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

Sterling Sports Auctions (ending December 26)

⚾1933 Goudey #149 Babe Ruth PSA 1 (MK) - $2,000

⚾1909-11 T206 Ty Cobb, Bat on Shoulder, Sweet Caporal Cigarettes PSA 1 - $1,600

🏈1972 Topps #200 Roger Staubach Rookie Card PSA 6 - $210

Goldin Weekly Auction (ending December 26)

⚾1952 Bowman #101 Mickey Mantle PSA 3 - $2,205

🏀1980-81 Topps Scoring Leaders Bird/Magic Rookie Card PSA 7 - $1,233

🏈1965 Topps #122 Joe Namath Signed Rookie Card PSA Authentic, PSA/DNA 10 - $360

Fanatics Weekly Auction (ending December 28)

🏀1961 Fleer Basketball Wilt Chamberlain Rookie Card #8 PSA 8 - $22,500

⚾1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson Rookie Card #79 PSA 3 - $4,600

🏈1958 Topps Football Jim Brown Rookie Card #62 PSA 6 - $430

💰Collectors, Parent Company of PSA, Set to Buy Beckett

🏀 PSA Downgrades Wilt Chamberlain Rookie After Owner Requests Review

⚾ Vintage Baseball Cards 101: Ways to Start a Collection

Philly Card Show Still Going Strong After 50 Years

⚾ Top 5 Signed Vintage Baseball Cards

Chris Sewall’s Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer (in that order) was one of the first YouTube channels I followed when I got back into collecting and his guidance was incredibly valuable for me in getting a better understanding of the sports card landscape. He’s uploaded card videos since 2020, with more than 450 videos on his channel, so let’s get to know him a little better with the Drawn to Cards Q&A.

What’s your card collecting story (when and why did you start, which sport(s)/card era(s), how has your collecting changed over time, and do you consider yourself a collecting generalist or specialist?

I got my first pack of cards in 1988 or 1989 and was hooked right out of the gate. I was an obsessive generalist collector throughout the 1990s - I wanted all the cards. Baseball most but all the major sports. When I went to college around 2000, I was less involved, but never fully out of it. Around 2010, I got back into heavy and a few years later decided to give it a go as a career. I became a full-time dealer and have not looked back. I still collect a little today, but it is very specialized.

What’s your favorite collecting memory?

There are many but the first that comes to mind is trading with my friends in the 1990s. We would use Beckett magazine to create fair trades value-wise. Trading cards was a major part of all my friendships in the 1990s.

Who/what do you personally collect?

Today, I truly collect basically only three things. (1) Rare Cal Ripken cards, mainly from the 1990s but also the 1980s. (2) One of each Hall of Famer rookie cards in high grade. (3) The best card I can get of the ~25 best USWNT players of all time. I am always upgrading each of these collections as I go.

What’s your favorite card you own and/or what’s your grail card? Tell us why.

My favorite card that I own is a 1988 Donruss Mark McGwire. I pulled it out of the first pack I ever opened back in 1988 or 1989. My friend at the time really wanted me to trade it to him but I refused and kept it. I am not sure how I managed to hold onto it all these years but I have. I got it graded with PSA a few years ago to protect it and it graded a PSA 3.  

My grail card is a 1980 Police Orange Border Cal Ripken. Ripken was my favorite player and this is his first card. I have never owned one. It's impossibly rare, with something like 40 known copies in total graded by the four major grading companies.

Who/what motivated you to start a YouTube channel?

My brother-in-law is a big MTG collector, and introduced me to some YouTube videos about it. Around the same time, my son started watching YouTube videos about chess. It struck me that I could make some interesting videos in the same way.

What’s been the best part of your YouTube experience so far?

You meet so many people through YouTube that you would never have met otherwise. That has been really cool. Additionally, the channel has opened up many avenues to buy collections, which is what I truly want to be doing in my career.

If you could talk to/interview any person on your channel (creator, person in sports, person in the hobby, etc.), who would it be and why?

It would probably be Cal Ripken. He was my favorite player growing up and that would be an exciting experience.

Which three YouTube sports card channels do you think more people should watch?

When I first joined YouTube five years ago, I remember thinking there weren’t that many great channels. Today, there are tons of fantastic channels, so it’s really hard to name just three. Baseball Collector, Junk Wax Hero, and Sports Cards Live are three of many that come to mind. (Editor’s Note: Here are the previous Q&As for Baseball Collector and Junk Wax Hero.)

If you had a magic wand, what’s one thing that you would change in the hobby?

I would reduce the gambling aspect of the hobby. I wouldn’t eliminate it, because I think it has a place. But it has gotten a little bit out of hand and I don’t know that it is overall healthy.

What do you think the future holds for your channel and for the hobby in general?

I think my channel will continue along as it has and I certainly hope so. I stopped trying to grow the channel a while ago as it has not been my main priority, but I am very happy with its consistency. Regarding the hobby in general, I certainly hope it continues to grow and I guess if I had to make a prediction, I would guess it will continue to grow. Although I am not super confident about that.

Let’s look at collector grade cards again (for new readers, I define “collector grade” as a grade that’s the same as the decade of the card - i.e., a 7 for the ‘70s, a 6 for the ‘60s, etc., ideally making the card more affordable for collectors).

This time I’ll look at football Hall of Fame rookie cards from the 1960s. After defining affordable as $75 or less for the 1970s, I’ll up it to $100 or less for the ‘60s, with each price based on the average of the last three sales.

Prior to tabulating, like with the ‘70s football cards, I’ll again guess that more than 75% of the cards fall into the “affordable” category.

Let’s look at the results (data via Vintage Card Prices), with the following card manufacturer abbreviations tied to the year:

T - Topps, F - Fleer, P - Philadelphia

(Since they’re hard to see, the 10th entry is a 1967 Philadelphia Dave Robinson and the 11th is Chris Hanburger from the same set.)

Based on how the hobby tends to value football players, with a lot of defensive players and offensive linemen in this initial grouping, I’m not necessarily surprised that most of these cards fall under $50.

(Similarly, the second entry is a 1964 Philadelphia Jim Johnson and the last entry is a 1964 Topps Mick Tingelhoff.)

This grouping is a bit more surprising, with somewhat better-known players like Larry Csonka, Don Maynard, Merlin Olsen and Carl Eller’s initial cards coming in south of $75.

(The second entry is a 1961 Fleer Johnny Robinson.)

We’re already out of the “affordable” category with the second half of this list, and I’m especially surprised by a card like Billy Shaw’s 1962 Fleer rookie coming in at nearly $150, outpacing Bob Griese’s rookie at an almost 25% higher price. The 1962 Fleer set did have centering issues, so that could be what’s helping drive the price here.

(The second entry is a 1963 Fleer Nick Buoniconti, the fifth is a 1965 Topps Fred Biletnikoff, and the ninth is a 1962 Topps Fran Tarkenton.)

The Joe Namath rookie obviously sticks out here, coming in more than 4X the average price of the next-highest-priced card, the Mike Ditka rookie. The Bob Hayes and especially Bob Lilly card prices surprised me, but as it turns out upon further research, Lilly’s card is the only HOF rookie card in the 1963 Topps set that is a short print, which likely accounts for the price bump.

While my prediction was correct for the 1970s football card values, I was a bit too stingy for this decade’s rookie cards as just under 60 percent of the cards fell beneath $100. Much like previous tallies, the average for all 49 cards comes out higher than you might expect at $274.26 each, pulled up by the Namath rookie, which costs more than the first 44 (!) cards combined.

What do you think of the results?