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

Goldin (ending January 22):

⚾1975 Topps Mini #616 Jim Rice Rookie Card PSA 8 - $10

🏀1981-81 Topps #21 Magic Johnson Signed Card PSA 3 / PSA/DNA 10 - $12

⚾1968 Topps #110 Hank Aaron PSA 4 - $23

Fanatics (ending January 25):

⚾1956 Topps Jackie Robinson White Back #30 SGC 1 - $5 (Editor’s Note: It’s, uh, a bit early in the auction)

🏈1956 Topps Norm Van Brocklin #6 PSA 5 - $5

🏃🏾‍♂️‍➡️1936 Muhlen Franck Olympia ‘36 Serie 11 Jesse Owens Rookie #1 SGC 4 - $5

Lelands (ending January 25):

⚾1952 Topps #1 Andy Pafko Red Back SGC 1.5 - $100 (opening bid)

🏀1973 Topps #100 Jerry West PSA 8 - $25 (opening bid)

🏈1964 Philadelphia #109 Fran Tarkenton PSA 8 - $25 (opening bid)

💰 PSA President Discusses the Future of Grading, Including SGC and Beckett

⚾ Nolan Ryan Topps Venezuelan Rookie Up for Auction

⚾ Apparently There’s Another 1954 Topps Ted Williams “Card”

⚾ Auction Includes Rare Vintage Cards, Complete 1912 T202 Set

⚾ One of 13 PSA 10 T206 Cards to Hit the Auction Block

II you know baseball history or saw “Good Will Hunting,” you know the moment during the 1975 World Series that Carlton Fisk became best known for.

Carlton Fisk - C

HOF Induction in 2000 - Named on 397 out of 499 ballots (79.6%)

Standout Stats:

The average price was just above $116. I should also note that the sale on December 18 had two different totals - Vintage Card Prices listed it as $149.99, while Card Ladder listed it as $115, so since it was a Best Offer sale, I assumed it was the lower price that was the actual best offer.

As mentioned previously, collector grade is based on the decade - a 7 grade for the 1970s, a 6 for the 1960s, and so on.

This week I’ll focus on basketball Hall of Fame rookie cards from the 1960s, a list that’s unusual in that there are only two sets for the entire decade - 1961 Fleer and 1969 Topps. It’s why I didn’t initially do this tabulation, because I didn’t think there would be enough to justify looking at the decade. But, as many collectors know, because of that lengthy gap, players who have played for years were still considered “rookies” and, therefore, there were enough that it made sense.

I’ll define “affordable” as $100 or less (with each price based on the average of the last three sales). Before tabulating, my guess is that more than 25% of the cards fall into the “affordable” category.

Here are the results, with data via Vintage Card Prices:

I was clearly off the mark with my estimate, as the list above includes all the players with cards averaging less than $100. What’s honestly shocking is that of the above 19 players, NINE of them (all 1969 Topps cards, it should be noted) are on the list of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, honoring the 75 greatest players in NBA history, and yet they’re at these prices.

Instead of the 25% I predicted, this decade’s rookies landed at 61%. Just a, uh, slight miscalculation on my part.

While the first list was mostly populated by the 1969 Topps set (17 of the 19), 1961 Fleer dominated the second one (10 of the 12) with some of the true legends in NBA history.

One thing to note is that, with Jerry West’s cards, the three most recent card prices came from cards in older PSA slabs, which seemed to negatively affect the price (the three prior slabs averaged $2,972.04).

When it comes to the overall average, Wilt Chamberlain’s rookie card did most of the heavy lifting, elevating the average for all 31 cards to $530.20.

What did you think of the results?