What are those old baseball cards really worth?

By Ben McCarthy

“Richard D.” is in his mid-to-late 90’s, and has a basement full of memories, and what he believes to be lucrative collections, at his home in south Kansas City.

From old vinyl records to coins, the man who only retired from Honeywell 15 years ago, says that he doesn’t need money that might come from selling off the remainder of his decades-old collectibles, especially his baseball cards.

“I’d rather just pass it all on to the kids and grandkids,” Richard says.

After describing his early military career as a teenager in the Navy, Richard asks that his last name not be printed. His son Michael, who serves as a caretaker for him along with his mother, Katherine, feels guilty about inheriting all of it, and is not sure what he would do with them.

Despite insisting how little he needs the money, Richard’s home basement tour features a steady stream of pronouncements of just how valuable everything is. As Baby Boomers finally grapple with what to do with their decades-worth of accumulated collections, many are finding it increasingly difficult to locate buyers who are willing to meet their price expectations.

Gary Eastman of Eastman Law Firm in Leawood says Baby Boomers have largely overinflated the value of these items, largely for sentimental reasons. He tries to encourage clients to find a reasonable “hybrid” approach in their estate planning for items ranging from the traditional–such as baseball cards and family heirloom–to the more modern, “digital” assets, like Bitcoin, or even airline points.

“There are ‘high value’ items they can sell, but a lot of people will need a broker to come in and sort through the bulk of their items,” Eastman said. “The broker won’t yield them as much money, but they’ll save a great deal of time that way.”

Last Saturday, The Art of Sports inside Town Center Plaza & Crossing in Leawood was buzzing with sports card collectors of all ages. Many young boys will spend hours sifting through stacks of cards displayed throughout the store, looking for cards from the store’s three most popular targets: Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Bobby Witt Jr. Father and son duo, Trey and Tyler Gratwick, own and operate the store and have turned it into one of the city’s most successful retail sports card operations.

Tyler, a Millennial, admits he spends a great deal of time educating customers that come into the shop on the reality of where the sports card industry stands today, especially in terms of “grading” cards.

“Older guys don’t know anything about the ‘grading’ process, so we continue to deal with these questions every day,” Tyler says. “We also have to discourage them from wasting time getting all their cards graded that won’t be worth anything.”

Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) is the industry leader in the field of card grading, as well as memorabilia and autograph authentication. The Gratwicks have now established a relationship with PSA to bring the company to town for quarterly grading events at the shop so collectors don’t have to send off their prized cards in the mail and wait for an answer on their worth. The next event is Saturday, June 21st. Harrison Hipp, who serves as the store’s online sales manager, says older collectors (who are now prospective sellers) must accept that younger kids (who largely drive the market), are looking for cards from today’s superstars, like Shoehei Ohtani or Victor Wembanyama, not Larry Bird or Mickey Mantle.

Joe Mike Cipolla, 29, started Relic Auctions (relicauctions.com) in south KC, a year ago, and is now dedicated full time to the consignment business. He’s paid a commission fee of 8 to 15% to sell customers’ cards. Often this goes through his eBay store, where the company holds 100% positive feedback from over 400 customers through the past 12 months.

On top of the buyers he’s finding for high value basketball cards from superstars like LeBron James ($5500) or Luka Doncic ($4000), Cipolla has turned back to his early childhood love of Pokemon, and found a market for cards that he says is booming.

“The market for Pokemon cards is at an all-time high,” Cipolla said. “It’s really spiked since Covid, with [influencer] Logan Paul definitely responsible for giving it new popularity.”

A fixture at many weekend card shows around the area, Cipolla now has his very first card show planned for later this month, on June 28th and 29th at Calvary Lutheran School, 124th and Wornall Road. He plans to bring 40 vendors to the event, and begin having more frequent card shows like it to connect buyers and sellers in south Kansas City.