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I went to a vintage mall this weekend, on my never-ending search for vintage cards, when I happened across a magazine display case filled with 100s of Life magazines. Whenever I see them in the wild, I have to look through them. And, yes, this will eventually make sense.

The problem? There were 100s of them, and I had limited time.

So I got to it. I quickly flipped through the first pile. Nothing. And the second pile. The same. Onto the third pile. I was almost through it and then … it finally appeared.

No, this isn’t about my “Cleopatra” fandom or my fascination with the America’s Cup. But it was about what could be inside the nearly 64-year-old issue.

Of course, it was wrapped in plastic and taped up. But I figured, spending $20 without knowing if what I was looking for was actually there felt like a risk worth taking.

After spending an inordinate amount of time taking the tape off, I finally extracted the magazine and opened it, producing both a powerfully musty smell and the insert I had been searching for:

Success!! And it seems to be in pretty good shape. I should also add that, on the flip side, there’s a Roger Maris card as well.

Now the question is, grading-wise, do I send it in perforated or do I try to hand cut it? From what I can tell, the hand-cut version seems to generate higher sales, but I don’t know how much I trust myself to cut it properly.

Have any advice?

Comment

In this issue you'll find:

Auction highlights
News in the hobby
Fred Dean’s rookie card and player profile
The 1960s baseball HOF rookie cards vs. second-year cards comparison
Recent Vintage Card Voyage videos
ICYMI

Let’s get into it.

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Auction Highlights

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

Elite Collectibles (ending March 31)

⚾ 1959 Topps Ernie Banks #350 (Damage - Raw) - $24

⚾ 1958 Topps Hank Aaron Sport Magazine All-Star (Corners/Surface - Raw) - $20

⚾ 1963 Fleer Bob Gibson (Surface/Corners/Stain - Raw) - $7.50

Heritage Auctions Spring Sports Card Catalog Auction (ending April 4)

⚾ 1965 Topps World Series Game Three #134 (Mantle) SGC 6.5 - $45

🏈 1959 Topps Johnny Unitas #1 PSA 7 - $115

⚾ 1939 R303-A Goudey Premium Jimmy (Jimmie) Foxx PSA 5 - $135

Brockelman Auctions (ending April 4)

🥊 1927 Jack Dempsey Exhibit Cards Pair (Raw) - $11

⚾ 1959 Bazooka Willie Mays (Raw) - $20 min. bid

⚾ 1971 Topps Baseball Lot of 6 HOFers (incl. Mays, Clemente and Banks) (Raw) - $43

Other active auctions:

Love of the Game Auctions (ends April 11)

Wheatland Auction (ends April 12)

Lelands Spring Classic (ends April 18)

Clean Sweep Auctions (ends April 30)

News Briefs

⚾ The 10 Most Important Baseball Cards of All Time

💰 Baseball’s Best Selling Players of All Time According to Heritage Auctions

⚾ Five Mysteries of the 1934 Goudey Baseball Card Set

💰 1917 Babe Ruth, 1968 Topps Baseball Complete Graded Set Among Those in Love of the Game Auction

⚾ 8 Iconic Baseball Cards From 1958 Topps: The Most Underrated Set in the Hobby

Vintage HOF Rookie Card: Fred Dean

Fred Dean - DE

HOF Induction in 2008

Standout Stats:

4-time Pro Bowler and 2-time All-Pro
2-time Super Bowl champion
10+ sacks in five different seasons
1981 UPI Defensive Player of the Year
Career AV (Approximate Value) - 69

1978 Topps #217

Grade	PSA Pop Count	SGC Pop Count	BVG Pop Count
10	11	0	0
9	136	8	2
8	360	18	14
7	171	11	0

This could well be one of the most affordable HOF rookie cards, as the average price comes in at $8.74.

Hobby Thoughts: Comparing Rookie Card Prices to Second-Year Cards for ‘60s Baseball

I wanted to see if there were any notable differences between the 1970s and the 1960s HOF rookie cards, especially with big names like Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson. With the 1970s gap between rookie and second-year collector-grade cards coming in at (a newly determined) 65.1%, I think the 1960s gap will be closer to 55%.

For those new to the newsletter, collector grade is the same number as the decade, meaning, for this example, a PSA 6 for the 1960s.

I’ll also look into the more popular players, to see if there’s any sort of difference due to popularity, one I initially speculated to be a smaller gap since more people collect more of their cards. I’ll assume the most popular players to be the ones I mentioned above (Ryan, Seaver and Jackson), and I’m guessing their gap will be closer to 50%.

Here are the numbers for the top 20 players, determined by those with the highest average price of collector grade rookie cards, courtesy of Card Ladder:

The average (determined by the mean of the percentages) came in at 61.5%, or 3.6% lower than the 1970s grouping. Meanwhile, the average for the most popular players came in at a whopping 76%, as none of them fell below 65%, so clearly my assumption there was incorrect.

The Richie Allen second-year prices being higher than the rookie card was definitely unexpected, especially since his second-year (a 1965 Topps) isn’t a high number. The population of the 1965 in a PSA 6 is half the population of the rookie card, but with the higher grades having somewhat similar pop numbers, I’m not sure that’s the rationale that would explain the difference. So either it’s a particular moment in time bias (since it’s based on the last five sales) or his second-year card is actually moving up.

Another thing to consider with the second-year Allen is that it’s his first solo card, which some collectors do prefer. The 1960s, in fact, were a particularly robust decade for multi-player HOF rookies, as 10 of the 20 rookies I included fall into that category. The average gap for that category is 60.3% between rookie and second-year cards, so not much difference from the entire list, even with Allen and Johnny Bench (at just a 14.7% gap) with particularly smaller changes.

And One Grade Higher?

As with all the previous research, I also looked at every card one grade higher. That category landed at a 66% gap, higher than the 61.5% gap for the collector-grade cards, but lower than the same category for the ‘70s, which (with the new mean average calculation) came in at 71.3%.

11 of the 20 players had their percentage gap go higher as the card grade increased, including Richie Allen with a notable 50.8% gap (his second-year card average was only about $38 more expensive in a higher grade, versus his rookie card, which went up almost $179). Others with big differentials include Carl Yastrzemski (22.7%), Joe Morgan (18.8%) and Lou Brock (14.7%).

The biggest fall was with Juan Marichal, whose collector-grade card gap was 79.9% while his higher-grade cards had a gap of 60.8%. The only others with double digit dips were Steve Carlton (12.8%) and Nolan Ryan (10.1%).