Monday, August 15, 2011

Baseball Card Price Guide History: 1991 Bowman Jim Thome and 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa

Who would have thought back in 1990 and 1991 that there would be 2 rookie cards produced of players that would hit 600 home runs and 20 years later those rookie cards would not amount to much more than a gallon of gas.

Well I guess that in 1991, we were getting a hint that the cards produced then would not be big value cards like the ones from the 1950s and 1960s but I would have never thought the cards would be practically worthless.


At the time in 1991, only 3 Players had hit 600 (Aaron, Ruth, Mays) I think steroids have played a little bit in the devaluation of these cards but this low….. (price and source)

1991 Bowman Jim Thome

10/1996 SportsCards                       $1.00
10/1998 SportsCards                       $1.50
2/2005 Beckett Baseball                  $2-5.00
3/2009 Beckett Baseball                  $1.50-4.00
Last week on ebay  Bowman Jim Thome $4.37 (74 sales with a slew of graded 10s)

There has been a slow attrition upward on Thome’s card,  maybe in about 600 years it should be worth around $600.00

1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa

10/1996 SportsCards                       $8.00
10/1998 SportsCards                       $25.00
2/2005 Beckett Baseball                  $15-40.00
3/2009 Beckett Baseball                  $5-12.00
Last week on ebay Leaf Sammy Sosa $5.16(55 sales)

1990 Leaf was supposed to be the first high end set (in Sports Cards 10/96 it had a list price of $240) but as time went on collectors realized that there was nothing high end about this set ($30-60 in 3/2009 Beckett Baseball)

1 comment:

  1. I think the only thing high end about the 1990 Leaf set is that it was produced in limited quantities compared to other sets that year. I don't think Donruss ever really learned what a true high end set should be. Sammy's RC is cheap because of steroids. Frank Thomas will always be the best of the set in my mind.

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