The combination of the Tarik Skubal trade news and our internet being down a good chunk of the day yesterday left me with not much more to say other than “Ugh.” But I’m getting the newsletter out on time and the Tigers swept the A’s, so things are looking up.

I just hope the anonymous collector who pulled the Shohei Ohtani 1-of-1 “back-to-back” Gold Logoman also happens to be a Drawn to Cards subscriber, but whatever the case, that person had a very, VERY good week.

And for those who went to the National, I hope you found exactly what you were looking for and didn’t have to suffer in too long of a line. If you have thoughts on your experience at the show, drop a comment.

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In this issue you'll find:

Auction highlights
News in the hobby
Tracking 1960s GOAT player runs
Cliff Branch’s rookie card and player profile
ICYMI
Recent Vintage Card Voyage videos

Let’s get into it.

Auction Highlights

In order of closing date:

Sterling Sports Auctions (ending on August 6)

Love of the Game Summer Premier Auction (ending on August 8)

The Collector Connection Post War Sports Cards & Memorabilia (ending on August 9)

Other active auctions:

Hunt Auctions August Internet Auction (ends on August 12)

REA Summer 2026 Auction (ends on August 16 - see related article below)

Heritage Auctions Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction (ends on August 21-23)

Wheatland Auction August 2026 Sports Cards & Memorabilia Auction (ends on August 23)

News Briefs

⚾ Extremely Rare Vintage Baseball Cards We Saw at the National

💰 The National Expected to Attract Another Record Crowd, Big Sales and Plenty of Buzz for Hot Hobby

💰 Rare 1952 Topps Unopened Pack ‘Brick’ and Vintage Wax Highlight REA Summer Auction

⚾ Top 5 Iconic Vintage Baseball Cards for Brooks Robinson

⚾ Autograph Expert Questions Legitimacy of PSA-Authenticated 1952 Mickey Mantle Signature

⚾ 10 Oddities From the Popular T205 Set

⚾ 5 Rare Vintage Baseball Card Errors That Fly Under the Radar

🪎 25 Pieces of Vintage Sports Memorabilia That Surface in Unexpected Places

Hobby Thoughts: Tracking the Prices of 1960s GOAT Player Runs

Takeaway: Nolan Ryan’s player run dominates in both price increases and number of sales, but Pete Rose’s is no slouch.

Following last week’s look at the 1950s GOATs, I wanted to see how the 1960s GOAT player runs would play out.

The rookie cards that stood out in my mind for the decade were the 1963 Topps Pete Rose, the 1967 Topps Tom Seaver and the 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan, so I tracked their player runs to see which, if any of them, would stand out.

My sense was that Nolan Ryan’s cards would do particularly well and that Pete Rose’s would start to show some lift based on the potential of him being voted into the Hall of Fame, while Tom Seaver’s would do reasonably well based on vintage cards generally doing reasonably well.

Methodology:

I used Card Ladder, with a date range from 8/1/24 to 8/1/26, and tracked collector grade cards (PSA 6 for the 1960s, PSA 7 for the 1970s) for the first 10 of each of their base cards
Percentages were determined from the difference between the earliest sale within the date range and the most recent sale

Some notes:

Nolan Ryan’s player run consistency is truly impressive, with the smallest gain being 35 percent in the two-year span, while four of the 10 cards more than doubled in price
Pete Rose had the biggest one-card bump, with his 1967 Topps card price jumping from $85.92 to $295, but what should be noted (as I’ve talked about in the past) is the variability of graded vintage card pricing, as that $85.92 price was sandwiched by two $165 prices
Of Tom Seaver’s three card price declines, his largest one of 43.2% for his 1972 Topps card was another victim of price variability, as the initial pricing of $119.72 was sandwiched by sales of $57 and $60, so with a most recent sale of $68, it could’ve just as easily been a small gain
Each player’s rookie card showed solid gains: Rose 54.2%, Seaver 63.6% and Ryan 122.2%
For average player run percentage gains, Ryan’s cards did the best, even doing slightly better than Mantle’s did in last week’s research, whether calculated based on 1) the difference between all first and most recent sales added together or 2) the average of each of the 10 card’s percentage gain (or loss)
- Ryan: 95% or 84% (compared to Mantle’s 94% or 80%)
- Rose: 58.8% or 72.6%
- Seaver: 44.5% or 21.3%

Vintage HOF Rookie Card: Cliff Branch

Cliff Branch is one of 14 people in NFL history with a 99-yard TD reception, which he accomplished on October 2, 1983, on a pass thrown by Raiders’ QB Jim Plunkett.

Cliff Branch - WR

HOF Induction in 2022

Standout Stats: