section now which puts ranges of prices for 1/1's, serial numbered up to 10, 50, 100, etc.

For what it is worth, any given HOFer probably has dozens upon dozens of 1/1's in 2005, given the proliferation of sets, parallel sets and inserts - so the value of these has declined pretty much.

You can probably search Duke Snider 1/1 on completed ebay auctions to get an estimate...

Brian48

Well, if they're serial numbered up to 10, 50, 100, etc., then they're not 1/1s. To my knowledge, Beckett does not list the values of any true 1/1's. It' impossible. I believe, with a few exceptions, Beckett leaves any card serial numbered 25 or less as unreported. What they do from time to time however, is report a recent sale of a 1/1 if it's known to occur on eBay or one of the well known auction houses. They don't claim the winning bid as the "current value" though, just the price that the card happen to sell for.

I personally think 1/1's are horrible investments, but terrific collectibles for the true fan of any particular player.

jmbkb4

<< <i>Well, if they're serial numbered up to 10, 50, 100, etc., then they're not 1/1s. To my knowledge, Beckett does not list the values of any true 1/1's. It' impossible. I believe, with a few exceptions, Beckett leaves any card serial numbered 25 or less as unreported. What they do from time to time however, is report a recent sale of a 1/1 if it's known to occur on eBay or one of the well known auction houses. They don't claim the winning bid as the "current value" though, just the price that the card happen to sell for.

I personally think 1/1's are horrible investments, but terrific collectibles for the true fan of any particular player. >>


At one time, it probably was impossible. Now, however, with many current stars having dozens and dozens of "1/1's" it has made pricing them more feasible. Beckett does indeed have pricing for 1/1's. It's in a new section between the price guide and the graded price guide, if I recall. It will give you a ballpark idea.

Older 1/1's (pre-2003) do command a premium over ones from 2005, which is logical.

P.S. I just bought a true "1/1" of Frank Thomas from 2004 for $3.95 (seriously).

jrdolan

This year especially, the card makers are deliberately issuing a long list of auto cards numbered 25 or less, including 1/1's of many subsets and parallels. I enjoy low numbers because it gives me a way to limit my focus. There's still a boatload of 2005 auto cards printed 1/10 or less, usually just minor variations on each other, but at least I have an attainable list to work on. Even the 1/25 runs are so numerous that I don't even try to get into those any more. And I only collect the autos of one player!

As for 1/1's, I get as excited as the next guy to own the only example of a particular auto card ... and then I realize that Johnny Bench (like everyone else) signs sheets of hundreds of stickers at a time, and my 1/1 card got a random sticker off those sheets. Johnny never touched or even saw this card. Hell, he may STILL not know what it looks like. I much prefer the non-sticker cards that actually were touched and signed by the player, whatever the print run is. Do they even do those any more?

gosteelers

<< <i>This year especially, the card makers are deliberately issuing a long list of auto cards numbered 25 or less, including 1/1's of many subsets and parallels. I enjoy low numbers because it gives me a way to limit my focus. There's still a boatload of 2005 auto cards printed 1/10 or less, usually just minor variations on each other, but at least I have an attainable list to work on. Even the 1/25 runs are so numerous that I don't even try to get into those any more. And I only collect the autos of one player!

As for 1/1's, I get as excited as the next guy to own the only example of a particular auto card ... and then I realize that Johnny Bench (like everyone else) signs sheets of hundreds of stickers at a time, and my 1/1 card got a random sticker off those sheets. Johnny never touched or even saw this card. Hell, he may STILL not know what it looks like. I much prefer the non-sticker cards that actually were touched and signed by the player, whatever the print run is. Do they even do those any more? >>



I know Leaf Century had the player sign the actual card this year, but Leaf Century next year, will be, ummm...gone...

Mark

Downtown1974

<< <i>I think Beckett does have a section now which puts ranges of prices for 1/1's, serial numbered up to 10, 50, 100, etc.

I know Becket used to have a section in its price guide called "short prints", which showed what SPs had reportedly sold for either at shows or ebay. I am not sure if they still publish that page or not.

Tabe

<< <i>I much prefer the non-sticker cards that actually were touched and signed by the player, whatever the print run is. Do they even do those any more? >>


I can't speak for baseball, but for football, at least, there's always Press Pass, SP Authentic, and Ultimate Collection with on-the-card autos.

Tabe

Carew29

I personally have not bought into this 1/1 BS. These card companies are trying to create something to get you to buy their product because there is only 1 card of it. Who cares!! Just because they are making something short-printed does not give it value. Do you know how many auto's Carew has signed? His auto is virtually worthless because he signs everything. A Short Print (Example) is the 1968 Topps Venezuela #80 Rod Carew. To my knowledge there are only 5 in existence. And this is over a 37 year period. Only two have been graded by PSA and two are currently with David Levin, and the other last i heard was in the state of PA. It will be interesting to see what all this 1/1 stuff is worth 10 years from now. IMO.

Warman

Wow, all of you really deflated my enthusiasm about owning 1 of 1's. As a novice, it seems to me that if 1 of 1's are worthless, then maybe the whole sportscard collection industry is becoming less popular. For me, I love the new cards with GU material and autos, they are so superior to the old cards from the 1990's and prior IMO. I prefer the newer cards myself because they are more exciting to look at and you still know that you are getting authentic autos/GU materials even from old time HOFers. And I guess that I have a hard time accepting that there shouldn't be value premiums for 1 of 1 cards, after all nobody else can ever own that brand and year of card except the owner of that 1 of 1. Whereas if it's a 1 of 100, you know that there could be 100 other owners of the identical card.

rman444

I believe that the trend of flooding the market with 1/1's in the past few years has really hurt the masterpiece market. When a set like Diamond Kings comes out which has 50 1/1's of the exact same card, maybe just different shades of color, that is crap. I collect masterpieces and 1/1's before the companies turned them into junk. The stuff from 1997, 98, . . . up to about 2001 was nice. Strictly one parallel of each card of the base set - and that's it. Nothing more. Nothing less. Ultra Masterpiece. Flair Legacy Masterpiece. Upper Deck Exclusives 1/1. etc.

These are the only 1/1's worth collecting. Their prices have come down due to what the companies are doing now. No doubt about it. However, these will always maintain a good amount of value because they are true masterpieces, and still have a good collecting base. I draw a parallel with the early masterpieces to the 1998 Upper Deck Jersey cards. They were the first to hit the market and start the craze. Although recent jersey cards of your favorite player can be bought for a buck, the 1998 jerseys will still set you back some money. Also, the 1993 Finest refractors. Current refractors are junk. 1993 will always maintain a certain amount of value.

rlankhaar

Anyone think that /25 or greater numbered cards will be more desirable and collectable, even worth more in the future than the 1/1's? I just can't see many player or set collectors wanting or even attempting to collect these 1/1's. At least 25 is a limited yet somewhat reasonable amount out there. Besides, how limited are some of these 1/1's-if there are 10 of them in a set for a single player, it might as well just be numbered to 10. But I think the same thing is happening to 1/1's as did to GU stuff-a little is great, but when you have a couple hundred (or thousand) of each "extremely rare" item the appeal is lost.

rlankhaar

<< <i>These are the only 1/1's worth collecting. Their prices have come down due to what the companies are doing now. No doubt about it. However, these will always maintain a good amount of value because they are true masterpieces, and still have a good collecting base. I draw a parallel with the early masterpieces to the 1998 Upper Deck Jersey cards. They were the first to hit the market and start the craze. Although recent jersey cards of your favorite player can be bought for a buck, the 1998 jerseys will still set you back some money. Also, the 1993 Finest refractors. Current refractors are junk. 1993 will always maintain a certain amount of value. >>



I'll echo this as well-there are still a number of mid-90's sets that are limited that still have high collectability, not only for single player collectors, but there are a number of people working on sets from those years. Now, does anybody actually collect sets of the modern parallel sets? The sheer number and variations are pretty confusing. Not to mention the market saturation has really hurt the cachet these cards once had.

CopperJJ

Currently I like collecting cards numbered to 10 of my favorite player (as listed in my sig). It's quite easy to come across a card numbered to 10 on ebay. Ocassionally you can even find a couple of the same card and have more than one of the 10 made. I like cards #d to 25 and 50 also as well as my player's cards numbered his jersey number, 28/???.

jmbkb4

<< <i>Anyone think that /25 or greater numbered cards will be more desirable and collectable, even worth more in the future than the 1/1's? I just can't see many player or set collectors wanting or even attempting to collect these 1/1's. At least 25 is a limited yet somewhat reasonable amount out there. >>


This is an incredibly good point. I completely agree. And I'd like to insert a "plug" as to why I love my collection (1993 refractors) --- 241 of every card ----- oversaturation will never be a problem but there is enough out there to get a good number of collectors seriously involved.

bjork73

It would be nice if, instead of slapping some ridiculously low print run on a card which has 10 cards that look almost the same and have simlarly ridiculously low print runs, why not, say, make some cards that exhibit some sort of, ummmmm, CREATIVITY? EYE APPEAL? Say what you want about stuff from the mid-to-late 90s, at least some of the ooh-ahh factor was due to aesthetic appeal beyond a sweet patch. The few sets/cards that are out there that really strive for visual impact tend to sell well and maintain long-term interest. It's unfortunate that the card companies, and even some collectors, have declared creativity and visual appeal to either be dead trends or a niche to be satisfied by a occasional product or insert.

CDsNuts

With any trend that starts and becomes popular, the originals that started the trend will almost always hold more value. As mentioned before, 93 Refractors and older UD GU Jersey cards carry a great premium over similar sets that are out today in similar or lesser quantities. The one that confuses me is the fact that the first inserted autos haven't followed this pattern. I just bought a 1993 Fleer Steve Young Auto for $30. These inserted auto's were IMPOSSIBLE to pull, with about one coming every five or ten cases in the early 90s. UD (Reggie, Ted, Nolan, Bench/Morgan, Yaz, Marino, Montana, Payton, Wilt, West....), Fleer and Ultra (Clemens, Gwynn, Eck, Salmon, R. White, Young, Irvin, Mutombo, Wilkins, Grandmama, Oates, etc....), and even Classic (Ryan, Schmidt, Bonds, Shaq, Jeter, etc...) are great examples of cards that I think are undervalued. Oddly enough, the 91 Score Mantle, Musial, and Yaz auto's get a ton of respect, often selling between $200-400.

Lee

sayheykid54

In my opinion that is one terrible Duke Snider autograph. It's blurry and looks as if it might be slightly smudged. As for the value of a 1/1 card, I think the market dictates the value of these cards. The majority of them are way over priced based on how easy it is for the different companies to produce the graphics in order to create to buzz of a 1/1 card. I would never invest in a 1/1 card- the value can only go down over time.

NBAFan

I actually pulled the Augmon auto out of 92-93 Fleer Ultra from a K-Mart box. I was going to buy a box from a Card Shop, but the jabroni that was working that day told me that the ad in the paper stating the sale price was wrong. So I ended up later buying one at K-mart and the owner of the shop ended up giving me a $50 Shaq card due to me being a frequent customer and the employee messing up.

Warman

<< <i>In my opinion that is one terrible Duke Snider autograph. It's blurry and looks as if it might be slightly smudged. As for the value of a 1/1 card, I think the market dictates the value of these cards. The majority of them are way over priced based on how easy it is for the different companies to produce the graphics in order to create to buzz of a 1/1 card. I would never invest in a 1/1 card- the value can only go down over time. >>


Well it's not smudged and could be due to the fact that I had to scan at 75dpi and reduce the size to fit on this board, it's much nicer in person. Be that as it may, It's still a one-of-a-kind and in ten years or so, it'll probably be looked at as are the cards from the 90's mentioned in previous posts. And by the way, it was pulled from a stock hobby box. Thanks for the critique.

CDsNuts

I always think the one in a million pulls from the older packs were cool because you literally have to go through cases and cases until you see something like the Augmon auto because the products were so overproduced. I never pulled a case card like that back in the early 90s. My good friend pulled the Larry Johnson auto out of 92-93 Fleer and a neighborhood kid pulled the Ryne Sandberg auto out of a 91 Donruss pack from the Wawa. My first really huge pull was a 93 Finest Piazza Refractor which was going for $1000-1200 at the time and you better believe I sold it. Then about a month later from the same shop I pulled a Maddux refractor. It was worth about $60 at the time, but I was able to sell it a year or two later for $1000 when he was unbeatable and considered the best pitcher in baseball. Granted those are one per box cards but that was the best I've ever done to this day.

Lee

jmbkb4

This is why those 1991 and 1992 Donruss Elite cards are still so cool ----- you'd have to open a case or more to get even ONE of those #d/10,000 cards.

jrdolan

<< <i>I would never invest in a 1/1 card- the value can only go down over time. >>


Smart decision. Buy them because you collect limited-run autographs of that player, not because you expect them to be more valuable after you buy them. Any auto I buy, I expect I'll get less if I decide to sell it someday. I also expect I'll get a certain amount of enjoyment from having it displayed in my auto collection for however many months or years. I figure I'll come out ahead when you add the enjoyment to the resale.