Whats changed? Part 2 - Nolan Ryan.

So this is part two of an ongoing series of the increase or decrease of card values over the past ten years. You can find part one here which features Bonds and Griffey Jr.

This time around I wanted to focus on two pitchers. I asked for suggestions for the pitchers to feature and the only suggestion that was made was Nolan Ryan. Thanks for getting involved Captain Canuck.

So I'm just featuring Ryan in this post and then tomorrow I'm going to take a look at Roger Clemens. I figure since I featured a clean player last time (Griffey) and a known juicer (Bonds) it would be interesting to do that again but since I'm going more in depth it will be split over two posts.

Now to remind you, my source materials are Tuff Stuff from April 2000 and Beckett from August 2010. I'm not saying that I believe that these prices are what you should be paying because we all know that 75% of the time sale value is nowhere near book value.

This is going to be longer than the last post because I'm going to feature all the base cards from Topps and if there is an auto listed in Tuff Stuff I will feature that too.

So here's Nolan Ryan's cards. The first price is Tuff Stuff and the second is Beckett.
All cards are NM.

1968 Topps RC - $900/$500
1969 Topps - $450/$200
1970 Topps - $375/$200
1971 Topps - $250/$150
1972 Topps - $200/$100
1973 Topps - $75/$50
1974 Topps - $75/$40
1975 Topps - $65/$50
1976 Topps - $70/$25
1977 Topps - $35/$20
1978 Topps - $35/$25
1979 Topps - $30/$20
1980 Topps - $20/$15
1981 Topps - $8/$8
1982 Topps - $8/$6
1983 Topps - $7/$6
1984 Topps - $4/$3
1985 Topps - $3/$3
1986 Topps - $2/$2
1987 Topps - $1/$1
1988 Topps - $.75/$1 - The first increase!
1989 Topps - $.75/$1
1990 Topps - $.75/$1
1991 Topps - $.60/$1.50
1992 Topps - $1/$1
1993 Topps - $1.50/$2
1994 Topps - $1/$2
1999 SP Signatures auto - $275/$150

I did not expect the massive drop in value for Ryan over the years and I'm very surprised that his cards from the junk era have held or have even gone up. Sure they only went up by a fraction but its still an increase.
The vast majority of his cards have gone down on average by 50% over the years. I honestly believed that like Mickey Mantle cards, Ryan would hold its value and would have been a great investment.
On a side note SP sigs from 1999 looked like an amazing product with a huge autograph list. According to the brief write up in Tuff Stuff, it was one auto per pack. No idea on how much it cost though, but judging from the card values back then I'm guessing it was expensive. I did a search on the bay to see if there were any boxes but there wasn't.
Ryan also had an auto in Topps 1999 but I can only find the prices from Beckett 2010 so I could not do a comparison.

Next I will be looking at Roger Clemens but who else would you like to see featured? You can only choose a player that had a card issued before 2000. Please try to include only the bigger player. Look forward to your comments.

April 2000 - August 2010. What's changed?

A little while a go I posted about an old issue of Tuff Stuff that I found and the differences with certain prices and autos. Well I thought I would revisit the topic again and see what else has changed.

My source materials are Tuff Stuff from April 2000 and Beckett from August 2010. Just how much has changed in the past ten years? Have cards worth nothing in 2000 now worth a couple of hundred? And are the cards that were worth a ton back then are now nothing more than a coaster for your drink?

I think I'll make this a regular piece and try to get a new post each week focusing on two different players each time.

I talked about the McGwire RC last time and how that shot way up in the late 90's only to plummet to where it is today. Obviously with a guy like big mac, steroids pretty much destroyed his card values with more and more collectors only wanting 'clean' stars.
This time around I'll focus on two popular players rookie cards and an auto. What I mean by popular is players who have a large following in the card collecting world.
First lets start off with probably the most iconic card of the modern collecting age and that is the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.
All prices are NM.

Tuff Stuff 2000 - $175
Beckett 2010 - $40

Griffey also had an auto in 1999 SP Signatures. (None on eBay)

Tuff Stuff 2000 - $350
Beckett 2010 - $160

Massive drop in value for both cards. Obviously if you were investing back then you probably thought you were sitting on a gold mine. Sucks to be you.

Next the all time home run king, Barry Bonds. Here are the prices on his 1987 Fleer.

Tuff Stuff 2000 - $30
Beckett 2010 - $15

That's actually surprised me. I would have thought it would be much less then $15 today. I guess you can probably pick this up on the bay for much cheaper than that.

Bonds also has an auto in SP Sigs 1999

Tuff Stuff 2000 - $75
Beckett 2010 - $200

Our first increase! Love or hate Bonds I bet you would all want his auto in your collection. Being a Giants fan I would want his auto although I'm not going to go out of my way to get one...but if your giving one away I'll take it!

What do you guys think? Do these values surprise you? or is this something you expected?

What two players would you like me to feature next? I want to focus on pitchers so if any of you out there who had/have favourite pitchers that had a card released from 1980 to 2000 then please leave a comment. Also include why you consider them a favourite.