I thought this was an interesting video, as it discusses card population reports, not generally, but how they can change over time and, most importantly, what those changes tell you about the true scarcity of a card. The current PSA backlog (7.2 million) also plays into how to think about population reports and what they could eventually be.

In this issue you'll find:

Auction highlights
News in the hobby
A further look at the effect of seasonality on vintage baseball card values
Ken Stabler’s rookie card and player profile
ICYMI
Recent Vintage Card Voyage videos

Let’s get into it.

Auction Highlights

In order of closing date:

Sirius Sports Cards Auction (ending on November 5)

Sterling Sports Auctions (ending on November 6)

Other active auctions:

Goldin Monthly Sports Elite #10 (ends on November 14)

SCP Auctions 2026 Fall Premier (ends on November 15)

Collector Investor Auctions (ends on November 15)

Clean Sweep Auctions Players Auction (ends on November 18)

Hunt Auctions Internet Auction (ends on December 2)

News Briefs

⚾ The 5 Vintage Baseball Cards That Broke Records This Week

💰 Wagner Brings $1.98 Million; Topps Mantle Records Fall in Heritage Auction

⚾ The 7 Most Iconic Baseball Cards of the 1970s

🏈 1962 Topps Football Nails Record for Football Card Sets

⚾ Little Monsters: Though Less Popular Than Iconic T206 “Monster” Set, T205, T207 Tobacco Cards Have Unique Character, Appeal

⚾ Before They Were Famous for Something Else: 8 Vintage Baseball Cards With a Second Act

⚾ The 6 Most Iconic 1963 Topps Baseball Cards

Hobby Thoughts: The Effect of Seasonality on Vintage Baseball Card Values, Continued

As I mentioned in the newsletter two weeks ago, I thought I should see how HOF baseball player indexes moved from 2024 to 2025, both during the offseason and in-season, relative to how they moved from 2025 to 2026. I wanted to test my theory about the overall price increases in the card market since February of this year heavily influencing the player index increases during the baseball season.

I looked at the period from October 30, 2024, to October 30, 2025 (i.e., the end of the 2025 MLB season), breaking the year up before and after March 27, 2025, the beginning of the 2025 season, using the Card Ladder indexes.

10/30/24-3/27/25 - Biggest Gains

Player Index	Percentage Change
Fergie Jenkins	127.83
Willie Stargell	68.89
Carl Yastrzemski	29.84
Phil Niekro	26.97
George Kell	22.79

10/30/24-3/27/25 - Biggest Losses

Player Index	Percentage Change
Bruce Sutter	-49.43
Ted Simmons	-30.39
Don Drysdale	-26.93
Don Sutton	-24.54
Andre Dawson	-21.9

3/27/25-10/30/25 - Biggest Gains

Player Index	Percentage Change
Jim Rice	138.43
Reggie Jackson	65.78
George Kell	64.33
Bruce Sutter	53.74
Tom Seaver	52.82

3/27/25-10/30/25 - Biggest Losses

Player Index	Percentage Change
Don Sutton	-28.3
Stan Musial	-19.41
Sandy Koufax	-16.17
Rickey Henderson	-14.29
Alan Trammell	-11.67

To see how the rest performed, you can see the full 58-player results here

(I’ve come to realize that, in my initial research for 2025 to 2026, I mistakenly counted the Baseball and Vintage indexes as player indexes, which is why my count two weeks ago was 60 players instead of 58, and that mistake also affected the numbers used in my analysis. Lesson learned, and apologies for that mistake.)

Methodology:

The players chosen were all Hall of Famers, had rookie cards between 1940 and 1980, and had Card Ladder player indexes
Each player index was given both date ranges to determine the percentage change in the value of the index
Not all Hall of Fame players have player indexes, as each index has cards Card Ladder determines eligible based on sales activity (more info here), and there is a WIDE range of the number of cards (as an example, Don Drysdale has one card, while Mickey Mantle has 544).

Like the 2025 to 2026 range, there was a separation before and during the baseball season, with 44 of the 58 player indexes increasing during the season, while 36 player indexes increased during the offseason.

There were also differences, though.

Fewer player indexes increased during both the offseason and in-season from 2024 to 2025 as compared to 2025 to 2026,
Also, the 2025-26 period produced a bigger gap between the number of player index increases in the offseason vs. in-season, with 13 more in-season increases vs. eight during the 2024-25 period.

The median (or middle) percentage gain during the offseason was 1.31%, while the in-season median percentage gain was 7.96%, or 6.08 times higher (compared to 3.23 times higher from the 2025-26 period).

The above results indicate more player index increases during the 2025-26 period, but a more pronounced seasonality influence for 2024-25, a period during which there was less movement in the broader card market.

As further evidence of the broader card market movement this year, while the Baseball and Vintage index percentage increases during the 2024-25 offseason (0.89% and 0.77%, respectively) paled in comparison to the 2025-26 offseason percentages (12.04% and 11.72%, respectively), the in-season increase comparisons blew those away (2.63% and 0.97% in 2024-25 compared to 56.33% and 54.39% in 2025-26).

You’ll obviously want to do your own research, but it seems like seasonality does have some effect on vintage baseball card values and could thus indicate when it’s better to buy cards vs. when it’s better to sell cards.

Are you interested in further seasonality research?

Vintage HOF Rookie Card: Ken Stabler

Nicknamed “Snake,” along with his football accomplishments, Stabler also starred in basketball and baseball during high school and was selected in sequential MLB drafts by the New York Yankees, New York Mets, and Houston Astros.

Ken Stabler - QB

HOF Induction in 2016

Standout Stats: