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Most Valuable Red Sox Baseball Cards: George Kell

2/18/2019

by R.A. Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

Most people think of Hall-of-Fame third baseman George Kell as a Detroit Tiger. That’s not surprising, as he played in parts of eight seasons with the Tigers and was a Tigers broadcaster for thirty-seven years. But, he started out with the Philadelphia A’s, and the Tigers actually traded Kell to the Boston Red Sox in 1952!

George Kell was actually part of a nine-player trade that involved Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky going to Detroit. After the trade, Kell hit .319/.390/.453 for the Sox in 75 games. In 1953, Kell would hit 307.383.483 and enjoy a 3 WAR season. Unfortunately, 1953 would see him hit only .258/.361/.290 in 26 games for the Sox. He’d be traded to the White Sox for infielder Grady Hatton and $100,000. Hatton would finish out 1954 well with the Sox, and Kell would have one more good season with the White Sox in 1955.

There are actually a fair amount of George Kell baseball cards out there depicting the Hall of Fame ballplayer on the Red Sox. The most valuable are graded examples of 1953 Topps #138 and 1954 Bowman #50. Kell’s 1953 Topps card is valued around $300 for PSA 8 (Near Mint POP 76) examples, over $600 for PSA 8.5 (Near-Mint+ POP 5), and $1,750 for PSA 9 (Mint POP 8)! His 1954 Bowman is much more affordable at around $80 for a PSA 8 (POP 84 + 7 with an Off-Center Qualifier), $115 for a PSA 8.5 (POP 3) and $475 for a PSA 9 (POP 9)! There are about the same amount of PSA 8 and PSA 8.5 of each of these cards in existence, but they are still fairly rare.

While George Kell’s legacy is as a Detroit Tiger, his short, fairly productive time with the Boston Red Sox makes his key cards quite valuable to any serious Red Sox baseball card collector.

Who do you collect?

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What Are The Top 50 Sports Cards to Invest In Right Now?

2/11/2019

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

Searching online for the best sports cards to invest in for 2019? It’s likely you’ll be bombarded with lists of some of the most expensive cards in baseball, football, and basketball. You’ll also be told to review the 50 most watched sports cards on eBay to know what’s currently hot. But, if you want the quickest path to finding the best baseball, football, and basketball cards to buy right now, read on.

What’s Wrong with Watching the Most Watched Cards on eBay?

The problem with the idea of watching the most watched cards on eBay is two-fold. First, just because a card has a lot of people watching it, that doesn’t mean it actually has a huge market. This is especially the case with cards that are 1/1 or have other low serial numbers. While there’s always a market for these cards, they often make poor investments because they rely on a bidding war taking place to get high prices. If only one highly interested party shows up for the auction, the “hammer price” will doubtless be disappointing to the seller.

Yes, there’s always collector demand for these sorts of cards, and it’s cool to own something so truly rare. But, you need to be willing to bet on what a very small demand pool will give you, since so few collectors have the cash to buy unique or greatly limited cards. Or, you need to hold the card for a very long time. For investment purposes, these aren’t the cards you want to focus on. If you’re serious about sports card investing, you need cards that are both sought after and can be sold at any time for a fair return.

Another problem with cards that often come up on eBay as “most watched” is that they may represent minor league prospects or players currently on a hot streak. These tend to be more speculative buys, and if you’re fine with gambling, they can either pay off or sink you. Sure, you’ll see names on this list you’ll recognize like Mickey Mantle, Michael Jordan, and Tom Brady. While eBay is an established marketplace for sports cards, it isn’t a great place to actually track what cards are great investments... unless you already know exactly what you’re looking for!

There’s also the strategy of watching the cards with the most bids on eBay. While this approach is a more direct way of finding the cards that people are not wanting to let get away, it is also likely to lead to bidding wars. That’s not really a sound investment strategy, as you’ll probably pay far more for the card you want than it’s worth in the long-term marketplace.

So, what’s the best source of recommendations for investment-quality players and cards? You’ll want to check out ThePit 50 sports card indices.

What is ThePit?

ThePit is a bid/ask marketplace where you can trade real sports cards online like stocks without transaction fees. Their indices includes hot rookie cards, both graded and ungraded, as well as graded vintage cards. Card prices on ThePit are usually lower than the lowest buy-it-now price on eBay by a significant amount. When you remove the transaction fees, shipping cost and (increasingly) sales tax associated with trading cards requiring physical delivery (as on eBay), you save 15 percent or more on a card right away!

What are ThePit 50 Indices?

ThePit 50 indices are based on the top graded cards in each of baseball, football, and basketball. It takes the current “Sell Now” price of the card on ThePit multiplied by its graded population - which is publicly available information. The idea behind the indices is to establish a total population value (“market cap” in Wall Street terms) for individual cards in specific grades. This allows sports card collectors and investors the ability to truly treat sports cards like stocks.

Graded cards are more valuable than their raw counterparts in grades PSA 9 and 10 & BGS 9.5 and 10, and collectors only grade cards they feel are valuable. So, knowing which cards have both high populations and high sell prices lets you know what cards have the best market and overall value. Thanks to this index, you can take a lot of the guesswork and hours of research that go into figuring out what’s hot and what’s not.

So, what are some of the best sports cards to buy right now? Let’s see what thePit 50 index tells us in baseball, football, and basketball.

Best Baseball Cards to Buy Right Now

When you take a look at thePit 50, you’ll likely see established stars like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton. There’s also future Hall of Fame players like Albert Pujols, Clayton Kershaw, and Miguel Cabrera. You’ll see vintage players like Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose. In between, you’ll see guys off a breakout year (Mookie Betts) and guys off a bad year but still with promise (Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa). Lastly, you have top rookie prospects going into their sophomore seasons (Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna, Jr.)

If you follow the game even casually, these names probably all sound familiar. But what’s key to thePit 50 is that it tracks only the key rookie cards of these players. There are so many baseball card products out there today that it’s overwhelming when choosing what cards are worth putting your money into. thePit 50 helps narrow the focus to the top cards you want to own!

Best Football Cards to Buy Right Now

Quarterbacks dominate the football card market and always have. Occasionally, a running back or wide receiver will have a big game or strong year and see a nice appreciation in their rookie cards. But if you look at the thePit 50 Football index, you’ll see it dominated by the best Quarterbacks in the league - Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers. Other top performing quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck may sneak in there. Even retired QB’s like Tony Romo occasionally make an appearance. It’s likely you’ll see young phenoms such at Patrick Mahomes II and Baker Mayfield make an appearance soon. Still, the investment value in football is definitely at the top.

Best Basketball Cards to Buy Right Now

Michael Jordan has and probably always will be the best player ever to invest in when it comes to basketball cards. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are two other names you can’t go wrong with when investing in basketball cards, either. Established stars like Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant make appearances, as well as future Hall of Fame players like Dirk Nowitzki. While vintage players have value (such as the 1980 Bird/Erving/Johnson scoring leaders card), the latest stars are the most actively traded.

Why Trade Sports Cards Online at ThePit?

Since 1999, thePit allows you to build a sports card portfolio and trade online. This also saves you from other realized costs such as sales tax. Then, you can cash out your balance at any time (with a 10% fee) or have the physical cards listed in your portfolio shipped to you for a reasonable flat rate. It’s safe and secure. All you have to do is create a free account at ThePit, fund your account with a VISA or Mastercard, and you’re good to start buying and selling.

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What is the Best Julian Edelman Rookie Card?

2/4/2019

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

Super Bowl 53 belonged to the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, but a major part of the Patriots success came from Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman. The wide receiver joined the New England Patriots in the 7th round of the NFL draft after playing quarterback in college. Since then, he’s become one of Brady’s favorite targets and his talent was on full display in Atlanta as the Patriots beat the Rams 13-3.

Obviously, being Super Bowl MVP is a big deal, so Julian Edelman rookie cards became a hot commodity right away as his MVP award was announced. Cardboard Connection has a great list of the top Julian Edelman rookie cards. But, if I had to pick one, I would certainly pick the 2009 Topps Platinum #159.

With only 8 PSA 10 copies in existence, the Julian Edelman Topps Platinum Rookie Card has room to grow. The day after the Super Bowl, raw copies of this card were receiving bids exceeding $40. It’s a nice-looking rookie card and the Topps Platinum Edelman RC has a refractor version, as well as a white refractor, and a platinum refractor numbered to 1549.

But, while not a “true” rookie card, the 2010 Topps #325 Julian Edelman also saw quite a jump in demand after Super Bowl 53. Bids exceeding $10 were being seen on eBay for this base card. As of this writing, only a couple of PSA 10 copies exist, with one being listed for $199. It’s a nice “budget” option and is still a great card for Julian Edelman card collectors to own. Of course, because the 2010 Topps card is far more common, the 2009 Topps Platinum likely remains the better investment, along with the other serial-numbered and autographed Edelman cards on the market.

What’s your favorite Julian Edelman Rookie Card?

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What is the Best Jared Goff Rookie Card?

2/2/2019

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

In his third season with the Los Angeles Rams, Jared Goff enjoyed a strong season at quarterback in the 2018-19 season. Appearing in Super Bowl LIII (53) opposite New England Patriots legend Tom Brady, there's obviously a lot of interest in his rookie cards.

Of course, the Patriots, Brady, and Julian Edelman stole the show in Super Bowl 53, and Goff very much struggled. While the poor performance has certainly put downward pressure on Goff's cards, there's still interest. Since he's still the Rams starting QB, this means a great buy-low opportunity for Rams fans and others who believed in the talent of this young quarterback.

There are many Jared Goff inserts, autographs, relic cards, and low-numbered parallel rookie cards to choose from. So, what is the best Jared Goff Rookie Card?

The most affordable Jared Goff rookie card is his 2016 Panini Score #332 base rookie card. This card has sold as high as $8 leading up to the Super Bowl. There’s also the Jared Goff Score NFL Draft Rookie Card #2, While it’s sold for as little as $2, gem mint 10 graded copies have sold for upwards of $25. There’s also a gold parallel (selling for $30) and a red parallel numbered to 50, selling for $50 or more.

But, the best Jared Goff Rookie Card to collect his the 2016 Panini Prizm #208. The set is beautiful looking and also has rookie cards of Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott, and Ezekiel Elliott. With 176 PSA 9 and 210 PSA 10 copies graded of the Jared Goff #208, this is clearly the rookie card of choice for collectors. PSA 10 copies already garner sales of $30 or more, but you can find PSA 9 copies for as little as $10.

There are also many unnumbered parallels to collect in 2016 Panini Prizm, including Blue, Flash, Green, Pink, Red, and Red/White/Blue Disco. There’s also numbered parallels: Orange to 299, Light Blue to 199, Blue Wave to 149, Purple Scope to 99, Red Crystals to 75, Green Power to 49, Camo to 25, Gold to 10, Gold Vinyl to 5, and Black Finite that’s a 1/1.

There are also highly-coveted autograph inserts of this RC, which when graded PSA 10 can sell upwards of $200 with rarer parallels getting sales north of $1500! The 2016 Panini Prizm #208 rookie card looks like the key RC that you’ll want to collect looking forward to Jared Goff’s promising career.

Updated 2/4/19

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Most Valuable Red Sox Baseball Cards: George Kell

What Are The Top 50 Sports Cards to Invest In Right Now?

What is the Best Julian Edelman Rookie Card?

What is the Best Jared Goff Rookie Card?

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