Scarcity: Making Relatively Undesirable Baseball Cards Valuable Every. Single. Season.

We aren't even two weeks into Spring Training and already we have a great example of why even "bad" cards can be GREAT cards if they're the only card in town.

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This is not buying or investment advice. I’m simply reporting the data I’m seeing. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. Just because cards have increased in value up to this point, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so.

I’m getting all of this data from either the the Market Movers or Card Hedge platform. There are not my platforms, I’m simply a user and affiliate of them. If you want to do your own research, you can grab a free trial to Market Movers with code BALLCARDGENIUS. You’d also get 20% off of your membership forever if you wanted to continue once your trial has been completed. You can also grab a free trial for Card Hedge as well.

These tools aren’t perfect; no tool is. I’ve seen instances where a graded card was being included in the raw numbers, which might cause a huge spike in value. So trust, but verify.

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This is exactly why I’m hesitant to say that a certain type of card doesn’t have value.

IT DEPENDS.

It truly does.

People will buy the traditional un-collectable card - and even overpay - if it’s the only option of a hot player. This makes for an awesome flipping scenario because “junk” easily flies under the radar.

One card that immediately comes to mind is the Kike Hernandez’ 2014 Donruss The Rookies Autograph, which features him in a Miami uniform with no logos and a sticker auto.

In the absence of a true 1st Bowman or Topps Chrome rookie auto, this card was the chase during the playoffs (and is still selling).

I mentioned some of this in the last article too, when talking about Vinny Capra and Matt Gorski. When comparing the two players - each who aren’t big names but have early two-homer games this spring - who would you expect to be more “hobby valuable?”

Vinny Capra
5' 8"/188 lbs, Age: 28

Matt Gorski
6' 2"/220 lbs, Age: 27

Most people would say the younger, 6’2” Gorski who had 23 homers in 2024 compared to the older, 5’8” Capra who hit for a slightly better average, but with much less power last year in the minors.

Yet when it comes to their cards - Gorski who has a 1st Bowman Auto and Capra with a Topps Chrome rookie - the Gorski is much cheaper.

(Even beyond the stats, Gorski’s Bowman pictures him with his current team and is an on-card auto while Capra’s is two teams removed and a sticker auto.)

Anyway, all of this brings us to the main card at-hand—a player who is highly-regarded, gaining traction, and - you guessed it - is very scarce.

In fact, he’s so scarce that he doesn’t have a Bowman 1st OR a Topps Chrome, leaving the unlicensed cards he does have to hold considerable value.