Mailbag - Vintage Card Prices and 1987 Topps Questions

I got these questions in my e-mail a little while back and I thought I'd share my answers for all those shy people out there who don't want to post a question or an e-mail. Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments.

First up, a question about vintage card prices.

Just a few questions about the vintage card market and how find prices on these cards I have a few and would like to know the value of what i have......any help would be appreciated.

Thank You very much

Devin

A quick way to find an approximate value on a vintage card is to check out current auction listings to see what the card is selling for. Do a search on eBay or Beckett for the card you have and gauge the prices of the ones for sale. You can also search closed auctions to see the final price on eBay. There is also a website, SportsLizard, that has a price guide that you can search that is based on these listings.

There are also several books you can get with pricing for vintage cards. Beckett's Baseball Card Plus Magazine has many different sets listed including vintage sets. It is $10 and comes out every 2 months. The current issue has Pete Rose on the cover. It is better for more recent sets though and does not list every card for every set.

Beckett also has a small price guide that can be found a bookstore for under $10 called the Beckett Official Price guide. It is a paperback book that has complete checklists for some of the major vintage sets but doesn't have everything.

If you are looking for a book with prices for just about every card, the Sports Collector's Digest Standard Catalog of Baseball cards has just about anything you could think of. It is a very large book and costs about $40 although it can be gotten more cheaply online. If you don't mind an out of date version (and a new one will be released in a couple of months making the current one out of date) they can be gotten much more cheaply than that. Older cards don't fluctuate in
value as much and a copy a couple years old would still be a good reference and could probably be gotten for about $10 if you looked around. This is the best reference for all baseball cards I've found. Your local card shop would probably let you have a look at their store copy if you asked or you could browse a copy at a bookstore if you only needed to look up a couple of prices.


Now one about a neat wrong back card.

Hey
Saw your website, excellent advice, do cards not drugs.
I am very new to this and hope you can help me. I have a Roy Lee Jackson TOPPS 1987 card. However, on the back is Dwayne Murphy's info and part of that is even cut off.
I heard that error cards could be worth something.
Thanks for any help
Best Regards
and wishing you an awesome 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Anne-Frédérique

Hi there, that's a pretty neat card, but unfortunately it's a pretty common error and there's not much demand for it. Regular cards from that set are only worth about a nickel each or so, and a miscut back like that is usually considered a defect. There are however some people who specifically collect that type of card, but it's probably worth only worth a few cents at most unless you manage to find someone who really wants it.

If you have any oddball questions about card, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them for you. Just be warned I might post it and make you internet famous for about 15 seconds!