Baseball card holders are containers designed to protect baseball cards from the kind of wear and tear which will reduce their value. They also help a collector transport and store their baseball cards. Here are some examples of baseball card holders.

Acrylic Card Cases
These are clear plastic hinged cases with snap closure which hold somewhere between fifteen and 250 cards. If you buy them in lots of at least ten they should cost between about sixty cents each for the smallest acrylic cases to closer to three dollars for the large two hundred card plus models. While this wouldn’t be the optimal storage for a very expensive, high grade card, acrylic plastic card cases are not a bad place to store a collection of cards that are worth a bit more than “common.”

Mini Snap cases
These individual card holders feature magnetic closures and special diamond shaped corners that prevent damage to the corners of the cards they house. There should be no PVC or acid in a mini snap case. They should also feature a UV coating or UV absorber which blocks harmful light rays and prevents the cards from fading. The price of a mini snap case depends on its thickness, but should run between about fifty cents and a dollar each if you buy them in large batches. Mini Snap cases are good for fairly valuable (less than $250) cards.

Top loaders
One piece hard plastic card holders in which you slide the card in through the top. Because of this precarious movement and the threat it can pose to the cards corners they aren’t as safe to use as a mini snap case. However they should be cheaper, at about fifteen cents each if you buy in bulk.

Screwdowns
The gold standard in individual baseball card holders. They come in either lucite or acrylic and in either one screw or four screw design and should feature UV protection. The most solidly built screwdown case is going to be a four screw lucite model. These should cost about six dollars a pop. That’s a lot to pay for a single card holder, but if you have a card worth more than a couple hundred bucks and you want to maintain its high PSA grade you’re going to want to get it in a screwdown holder and quick.

Binders and Pages
Binders and pages have always been a popular way to hold and display baseball card. The binder doesn’t have to be baseball card specific, it just has to have the classic three rings. The pages are made from polypropylene and feature either eight or nine card slots. (Eight for certain sets of older cards.) Binders and pages are probably not the best place to store a card of much value, but instead a fun way to look at your favorites which won’t one day be financing your unborn child’s college tuition. A lot of hundred binder pages should run about fifteen dollars.

Storage boxes
These are just big old cardboard storage boxes for baseball cards. They come in all sorts of different sizes — from a fairly square box that will fit about two hundred cards, to long thin boxes that’ll encase up to a thousand. They are typically shipped flat so you have to assemble them. They run between fifty cents and a dollar a box, depending on the size. Storage boxes should only be used to store common cards.

Trading card frames
Sort of a mix between binder pages and screw downs, these picture frame-like baseball card holders allow you to show off your favorite cards without risk of lowering their PSA rating. They range in size from frames that hold one card to those that can hold nine. The are priced according to size with the bigger size topping out at around twenty-five bucks.

The are four popular ways to sell your baseball cards. You can sell them to a baseball card shop, you can sell them at a card show, you can sell them directly to a friend or personal acquaintance, or you can sell them online.

But before you sell a baseball card or any valuable collectable you have to get a good gauge on exactly what it is worth. For this, you certainly need to go online.

Ebay is great resource to use for pricing your baseball card. Simply type the card’s description into eBay’s search box and you will get a list of what everybody is trying to sell the card at in various PSA conditions. Once you see that you will have a pretty good idea of the kind of price range you should expect for your card.

Selling a baseball card card to a card shop
If you were going to sell a card in 1988 this would be the way you would probably do it. But there were reasons to be wary of selling to a dealer back then and there still are now. The only difference is now there are other ways to sell just about any baseball card, so we can’t recommend using a dealer. The problem with going the dealer route, as it’s always been, is that most dealers are only going to buy a card if they are sure they can sell it for enough of a markup to make it worth their while. The bottom line is that if a dealer is willing to pay a certain amount of money for a card its almost certainly worth at least 10 percent more. Card dealers are sharks because their livelihood depends on it and one would be advised to stay away from sharks when conducting financial matters.

Selling a baseball card at a card show
If you have a lot of baseball cards to sell it could be worth it to buy a table at a card show. However a booth can cost up to $1000 for the weekend and is going run you at least 100 bucks. But even if you don’t want to lay down that kind of capital for a booth it might still be a good idea to plop down eight or ten bucks for a card show’s general admission fee and hit the event. With a friendly outgoing attitude you may well be able to find fellow shoppers who are interested in buying your cards. Also, given the frantic nature of a card show, those dealers who are such sharks on their home turf might be a little less on-the-ball and more susceptible to actually accepting a fair price for your card when they are in the convention hall.

Selling a baseball card to a friend
Friends tend to share common interests. Like collecting baseball cards. A friend is also the perfect person to sell (or go old school and trade) a baseball card to. Since you know what kind baseball cards your card collecting buddy likes you can specifically cater the sale to him from the get go. A good tip when selling a baseball card to a friend or acquaintance is to do it during the baseball season when the are most excited about the sport and the collectables associated with it.

Selling a baseball card online
This is the best way to sell a baseball card. And by using an auction site like eBay you maximize your chances of getting the best price possible. But eBay isn’t the only online auction site on the Internet. Sportsbuy.com is another option. The site has lower fees than eBay, however since it also has fewer eyeballs you may end up with a lower sale price. When selling a baseball card online make sure you have a good scanner so you can include a picture with an accurate representation of the card’s condition. And remember that buyer feedback is an important on sites like eBay. If you screw any buyer over in regards to what kind of shape the card is in or a PSA score it will make it difficult for you to sell cards in the future.

Baseball card sleeves are individual card holders made out of soft polypropylene plastic. The standard baseball card sleeve is 2-3/4 x 3-15/16. Some sleeves have flaps and others are flap-less. There are also larger sleeves that can fit giant cards or fit over screw down cases — essentially a case to protect a case. There are also extra tall and extra thick sleeves to fit cards that are taller or thicker than normal. Sleeves should cost between two and seven dollars per hundred, depending on their size.

Nine card binder pages are also sometimes referred to as baseball card sleeves. Binder sleeves — which will work with any three-ring binder — are a good way to protect and display your baseball cards. These sleeves should cost somewhere around fifteen bucks for a hundred. There are also eight card binder pages for older cards of a slightly larger size.

Baseball card sleeves are good for storing and transporting cards valued in the one dollar to twenty dollar range. If your baseball card is worth much more than that you probably want to get a more sturdy plastic card holder — a snap case, top loader or screw case — because a baseball card sleeve won’t provide the kind of protection from bumps and bruises that a hard plastic case will.

Baseball card sleeves are best bought in large lots of a hundred or more. You can buy them anywhere baseball cards are sold. This includes online sites such as Amazon and eBay.

Honus Wagner was an excellent baseball player. Arguably the greatest shortstop to ever suit and one of the five original Hall of Famers. In fact, only Ty Cobb got more votes than Wagner for Cooperstown’s initial class, with the man they called the flying Dutchman tying Babe Ruth for second place in the voting and finishing ahead of such baseball royalty as Walter Johnson and Cy Young.

But despite all of that Wagner is probably best known to today’s baseball fan as the subject of the most famous and most valuable baseball card there has ever been.

Between 1909 and 1911 the American Tobacco produced a set of 524 1 7/18 inch by 2 ⅝ inch baseball cards. The T206, as it is called, was one of the first sets of baseball cards of that size, and its high quality color lithographs stood out among its contemporaries.

As the story goes, Wagner objected to his likeness buying used to promote tobacco use to children (the cards came in packs of cigarettes) and demanded American Tobacco pull the card from the market. Others claim Wagner, who chewed tobacco himself and did advertisements for cigars, was actually just holding out for more financial compensation for his image.

Some people say that it was copyright dispute between American Tobacco and the artist who created Wagner’s lithograph which caused the card to get pulled.  still another less contentious theory is that production of the Wagner card ceased simply because the printing plate used for the Wagner card broke early in the process.

Whatever the reason, only between 75 and 200 Wagner T206’s ever made it to the public.
In 1933, the first baseball card price guide printed had the Wagner T206 valued at $50 ($900 today.) This made it the expensive baseball card AT that time.

It is believed there are less than 60 authenticated Wagner cards in existence. The most famous is the “Gretzky Wagner T206” which is in PSA 8 near-mint condition — the highest grade ever given to a Wagner — and was once owned by the hockey legend.

This card, which is now valued at over $3,000,000, first came to the public’s attention in 1985 when sports memorabilia Bill Mastro bought it, along with another 50 T206 cards, for 25,000. In 1987 Mastro sold the Wagner for $110,000 to sporting good store owner Bill Copeland.

In 1991 Copeland auctioned off much of his card collection through Sotheby’s. The Wagner T206 was the big prize and it went for $451,000 to a phone bidder who turned out to be Wayne Gretzky,  partially backed by then-LA Kings owner Bruce McNall.

Despite persistent allegations that Mastro had doctored the card, Gretzky and McNall were able to flip it to Walmart for $500,000 in 1995. The retail giant gave the card away in much-hyped contest, which was won by Florida postal worker Patricia Gibbs.

Gibbs couldn’t afford the taxes on the prize so it was back to an auction house — this time Christie’s — where businessman Michael Gidwitz came in with a winning bid of $641,500.
Gidwitz made as tidy profit on the deal, as he flipped the card in 2000 to collector Brian Siegal for $1,265,000. Siegel did even better, selling the card in 2007 for $2,300,000. Later that year the card was sold again.  this time for $2,800,000, to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick.

In October of 2013 Bill Mastro plead guilty to doctoring the Gretzky Wagner T206 by shaving its sides to make it appear in better condition. He had spent the previous 25 years vehemently denying he had altered the card. Mastro now faces up to five years in prison for that and other charges of memorabilia fraud.

The Wagner card that will likely benefit most from Mastro’s admission is the so called “Jumbo Wagner,” which has unusually big borders due to being miscut during printing. Nevertheless, it still has a PSA rating of 5, one of only three Wagner cards ever rated that highly. In 2013 Jumbo Wagner fetched 2,105,770.50 in an auction.

Other famous T206 Wagner cards include the PSA-3 Wagner that was sold in 2012 for 1.2 million. A PSA-1 Wagner once owned by Charlie Sheen — which had been stolen from the actor, and then recovered and returned to him by the FBI — is currently being auctioned off with a $100,000 minimum. In 2010, a Wagner in pretty rough shape that had been given as a gift to a group of Baltimore based nuns hit the market. Despite its bad condition, the sisters were able to get over $200,000 for it and donated the money to their group’s overseas ministries.

The 2013 Nickelodeon movie ‘Swindle’ featured the T206 Wagner.

There is something about Mickey Mantle that baseball card collectors just love. Sure he was a good player — one of the best ever — but the enthusiasm for his cards go beyond the numbers on the back of them and taps into the mystique of the man on the front of it. Mickey Mantle is featured on some of the most valuable cards in baseball history. Read on for the five most famous Mickey Mantle baseball cards, in order of fame and value.

5. 1954 Bowman Mickey Mantle
By the mid-fifties baseball cards were becoming a big business. Topps, which was established in 1952, quickly became as the industry leader. But Bowman fired a real slavo in the card race by signing Mickey Mantle, Pee Reese and Roy Campanella to exclusive contracts, meaning they could only be featured in Bowman sets. In 1955 Topps bought Bowman, in part so they could start printing Mickey Mantle cards again. You can find 1954 Bowman Mickey Mantle cards in the PSA-8 to PSA-9 near mint range on eBay for around 6,000 dollars. The most ever paid for a 1954 Bowman Mickey Mantle was $28,920.

4. 1952 Bowman Mickey Mantle
This painted card features a notably young looking Mantle wearing his Yankee uniform. In fact, it is the first baseball card ever to feature Mantle in New York’s iconic pinstripes. It also has a copy of Mantle’s signature on its front. On the back the card there are Mickey Mantle’s stats, which say he slugged 13 home runs and hit .267 in 96 games. Although he was still a better than average hitter in 1951, it was also the worst offensive year of his career. He was, however, only 19 and a rookie. A mint condition 1952 Bowman Mickey Mantle would be worth around fifteen grand. Near mint versions can be found on eBay for between five and six thousand bucks.

3. 1953 Topps Baseball Mickey Mantle
This would be the second Topps Mickey Mantle card and the last Mantle Topps card until 1956. The card features a close up of the Mick looking over his shoulder, his blue eyes glistening in the sun. The 1953 Topps set is also famous for its clean, now-classic design. In 2009 a high grade mint 1953 Mickey Mantle went for almost $88,000 and a PSA-8 went for $12,788. If you search eBay in 2013 you can find 1953 Mickey Mantles in very good to near mint condition for between four and seven thousand dollars.

2. 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle
Technically, Mickey Mantle’s rookie card, although not his most famous. The card, printed before Mantle completed his first season with the Yankees, is a painting of the future Hall of Famer in his batting stance with a Yankee cap and an anonymous blue sky backdrop. Since it was part of Bowman’s late year high number series, which had less prints than the rest of the set, it’s even more valuable than it would have been otherwise. In 2008 a mint condition Mickey Mantle 1951 Bowman was auctioned off for $600,000.

1. 1952 Topps Baseball Mickey Mantle
Not only the most famous Mickey Mantle baseball card, but the arguably the most famous baseball card of all-time. (The Honus Wagner T206 and the Mickey Mantle Bowman 1951 are both worth more.) Part of its value is derived from being part of its set’s high number series, which gets printed later in the year. In 1952 the high number series sold particularly poorly, so much so that tTopps executives dumped tens of thousands of the leftover cards into the ocean. In 2001, a gem mint 1952 Mickey Mantle (one of only three known to exist) sold for $275,000 at an auction. If that same card was sold now its possible it would exceed the six hundred thousands dollars the Mickey Mantle Bowman 51 went for.

Remember how you thought your baseball cards were going to make you rich someday?

Well, that surely didn’t happened. Unless you are old. Really, really old.

Because while today’s mass produced and well-taken care of baseball cards are never going to be worth much, the cards that the youngsters collected a hundred or so years ago are worth many, many pretty pennies.

Below is our list of the ten most valuable cards of all-time. Pity the fool who put one of them in his bicycle spokes.

Number 10: Eddie Plank 1909 1911 T206 $ 200,000
Eddie Plank was a pretty good little left handed pitcher, racking up 326 wins for the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Terriers over his early 20th century career. His baseball card from the legendary American Tobacco Company T206 series is also among the most valuable ever printed.

In fact, Plank’s T206 card has always been worth a lot. In the 1930s when The American Card Catalog came out with its maiden edition Plank’s was the second most valuable card on the market — going for a then princely sum of ten dollars.

Well times have changed and there has been a lot of inflation. In 2009, a Plank T206 in “good” condition sold at an auction for $155,350. It is estimated that a mint condition Plank — if there is one out there — would fetch around $200,000.

Number 9: Joe Jackson 1910 T210 Red Border $200,000
Most baseball fans know the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson. A simple country boy and Major League Baseball hitting machine, he was thrown out of baseball after admitting to conspiring with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. Since Jackson had hit .375 and slugged a home run during the Fall Classic many doubt he was fully aware of what was going on.

The mystique of Shoeless Joe has contributed to his baseball cards being worth a lot of money. A 1910 Old Mill Tobacco Card with Jackson as minor leaguer with New Orleans was recently auctioned for $ 50,000 despite only having a PSA rating of 3.5 out 10. This suggests a mint condition Jackson T210 would go for over $200,000 on the open market.

Number 8: Joe Jackson – 1914 Boston Garter $ 204,000
The extremely rare 12 card 1914 Boston Garter series was both a traditional baseball card and an advertisement for Boston Garter’s sock garters — which were a big deal back in 1914 since socks didn’t have the elasticity that we now take for granted. As such, the cards were only given to certain distributors who requested them on official stationery.

The favorite and most valuable card of the set features on the front a vividly colorful painting of Shoeless Joe Jackson swinging a bat above a giant sock garter. And on the back there are Jackson’s statistics and sock garter pricing. At a recent auction a Jackson 1914 Boston Garter that was rated excellent was sold for $204,000. A mint condition version would be worth even more, but given the scarcity of the set there is a good chance that none exist.

Number 7: Honus Wagner – 1910 E93 Standard Caramel $ 215,000
As an anti-tobacco activist, Honus Wagner didn’t want his image to sell tobacco products. (More on that later.) But he had no problem appearing on baseball cards that promoted candy and tooth decay.

But even with Wagner’s approval, the Hall of Fame shortstop’s baseball card in the 1910 Standard Caramel set, which features a painting of Wagner throwing a baseball, is still extremely rare. Only three are known to exist with a PSA rating of more than six out of ten.

In 2010, a Wagner with a PSA of 8 went for $ 31,000. But if somebody were to unearth a mint condition version it has been estimated that it would fetch about $215,000. That’s a lot of candy. And a lot of tooth decay.

Number 6: Ty Cobb – 1911-1914 Brunner’s Bread 225,000
Back in the early 20th century it seemed that everybody was getting into the baseball card printing game. We’ve already seen examples of cards used to sell tobacco, candy and sock garters. So why not bread?

Between 1911 and 1914 a bakery in Buffalo, New York issued a 25 card set of baseballs stars, including former Major League hit king and all-around terrible person Ty Cobb. The card featured Cobb holding a bat and flashing the kind of scowl we’ve come to expect from the baseball’s black-hatted legend.

In 2010, a Brunner’s Bread 1911-1914 Cobb with a PSA of eight out of ten went for $ 94,000 at an auction. If there were to be a Cobb with sharper corners and less fading it would likely be worth around $ 250,000. So maybe that dusty old box in your grandfather’s attic is worth another look after all.

Number 5: Lou Gehrig – 1933 Goudey $ 234,000
Lou Gehrig was one of the greatest hitters in Major League history. He is also one of the most tragic tales, as the disease which now bears his name prematurely ended his career and his life.

But before all that Lou Gehrig was card number 92 in Goudey’s 1933 set. On the front is a painting of Gehrig in his Yankee whites, at the plate and getting ready to slug another one over the right field wall. On the back are his stellar stat. The Iron Horse hit .349 with 34 home runs and 151 RBIs in 1932. (And, of course, played in every game.)

Not so long ago some lucky enough collector was able to find a 1933 Goudey’s Gehrig in perfect, gem mint PSA 10 out of 10 condition. Their reward? The rare immaculate card fetched $234,000 at a 2007 auction. It’s likely worth even more than that now.

Number 4: Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps 282,587
Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps card isn’t technically his rookie card. That would be the 1951 Bowman Mantle which is worth around $100,000. But there is something about the 1952 Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card (#311) that has always resonated with collectors.

Maybe it’s the photo of The Mick, looking so young and fresh before all the wear and tear he incurred on the field and off. Maybe it’s because the Yankees have such a large fan base and thus many collectors grew up with Mantle as their favorite player.

But whatever the reason Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps is the most popular card ever. We know this because it’s worth absurd amounts of money even though it was mass produced and even double printed!

You can get a couple grand for a ‘52 Mantle in ragged condition. And if you’re lucky enough to have a PSA 9 (Mint) Mantle you could probably get upwards of the $282,578 such a card brought in at a 2007 auction

Number 3: Jim Doyle 1909 – 1911 T206 $350,000
Jim Doyle wasn’t much of a Major League pitcher. His lifetime record of 22-21 for the New York Highlanders and Cincinnati Reds is better than, say, you could probably do. But it’s not the kind of career mark that gets remembered 100 years later.

No there is something else that makes the Doyle card in the famous T206 set so valuable: A printing error. During the set’s first few printings, Doyle was listed as “N.Y Nat’l”, meaning he played for New York in the National League. But the Highlanders were in the American League and the printers dealt with the error by simply scrubbing off the “Nat’l” part in all the rest of the printings.

In fact, it wasn’t until the ‘80s that anybody even realized the erroneous National League Doyle card existed.

This card is so rare that recently a Doyle which rated just three out of ten on the PSA scale fetched 350,00 at an auction. So basically the sky’s the limit if there were ever to be found a gem mint version of the error card.

Number 2: 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News $450,300
Before Babe Ruth was a star pitcher for the Red Sox and way before he was a hitter of unprecedented ability for the Yankees he played for the Baltimore Orioles, who were then a minor league team.

The first baseball card ever produced of Ruth is from this time period and features a photo of surprisingly svelte Bambino, who had just signed with the club out of the St. Mary’s School For Boys in Baltimore.

Only ten of these Ruth “rookie” cards are known to exist and if you have one you might want to think about an early retirement. At a 2013 auction a 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News with a PSA of 1 out of 10 — meaning it’s barely holding itself together — went for a whopping $450,300. A 1914 Ruth that was just a PSA of five could possibly reorder this list. But so far one hasn’t stepped forward.

Number 1: Honus Wagner 1909 to 1911 TSA 206 $3 million
Honus Wagner was quite a ballplayer. The Flying Dutchman was the greatest shortstop to ever live and one of the original five Hall of Famers. But, these days, what Wagner is most famous for having his face on the most valuable baseball card in the history of the collectable.

And it happens that the Honus Wagner TSA 206 is worth so much exactly because Wagner, who despised tobacco, didn’t want his face on a card that kids would have to buy a pack of cigarette to get. (There is another theory that Wagner simply wanted more money from the American Tobacco Company for the use of his image, but we’ll stick to the original story.)

Because of his objection, ACT stopped printed the card after just  between 60 and 200 reached market. The card first made waves in 1991 when Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNally bought it for $451,000. It been sold a few times since, most recently for $2.8 million.

There are other Honus Wagner TSA 206’s besides “Getzky’s” floating about.  But they tend to be regarded as either forgeries or low grade cards which have been altered to look near mint. Caveat emptor..

Remember how you thought your baseball cards were going to make you rich someday?

Well, that surely didn’t happened. Unless you are old. Really, really old.

Because while today’s mass produced and well-taken care of baseball cards are never going to be worth much, the cards that the youngsters collected a hundred or so years ago are worth many, many pretty pennies.

Below is our list of the ten most valuable cards of all-time. Pity the fool who put one of them in his bicycle spokes.

Number 10: Eddie Plank 1909 1911 T206 $ 200,000
Eddie Plank was a pretty good little left handed pitcher, racking up 326 wins for the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Terriers over his early 20th century career. His baseball card from the legendary American Tobacco Company T206 series is also among the most valuable ever printed.

In fact, Plank’s T206 card has always been worth a lot. In the 1930s when The American Card Catalog came out with its maiden edition Plank’s was the second most valuable card on the market — going for a then princely sum of ten dollars.

Well times have changed and there has been a lot of inflation. In 2009, a Plank T206 in “good” condition sold at an auction for $155,350. It is estimated that a mint condition Plank — if there is one out there — would fetch around $200,000.

Number 9: Joe Jackson 1910 T210 Red Border $200,000
Most baseball fans know the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson. A simple country boy and Major League Baseball hitting machine, he was thrown out of baseball after admitting to conspiring with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. Since Jackson had hit .375 and slugged a home run during the Fall Classic many doubt he was fully aware of what was going on.

The mystique of Shoeless Joe has contributed to his baseball cards being worth a lot of money. A 1910 Old Mill Tobacco Card with Jackson as minor leaguer with New Orleans was recently auctioned for $ 50,000 despite only having a PSA rating of 3.5 out 10. This suggests a mint condition Jackson T210 would go for over $200,000 on the open market.

Number 8: Joe Jackson – 1914 Boston Garter $ 204,000
The extremely rare 12 card 1914 Boston Garter series was both a traditional baseball card and an advertisement for Boston Garter’s sock garters — which were a big deal back in 1914 since socks didn’t have the elasticity that we now take for granted. As such, the cards were only given to certain distributors who requested them on official stationery.

The favorite and most valuable card of the set features on the front a vividly colorful painting of Shoeless Joe Jackson swinging a bat above a giant sock garter. And on the back there are Jackson’s statistics and sock garter pricing. At a recent auction a Jackson 1914 Boston Garter that was rated excellent was sold for $204,000. A mint condition version would be worth even more, but given the scarcity of the set there is a good chance that none exist.

Number 7: Honus Wagner – 1910 E93 Standard Caramel $ 215,000
As an anti-tobacco activist, Honus Wagner didn’t want his image to sell tobacco products. (More on that later.) But he had no problem appearing on baseball cards that promoted candy and tooth decay.

But even with Wagner’s approval, the Hall of Fame shortstop’s baseball card in the 1910 Standard Caramel set, which features a painting of Wagner throwing a baseball, is still extremely rare with only only three known to exist with a PSA rating of more than six out of ten.

In 2010, a Wagner with a PSA of 8 went for $ 31,000. But if somebody were to unearth a mint condition version it has been estimated that it would fetch about $215,000. That’s a lot of candy. And a lot of tooth decay.

Number 6: Ty Cobb – 1911-1914 Brunner’s Bread 225,000
Back in the early 20th century it seemed that everybody was getting into the baseball card printing game. We’ve already seen examples of cards used to sell tobacco, candy and sock garters. So why not bread?

Between 1911 and 1914 a bakery in Buffalo, New York issued a 25 card set of baseballs stars, including former Major League hit king and all-around terrible person Ty Cobb. The card featured Cobb holding a bat and flashing the kind of scowl we’ve come to expect from the baseball’s black-hatted legend.

In 2010, a Brunner’s Bread 1911-1914 Cobb with a PSA of eight out of ten went for $ 94,000 at an auction. If there were to be a Cobb with sharper corners and less fading it would likely be worth around $ 250,000. So maybe that dusty old box in your grandfather’s attic is worth another look after all.

Number 5: Lou Gehrig – 1933 Goudey $ 234,000
Lou Gehrig was one of the greatest hitters in Major League history. He is also one of the most tragic tales, as the disease which now bears his name prematurely ended his career and his life.

But before all that Lou Gehrig was card number 92 in Goudey’s 1933 set. On the front is a painting of Gehrig in his Yankee whites, at the plate and getting ready to slug another one over the right field wall. On the back are his stellar stat. The Iron Horse hit .349 with 34 home runs and 151 RBIs in 1932. (And, of course, played in every game.)

Not so long ago some lucky enough collector was able to find a 1933 Goudey’s Gehrig in perfect, gem mint PSA 10 out of 10 condition. Their reward? The rare immaculate card fetched $234,000 at a 2007 auction. It’s likely worth even more than that now.

Number 4: Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps 282,587
Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps card isn’t technically his rookie card. That would be the 1951 Bowman Mantle which is worth around $100,000. But there is something about the 1952 Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card (#311) that has always resonated with collectors.

Maybe it’s the photo of The Mick, looking so young and fresh before all the wear and tear he incurred on the field and off. Maybe it’s because the Yankees have such a large fan base and thus many collectors grew up with Mantle as their favorite player.

But whatever the reason Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps is the most popular card ever. We know this because it’s worth absurds amounts of money even though it was mass produced and even double printed!

You can get a couple grand for a ‘52 Mantle in ragged condition. And if you’re lucky enough to have a PSA 9 (Mint) Mantle you could probably get upwards of the $282,578 such a card brought in at a 2007 auction

Number 3: Jim Doyle 1909 – 1911 T206 $350,000
Jim Doyle wasn’t much of a Major League pitcher. His lifetime record of 22-21 for the New York Highlanders and Cincinnati Reds is better than, say, you could probably do. But it’s not the kind of career mark that gets remembered 100 years later.

No there is something else that makes the Doyle card in the famous T206 set so valuable: A printing error. During the set’s first few printings, Doyle was listed as “N.Y Nat’l”, meaning he played for New York in the National League. But the Highlanders were in the American League and the printers dealt with the error by simply scrubbing off the “Nat’l” part in all the rest of the printings.

In fact, it wasn’t until the ‘80s that anybody even realized the erroneous National League Doyle card existed.

This card is so rare that recently a Doyle which rated just three out of ten on the PSA scale fetched 350,00 at an auction. So basically the sky’s the limit if there were ever to be found a gem mint version of the error card.

Number 2: 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News 450,300
Before Babe Ruth was a star pitcher for the Red Sox and way before he was a hitter of unprecedented ability for the Yankees he played for the Baltimore Orioles, who were then a minor league team.

The first baseball card ever produced of Ruth is from this time period and features a photo of surprisingly svelte Bambino, who had just signed with the club out of the St. Mary’s School For Boys in Baltimore.

Only ten of these Ruth “rookie” cards are known to exist and if you have one you might want to think about an early retirement. At a 2013 auction a 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News with a PSA of 1 out of 10 — meaning it’s barely holding itself together — went for a whopping $450,300. A 1914 Ruth that was just a PSA of five could possibly reorder this list. But so far one hasn’t stepped forward.

Number 1: Honus Wagner 1909 to 1911 TSA 206
Honus Wagner was quite a ballplayer. The Flying Dutchman was the greatest shortstop to ever live and one of the original five Hall of Famers. But, these days, what Wagner is most famous for having his face on the most valuable baseball card in the history of the collectable.

And it happens that the Honus Wagner TSA 206 is worth so much exactly because Wagner, who despised tobacco, didn’t want his face on a card that kids would have to buy a pack of cigarette to get. (There is another theory that Wagner simply wanted more money from the American Tobacco Company for the use of his image, but we’ll stick to the original story.)

Because of his objection, ACT stopped printed the card after somewhere between 60 and 200 reached market. The card first made waves in 1991 when Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNally bought it for $451,000. It been sold a few times since, most recently for $2.8 million.

There are other Honus Wagner TSA 206’s besides “Getzky’s” floating about, but they tend to be regarded as either forgeries or low grade cards which have been altered to look near mint. Caveat emptor.

A baseball card lot is an unspecified number of baseball cards. The best place to buy baseball card lots is on eBay’s Baseball Card Lots For Sale category.

Lots can come in any size from a few cards to a few thousands cards. Some lots are so large that they are measured by weight. The cards can be in anything from mint condition to poor condition, although it is incumbent on the seller to estimate the overall condition of the lots. Lots can also be of unopened wax packs of cards. Lots can run anywhere from around five dollars to hundreds of dollars.

There is no uniform way lots are stored together. They could be in sleeves or they could be in storage boxes. In smaller lots the cards can each be individually covered and in some cases these card would even professionally graded. (This would be a very expensive lot.)

The seller’s motivation for offering up cards in lots varies. But mostly its a good way to get rid of volume. The seller will make sure to advertise the best thing about the lot. For example if it includes some good rookie cards that would surely be mentioned in the eBay description.

There are some cases in which the seller doesn’t even look what is in the lot. This is likely because they are a dealer who has bought out a collection at a show or somebody who has purchased an unsearched storage unit and found cards in them. Since the majority of cards from the 80s to now are barely worth the cardboard they are printed on, sometimes the best, most time effective way for dealers to make money on them is to flip entire collection as lots  — either as one huge lot or subdivided into smaller lots — on Ebay for a few bucks more than they paid.

However just because most modern cards are completely worthless it doesn’t mean they all are. So if you buy a lot of of 1000 unseen cards from 1989 there is always an outside chance of an 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr rookie — which can be worth up to $250 if mint (unlikely) — showing up in the bunch.

In many ways buying cards in lots, in particularly larger lots, mimics the thrill of buying an individual wax pack since you don’t quite know what you have until you’ve sorted through what you have.

You can also sell your baseball cards in lots. And if you are skilled in a little eBay arbitrage you could research ways to buy lots of cards and then immediately flip them on the auction website for higher prices.

There are other online sites, such as sportslot.com and cardboardconnection.com, where you can buy and sell baseball card lots.

In conclusion, a baseball card lot just means any collection of more than one baseball card that is being sold.

Everybody wants something for nothing, and baseball card collectors would like an easy way to find a comprehensive Free Baseball Card Price Guide on the Internet.

The problem is it doesn’t quite exist. Sure, if you search “free baseball card price guide” some will magically appear on your scream. The problem is none of them have been updated for the last few years.

You might think that’s not a big deal, especially since very few of the cards printed since 1981 are even worth their price in pasteboard. But the market is also always adjusting prices of valuable pre-mass production cards. That Willie Mays you have from 1954 may be worth something different now than it was worth in 2010.

Beyond the fact that an updated baseball card price guide is hard to find for free, there is a another issue with the “book value” that such a guide would provide: It is very likely inaccurate.

Anyone who had bought and sold anything knows (or should know) that true value is determined simply by how much somebody is willing to pay for it. So while the internet isn’t going to cough up a viable, neatly-packaged free “baseball card guide,” you can actually use a certain site on the web to create a failsafe way to value your cards.

You see, eBay is the greatest free baseball card price guide there is.

To use eBay as a baseball card price guide all you have to do is call up the site and then use the search box. Let’s say you want to find out how much a Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card is worth. Simply type in “Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps.” Then adjust the sort feature to highest-to-lowest, which will get rid of the reprints and cheap click bait.

You will very quickly see that a PSA 8 (near mint) version of the card is currently being offered at $79,199 and that a PSA 8.5 Mantle had been auctioned off earlier in the year for a whopping 272,550. As you move down the row of cards you see a PSA 6 going for 49,500 and then a PSA 3 offered for $13,500. Not only does eBay give you a great idea of who much the card is worth but it is also reveals its worth in different conditions, something a static baseball price guide has trouble determining.

Of course the Mantle ‘52 is one of the most famous and valuable baseball cards ever printed. However this eBay method works for just about any card that would be worth buying or selling.

Why not try a 1985 Topps Roger Clemens? Search it on eBay and you will find a gem mint version of the rookie card is worth about 100 bucks. (And you will also see how much the card is worth in lesser conditions.)

To clarify something we said before, cards produced after 1981 should be worthless but some, like the Clemens card, are actually worth something because somebody is willing to pay for it.

But you aren’t going to know how much until you get free, no hassle pricing information from eBay.

What’s a baseball card worth? Well that depends on what somebody will pay for it.

That truism about value works for baseball cards, just like it does for everything else. Nevertheless, sometimes it behooves a baseball card collector to determine the value of card without the help of an interested party. He may want to do that so he can enter into negotiations with a solid baseline, or he may just want to know the value for his own psychic pleasure, champagne wishes and caviar  dreams. Another reason a card collector would want to know the value of his cards is for insurance purposes.

The first place collectors think to look when figuring out the value of their cards is a baseball card price guide.  The first such reference book, The American Card Catalog, was released in 1933. At that time the most valuable baseball card was the 1909-1911 Honus Wagner T206, which was then worth $50 mint (900 bucks in today’s money.) That card happens to still the most valuable card in the market. However, 80 years later, you’re going to need about three million dollars to get one in decent condition.

Published by card collector and cataloger Jefferson Burdick, the American Card Catalog was the go-to price guide for all card collectors until it ceased publication in the mid-1950s.

During the 70s statistician James Beckett began preparing baseball card guides, which he gave away for free, and quickly became the gold standard in baseball card valuation. By the mid ’80s, Beckett was publishing (and selling) the monthly baseball card price guide magazine “Beckett’s Baseball Card Monthly.” At its peak the magazine had almost one million subscribers.

Now called “Beckett’s Sports Card Monthly” the price guide is still going strong and can be purchased on Beckett Media’s website. Beckett’s online home also features web search capabilities for baseball card values. This service can either be subscribed to or you can pay per search.

Additionally, Beckett’s website features on online market in which buyers and sellers can get together and make baseball card deals.

Speaking of which, over the last decade or so the heart of the baseball card community has shifted from baseball card shops and baseball card conventions to the internet and most specifically eBay. These days if you want to buy or sell a baseball card eBay is going to be the first place a savvy collector looks. Because of all the baseball card action that’s going down on eBay the online auction site has also become the de facto baseball card guide of the Twenty-First Century.

To use eBay to figure out how much your card is worth you simply type the details of your card into eBay’s search box. Suddenly you will be able to see exactly what dozens of other collectors are attempting to sell the card for in its various condition for. Using that information, you should be able to figure out just about what your card is worth. And you can do this without having to pay a subscription to a service like Beckett’s.

The internet has done many great things. Count a free-easy to use baseball card price guide among them.