As Good as Gold : Once a Kids’ Game, Adults Are Now Investing in Baseball Cards

The baseball season is in full swing and so is the baseball card business. And these days, it isn’t just kids swapping them in sandlots. It has grown into a mini-industry, catering more to grown-ups who, increasingly, are collecting the cards for investment purposes.

“It’s the kids that make this thing happen,� admits Frank Steele, a consultant with the Donruss Company, a major card distributor. But because the value of baseball cards increases with time, they have stimulated the speculative interest of many adults.

“Where the age level (of most buyers) used to be 7-12, our research shows that it now seems to be a much higher age level,� said Norman Liss, a spokesman for Topps gum. Baseball cards traditionally came packaged with bubble gum, but now only Topps offers the gum-card package.

President Don Peck of the Fleer Corp., another card maker, agreed. “The more serious collectors are older,� he said.

Basically, the older enthusiasts are taking a more industrious approach to the business of collecting baseball cards. “It’s the same with gold, coins and stamps,� Steele said. “And it’s gone beyond that certain level. They (speculators) treat the cards as commodities, as things.�

Ken Slater, owner of California Numismatic Investments Inc. in Redondo Beach gladly attests to the greater interest on the part of the speculator.

“Businessmen are coming in and buying two to three thousand dollars’ worth at a time,� he said.

Such dealings, however, have made it difficult for kids to keep up with the adults.

Said Slater: “The problem is that (the baseball card business) is getting so sophisticated that kids can’t afford the cards anymore. The (Dwight) Gooden card is going for $22.�

Matt Federgreen, the 22-year-old owner of the Beverly Hills Baseball Card Shop, acts as sort of a baseball card-broker, besides running his store. He has regular customers for whom he buys cards that he believes will increase in value. He takes 10% over his cost and says that the venture has been successful.

“Everyone who has invested has made a lot of money. I had one lady come in who bought a case of Donruss cards in 1984, it doubled in a year and a half. She bought six cases of Donruss in 1985, which doubled in a year.�

Even the children in the habit of collecting baseball cards are becoming more business-like, compared to the earlier generation of children, some of whom didn’t mind trading an extra Mickey Mantle for a Clyde Kluttz.

“They’re much more aware of the value of cards these days,� Liss said. “No more placing them in the spokes, flipping or tossing them or things like that, they’re aware that an outstanding rookie can be worth something someday, and that a 1952 Mickey Mantle is worth $2,700.�

Said Federgreen: “They’re coming in and investing. I’ve found that with a lot of customers, even kids . . . that’s all they want to do.�

Peck, however, says that some people still collect cards strictly as a hobby. “There’s some of that still going on, basically for the desire to participate in our national pastime,� he said.

Steele admits there is “a broadening of interest (among collectors)� claims, but believes, “It’s still a child’s hobby,� and referred to most older collectors as children at heart.

The value of some of the older cards makes it easy to understand the investment trend and increased involvement among adults.

For example, the current values of cards from the early 1950s:

1952: Mickey Mantle would sell for approximately $2,700; Roy Campanella, $450; Willie Mays, $450; Topps Series, $15,000; Duke Snider, $45; Billy Martin, $40.

1953: Willie Mays, $500; Mickey Mantle, $375; Jackie Robinson, $80; Satchel Paige, $60.

1954: Hank Aaron, $225; Ted Williams, $80; Al Kaline, $75.

1955: Willie Mays, $160; Roberto Clemente, $135; Duke Snider, $125; Sandy Koufax, $80.

There are also even older cards, such as the 1910 Honus Wagner.

Wagner--featured on a card sold with a pack of cigarettes--wanted no association with tobacco and threatened legal action unless the cards were pulled. They were, and the remaining cards--4 to 12 of them are believed to be in existence--are worth more than $20,000 each.

Another gem is the 1910 Eddie Plank card, which is valued up to $10,000.

Rookie cards are the most lucrative, and thus popular. “It’s a fairly recent phenomenon (on the part of the speculative buyer) to get behind rookie cards,� Steele said.

Some recent cards have also appreciated noticeably. According to Federgreen, the most popular cards this year are the 1985 Dwight Gooden, which sells for more than $8 and up to $30 for the traded version, of which fewer were made and are available only in complete sets; the 1986 Jose Canseco, $3.50-$4; the 1983 Wade Boggs, $8; and the 1984 Don Mattingly, also $8.

Other rookie cards doing well include the 1981 Fernando Valenzuela card, selling for $2.75, and the 1983 Ryne Sandberg, selling for $4. Oh yes, the 1982 San Diego Chicken card, the first printed, is going for a whopping 90 cents.

Cards that were printed imperfectly--with a smudge or some sort of mistake--can also be valuable.

For example, in 1981, Fleer came out with a Graig Nettles card. His first name was changed to Craig, however, by an overzealous editor, and although the error was eliminated in later press runs, the Craig cards are worth more than $20 apiece.

A 1952 Joe Page card sells for $90 with a printed error and just $42 without, and a 1952 Johnny Sain sells for $90 with the error, $14 without.

To avoid even the smallest amount of damage, or the well meaning habits of a spring-cleaning mother, baseball cards are seldom kept in old shoe boxes in the closet anymore.

“People these days are buying plastic holders and preserving the cards, keeping them in mint condition,� Liss said.

The three major companies printed 1.8 billion cards last year, and another company, Sportflics--whose “magic motion� cards can be tilted to show three different pictures of the same player on a single card--is also on the rise.

They, along with the investors, are profiting in the grand old game of baseball.