Whether you’re pulling out your old stash of cards, or just getting into opening packs, the obvious question you’ll have is how do you look up baseball cards values!
When looking up the value of your baseball cards, always find comparable sold cards, not estimated values. With eBay being by far the largest marketplace for sports cards, that’s going to be your best source for finding values.
It’s a little more nuanced than that, so I’ll show you how and where to find values for your cards along with my favorite ways to find values!
Look Up Sold Similar Baseball Cards
Let’s say it’s time to sell your house…
And your real estate agent decided that instead of looking up recently sold houses to compare values, they just…guessed.
You’d probably be finding a new agent pretty quick, right?
In fact, there already is a tool like that and it’s a complete joke. Zillow has their “Zestimate” feature that tries to value your home and there might be more memes about it than anything else in history. It’s basically a big fat guess.
(Seriously, Google “Zestimate memes” and have fun!)
Anyway, just like real estate, the only real way to know the value of a baseball card is to see what others just like it have sold for.
And what about Beckett?
Growing up, I had a subscription to Beckett magazine, which had values for tens of thousands of cards in it.
I salivated when it came each month, looking up my top 40-50 cards to see if it had the up arrow next to it.
Of course when I tried to sell any of those cards, I would get 10 cents on the dollar. It frustrated 13-year-old me and was one of the reasons I eventually quit.
That, and I had no money left. 🤷♂️
Anyway, Beckett still values cards to this day, but they’re an afterthought. Stick to sold comps, and eBay is always the best source for that.
How Do You Look Up Baseball Cards with eBay “Sold” Values
If you have a decently popular card, looking up eBay values is simple.
First, you’re going to type in your card. The most common notation is something like this:
Year > Brand > Insert Set (if applicable) > Player Name > Card Number
It looks like this:
2018 Topps Update Ronald Acuna Jr. #US250
Or
2022 Topps Chrome Ronald Acuna Jr. Pink Speckle /350 #165
eBay does have a pretty good search function, so something even “Acuna US250” will likely get what you need. It’s good to know the common annotation though, especially for rare cards or ones with many variations.
Your goal with the search is to be specific enough to keep out the unwanted results because you want to be able to scan down the listings quickly.
A few other notes on eBay searches:
- If graded, that usually goes on the end of the listing
- You can also add a “-” to keep out words you don’t want in your search. The most common for me has been when I’m looking for a Topps paper card and all the Topps Chrome show up. Just add “-Chrome” in your search.
Now when you click “search,” you’re likely going to get a bunch of results. Here’s what you’re looking for:
Don’t Look at Buy It Now Prices
You’re going to be tempted to look at “But It Now” prices and think that your card is going to fetch that amount.
Common rookie mistake.
Lots of people list cards at a high “Buy It Now” for a variety of reasons, but you can never rely on those. For example, I will often list a card for much higher than it’s currently selling for. I use it as a way to inventory my cards, plus if someone spikes, I don’t have to be aware of it. I’ve sold a few $100+ cards this way that came out of the blue after many months listed.
So instead, you’re going to scroll down until you see “Show Only” and click “Sold Items.”
Here’s what that looks like on a desktop computer:
(It automatically check marks the “Completed Items” as well)
Your eBay app is a little different:
First, click on “Filter”
Scroll down and click on “Show More”
Then select “Sold Items”
Now you can scroll through and see what comparable baseball cards sold for!
There is one issue:
If a Best Offer is accepted, eBay won’t show you the actual price…and Best Offers are pretty darn common.
So what’s the solution?
This is from my other go-to site, 130point.com!
They pull data from eBay, but they show the “Best Offer Accepted Price” as well. While eBay just shows the $49.99 listed price, here you can see it actually sold for $44.
While 130point’s search function isn’t as robust as eBay, it’s still pretty good, and you get an even better feel for how your card has been selling recently!
How to Value Rare Baseball Cards
Finding comps for popular cards isn’t tough. eBay (or 130point through eBay) often has dozens of sold comps from the past few months, if your card is at all popular.
But…what if your card is a rare insert? Or numbered /25? Or…gasp…a 1/1?
This is when it gets a little tricky. Here are a few ideas for when exact comps aren’t immediately available:
Find a Similar Card From a Similar Brand
Perhaps your Juan Soto numbered /5 can’t be found, but maybe someone else sold a Juan Soto /5 in a brand that’s similar in value to yours! Just make sure you’re not comparing National Treasures to Topps. Do your research to make sure the two brands are relatively comparable, or come up with a multiplier (like if you’re seeing Topps Chrome sells 2x to Topps, then use that 2x multiplier)
I recently made this mistake with a Trevor Rogers rookie card. I pulled a rookie auto, numbered /75 out of Topps Fire. I did a little bit of research and saw that he had some other autos /75 from other brands that sold for around $50.
I put it up for auction and it sold for…$11. Oof.
I didn’t realize at the time that Topps Fire was a cheap brand and the comps I pulled were from more quality brands. I would MUCH rather have kept this cool card than get $11.
Find a Similar Player From the Same Brand
Perhaps you can’t find another Juan Soto /5, but did someone recently sell a Ronald Acuna Jr. of the same card, numbered /5?
That’s a great starting point. Just make sure to compare multiple cards between those two players to make sure they’re comparable, or to figure out a common multiplier.
Find Higher Numbered Cards From the Same Brand
Most brands today LOVE to release the same cards but with different print runs. Odds are, you can find a Juan Soto /25 or /50 of the same card that’s your /5.
Find some other comps from different players where they have a /25, /50, and a /5 sold. Then find the /25 and the /50 for your Juan Soto and compare them to discover what a likely multiplier is between them. You can get real close to a solid value!
Let the Market Dictate Value of Your Card
I hate this approach, but I see this mentioned ALL THE TIME in groups I’m in…so I’ll mention it here.
A lot of people take the “let the market decide what it’s worth” approach. If you’re set on selling it, just put it up for a 7-day auction starting at $0.99 and see what happens.
One issue here is that what if it sells for $11, like my Trevor Rogers auto? You want to know ahead of time.
Also, you won’t always get a “market” price for it. There are a ton of factors. If everyone who could possibly be interested in your card saw it and had a chance to bid, then sure, that’s exactly market price.
But what if you’re listing it at the wrong time, or screw up your description, or you don’t have a well-seasoned eBay account?
And besides, what good is finding out what it’s worth after you’ve sold it?
The cousin to this idea, that I like a lot better, is to list it for a really high Buy It Now and allow offers.
This lets you gauge interest, and still possibly sell it. You’re not locked in to selling it unless someone pays the full high price you’ve listed it at.
This only really works with popular cards though. If you’ve got a rare Mahomes card, yes, you’ll get lots of eyeballs and offers. If it’s a $10 random card, you might get nobody looking at it.
If you’re interested in valuing sports cards, you’ll probably also want to give this a read: