In order of closing date:

Clean Sweep Champions Auction (ending on October 14)

Prestige Collectibles (Japanese baseball cards and memorabilia - ending on October 17)

Goldin 2026 Monthly Sports Elite #9 (cards start at $100 - ending on October 17)

REA October 2026 Auction (ending on October 18 - see article below)

Other active auctions:

Hunt Auctions October Internet Auction (ends on October 21)

Mile High Fall 2026 Premier Catalog Auction (ends on October 22 - see article below)

Heritage Fall Sports Catalog Auction (ends on October 23-25)

The Collector Connection Pre War Sports Cards & Memorabilia (ends on October 25)

Rabbit Hole Auctions (ends on November 11)

⚾ Rare Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle Cards, Complete Sets Headline Mile High Auction

💰 The 5 Most Valuable Cards From 1936 World Wide Gum

⚾ Massive REA October Auction Includes T206 Cobb With Cobb Back

🏈 1957 Topps Football: 4 PSA 10s That Continue to Draw Collector Interest

⚾ Reggie Jackson Orioles Cards Depict Often Forgotten Career Chapter

🏀 1969 Topps Baskeball: 4 Iconic PSA 10s Still in High Hobby Demand

⚾ Sudden Sam McDowell Cards Chronicle a Confounding Career

The site Basketball-Reference.com uses the statistic Win Shares to attempt to “divvy up credit for team success to the individuals on the team.” Meanwhile, I thought the stat of Win Shares/48 minutes to be a more interesting stat, since it determines how effective players are in a per (complete) game fashion.

So, like WAR and Approximate Value previously, I want to see if there might be any relationship between Win Shares per 48 minutes to rookie card pricing. Basketball, of course, has fewer cards in the 1950s and ‘60s, so rookie cards in those decades will congregate around fewer sets and rarely be reflective of the players’ actual rookie season.

Methodology:

One of the reasons I enjoy digging into statistics is because I can discover people I somehow hadn’t heard of before, e.g., Neil Johnston, who has the fifth highest Win Shares/48 minutes in NBA/ABA history.

He played for eight seasons, was an All-Star six of those years, led the league in scoring three times, and was All-NBA five years in a row. He played center for the Philadelphia Warriors throughout most of the 1950s until being forced to retire following the 1958-59 season because of a knee injury.

Immediately following his retirement as a player, he coached the team for two years, allowing him to help develop the Warriors’ next HOF center, a guy named Wilt Chamberlain.

The 1960s are the one decade where card value and statistical superiority are more closely aligned, with the notable cards missing being Elgin Baylor and John Havlicek, while the 1950s and ‘70s only have one player apiece with four-figure card values, while missing players like Bob Cousy and Pete Maravich.

Much like baseball and football, there’s a relatively wide disparity in card value. And, not surprisingly, as we’ve seen with the other two sports, statistical superiority don’t always equate to superior card value.

All 15 of the above are Hall of Famers, but there are different tiers of Hall of Famer.

In my mind, there are four tiers: GOATs, underrated greats, somewhat well-known greats. and not that well-known greats, and I think all four tiers are represented above:

GOATs: Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, West, Robertson, Erving

Underrated Greats: Pettit, Schayes, Gilmore

Somewhat Well-Known Greats: S. Jones, Dantley, Issel, B. Jones

Not That Well-Known Greats: Johnston, Macauley

This tiering is true across all sports, with movement between tiers based on the personal feelings of individual card collectors (because OF COURSE Jack Morris is an underrated great and I won’t be convinced otherwise).

If you’re a collector, you likely understand this tiering and how it affects card values, or you’ve learned so over time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to learn more about Ed Macauley’s career.

Spending his entire 13-year career with the New England Patriots, Hannah was the first Patriots player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

John Hannah - G

HOF Induction in 1991

Standout Stats:

The average price came out to be $86.83.