'I wouldn’t know a rare baseball card if it jumped up in my face’

June 16, 2010
‘I wouldn’t know a rare baseball card if it jumped up in my face’, that was my thought as I went through a stack of old cards recently.

My son used to collect baseball cards, football cards and I guess, basketball cards too. The closet is his old bedroom is still packed with many that he left behind when he went away to college. Since he now has a small son of his own, maybe one day he will be passing those old cards on.

I bought a plastic bag full of baseball cards at a thrift store a few years ago for my son and since he never took them, I dug them out a couple of weeks ago and went through them, looking for any names familar to me. I found some Pete Rose cards, I found some Ken Griffey cards, but nothing I recognized as really good.

Not knowing too much about the prices of rare baseball cards, I decided to get on EBay and maybe check out the prices of some of baseball cards that I had in hand.

I first searched for ‘baseball cards’ and, WOW, I found there were many, many cards listed for sale. (2,030,028 results found for baseball cards).
The highest priced card listed as:

DEREK JETER 2009 TOPPS SKETCH ART 1/1 CARD GREATEST ONE going for $2,000,000.00 (with free shipping - gee, maybe I would even 'Hand-Deliver' it to the buyer for that price!)
Gee Whiz! I started thinking. Maybe this is a hobby I'd better get into, if something such as a baseball card go for a coupla mil! And not even an OLD one at that!
Along the same line, but not as high a price was: 1992 92 Derek Jeter Little Sun Autograph PSA 9 at only $99,999.00 (Free shipping).
Okay, I asked myself, (and the computer) “What is PSA in baseball cards?” and found this answer:

PSA-Professional Sports Authenticator -
‘Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) is the world's largest third-party sportscard authentication service -- the experts in grading cards, sports autographs and memorabilia.’ (1)

Then I found this listing: 1982 Topps Traded CAL RIPKEN RC BGS 10 Pristine w/ 9.5 going for: $20,000.00 with +$50.00 shipping
So now, I had a new question for my computer: “What is RC BGC in baseball cards?”
I found this answer:
Beckett Grading Services (2) ‘Baseball: …Tamper Proof - Once a card has been graded and slabbed by BGS, the integrity of the card is protected ...’
So that is the Report Card of or from Beckett Grading Services, evidently with the term ’10 Pristine w/9.5’ having to do with the grade from Beckett Grading Services.
Then I started checking on some of the cards I had:
I have this one: 1985 Topps # 201 Burt Hooton LA Dodgers which sells for $1.00
While the same card 1985 TOPPS MINI BURT HOOTON DODGERS #201 PSA-8.5 is also listed at $85. The diff in description is "MINI".
Ok, so what is that? I have NO idea, so I ask my computer to tell me what “MINI” is? “What is MINI in baseball cards?”
Here is one answer, I don’t know if it is the totally correct one or not, but it works for me!
From a webpage titled “1975 TOPPS MINI BASEBALL CARDS” (3)
‘The 1975 Topps Mini baseball card set is a miniature replica of the regular 1975 set that includes 660 small size cards, which measure 2 ¼" by 3 1/8".’ (3)
I then went back to my stack of cards and found I have 4 of : YOGI BERRA YANKEE MANAGER TOPPS CARD-1985 $20.00 +$9.90 shipping .
I couldn’t find anymore at the moment that might be worth something more than one dollar, but I need to go back through the stack and look for one of these since the ones I have are 1984-85 issues: 84 Topps Darryl Palmer, Braves, which is listed at $9,999.00 on Ebay. (4)
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References:

(1) PSA-Professional Sports Authenticator -
www.psacard.com
(2) Beckett Grading Services
http://www.beckett.com/grading/
(3) 1975 TOPPS MINI BASEBALL CARDS
http://www.deanscards.com/SubCategory/153/1975-Topps-Mini.aspx
(4) Ebay
http://ebay.com