This compact, easy-to-read primer-suitable for both novice and experienced collectors-provides cutting-edge analysis to identify, value, and purchase investment-grade vintage baseball and football cards. Inside you will find answers to questions you never even thought to ask: What are the three main types of scarcity, and why do only two of them matter? What is the difference between organic and design scarcity, and which one is more desirable? Why is the 1962 Topps Willie Mays card graded PSA-8 more than twice as valuable as the 1960 Topps Willie Mays card graded PSA-8.5? What is the most undervalued vintage football set? Why is the 1968 Topps Mickey Mantle card graded PSA-10 a steal at $45,000? Why do football cards offer better percentage growth prospects than baseball cards? Why are PSA-8.5 cards so often undervalued? Whether you have thousands to spend or just a few hundred, this Primer will help you better understand the benefits and risks of investing in vintage baseball and football cards. Author Robert Jeffries is a long-time collector of vintage baseball and football cards. Contact him at [email protected].

"In the wake of the great baseball card bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s - a time period in which new baseball card issues were wildly overproduced - everybody knows that modern baseball cards are worthless, and that valuable cards are strictly a vintage thing. And yet, many of the most valuable cards of the last 40-50 years have been printed in the last five to ten years ... Indeed, the investment profile of the modern baseball card and sports cards in general has improved dramatically over the past 20 years. In The Modern Baseball Card Investor, Jeff Hwang explains why, and shows you how you, too, can get in on the game"--Amazon.com.

“An entertaining history of baseball cards . . . An engaging book on a narrow but fascinating topic.” —The Washington Post When award-winning journalist Dave Jamieson’s parents sold his childhood home a few years ago, he rediscovered a prized boyhood possession: his baseball card collection. Now was the time to cash in on the “investments” of his youth. But all the card shops had closed, and cards were selling for next to nothing online. What had happened? In Mint Condition, his fascinating, eye-opening, endlessly entertaining book, Jamieson finds the answer by tracing the complete story of this beloved piece of American childhood. Picture cards had long been used for advertising, but after the Civil War, tobacco companies started slipping them into cigarette packs as collector’s items. Before long, the cards were wagging the cigarettes. In the 1930s, cards helped gum and candy makers survive the Great Depression. In the 1960s, royalties from cards helped transform the baseball players association into one of the country’s most powerful unions, dramatically altering the game. In the eighties and nineties, cards went through a spectacular bubble, becoming a billion-dollar-a-year industry before all but disappearing, surviving today as the rarified preserve of adult collectors. Mint Condition is charming, original history brimming with colorful characters, sure to delight baseball fans and collectors. “Jamieson explores the history of card collecting through an entertaining cast of characters . . . For anyone who can recall being excited to rip open their newest pack of cards, Mint Condition is a treat.” —Forbes

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Become a part of the growing sports card trading community Sports Card Collecting & Investing For Dummies will teach you how to start or resume collecting, how to trade, sell, grade, and protect your cards. This is a comprehensive yet easy-to-read breakdown of the sports card hobby and its many nuances. You’ll learn the basics and get up to speed on the recent influx of new brands, companies, investors, influencers, and technologies that have completely reshaped the community. The popularity of sports cards as an alternative investment is at an all-time high, and this Dummies guide helps you budget and make smart trades. The anatomy of a sports card, spotting card damage, grading scales, buying safely, using trusted marketplaces, building your collection, pricing and selling your cards, avoiding scams—it’s all in here. Become a savvy card collector, the easy way. Learn the ins and outs of trading sports cards as a collector and an investor Determine the value of your cards and discover where to find rare deals Stay safe while buying and selling from local dealers, with online marketplaces, and at in-person events Become a part of the collector community Beginners of all ages who want to start (or resume) collecting sports cards can find all the must-know info in the pages of Sports Card Collecting & Investing For Dummies.