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I reached a milestone this week with the newsletter. You are now one of 500 subscribers. I wasn’t sure if I would get there within one year but was able to sneak in just under the wire.

Thank you for continuing on this journey with me, and it’s heartening to know that there’s a true community of vintage sports card collectors out there. As always, if you have thoughts about what I’m writing or could be writing about, let me know, either below or at [email protected].

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I also saw the March issue of Beckett Baseball magazine at Barnes & Noble this week and confirmed that I’m actually in it, a realization that continues to be entirely surreal.

In this issue you'll find:

Auction highlights
News in the hobby
Earl Campbell’s rookie card and player profile
SGC-graded football and basketball cards since the Collectors purchase
Recent Vintage Card Voyage videos

Let’s get into it.

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Auction Highlights

In order of closing date (prices as of Sunday evening PT):

Hunt Auctions (ending February 18)

🏀 Lot of approx. (350) 1980-81 Topps Basketball Separated Cards w/ HOF (GD-EX) - $10

🏈 Lot of (6) 1974-1978 Topps Graded Fran Tarkenton Cards (BVG 6.5 - PSA 8) - $22

⚾ 1967 Topps Pin-Ups Near Complete Set (28/32) w/ Mantle, Mays and Clemente (GD-EX/MT) - $35

Goldin Winter Vintage Elite Auction (ending February 21)

⚾ 1948 Topps Magic Photos #12K Grover Alexander PSA 4 - $50

🏈 1966 Philadelphia #21 Lenny Moore Signed Card PSA 4 PSA/DNA Authentic - $50

🏀 1970-71 Topps #123 Pete Maravich Rookie Card PSA 5 - $150

⚾ 1909-11 T206 White Border Honus Wagner Sweet Caporal 150/25 Shields Family Collection PSA 1 - $4,000,000 (Editor’s Note: Just because it comes up so rarely)

REA Auction (ending February 22)

⚾ 1959 Topps #387 Don Drysdale PSA 4 - $10

🏈 1952 Bowman Large Football #29 Hugh McElhenny Rookie PSA 2 - $10

🏀 1971-72 Topps Basketball #47 Dave Cowens Rookie PSA 6 - $15

News Briefs

⚾ Someone Could Get a Redemption Card for a 1952 Topps Mantle in a 2026 Topps Series 1 Pack

💰 A T206 Set Break Is Part of REA’s February Sale

🏀 The Top 7 Most Valuable 1969 Topps Tall Boys Ever Sold

⚾ See How Many Vintage Cards Are in the List of Topps 75 Iconic Baseball Cards

📷 Digging Into Photography Behind Some 1970s Topps Baseball Cards

Vintage HOF Rookie Card: Earl Campbell

Campbell’s rushing totals from his first four seasons (6,457 yards and 55 TDs) set records, ones that would be broken, respectively, by Eric Dickerson and Terrell Davis.

Earl Campbell - RB

HOF Induction in 1991

Standout Stats:

Led the NFL in rushing each of his first three seasons
Had 1,000-plus yards rushing and 10-plus TDs in a season five times
Was a three-time All Pro and a five-time Pro Bowler
Career AV (Approximate Value) - 77

1979 Topps #390

Grade	PSA Pop Count	SGC Pop Count	BVG Pop Count
10	30	2	0
9	458	65	46
8	1,872	227	222
7	1.769	298	224

The average price came out to be about $63.55.

Hobby Thoughts: SGC-Graded Football and Basketball Prices Post-Collectors Purchase

Last week, I looked at a selection of notable vintage baseball cards, to see how the SGC-graded cards have done recently in comparison to the prices prior to Collectors buying SGC. Now, I’ll do the same, but with three notable football rookie cards (Walter Payton, Joe Namath and Jim Brown) and three notable basketball rookie cards (Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell). My approach was as follows:

I took the average of each of the six cards with the same grades from two periods of time - five card sales just prior to the SGC purchase on February 29, 2024, and the most recent five card sales.

To try and have enough sales data, I used collector grade and below for each decade (but unfortunately wasn’t able to get five sales for every single card).

Taking the two aforementioned averages, I determined what percentage the average sales price of the various cards had changed in that nearly two-year period (and as you’ll see, not all had positive changes) for both SGC-graded and PSA-graded cards.

Then, I compared how much the average price of SGC-graded cards improved compared to how much the average prices of PSA-graded cards improved, to see which percentage was greater, and that difference between the two is reflected in the final column.

The following data came via Card Ladder:

1970s

1960s

1950s

A few things to note:

Walter Payton and Julius Erving’s rookie cards were both up across the board, with Payton’s up, at a minimum, 26.4% - and, as it happens, Payton’s card was the only one where SGC suffered in comparison to PSA for all three grades
Bill Russell’s rookie card’s overall decline (his card has five of the 10 negative trends) seems related to his death in 2022, with a few sales happening around that period, reflecting people’s willingness to pay the premium that can come when a legend passes
On average, PSA-graded cards improved by 14.9%, while SGC-graded cards did so by 8.1%

Much like the baseball cards from last week, this week’s PSA-graded cards had an advantage over the SGC-graded cards, but this time by 11-7 vs. 12-6 last time. As mentioned last week, this is obviously a small sample size, but if these cards are representative of the broader trend, it seems like SGC-graded cards haven’t suffered too much since the Collectors purchase.

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