Sports card appraiser looking at Greensburg collection says sell valuable cards now

Collectors holding onto cards of star football, basketball or baseball players as a financial investment should consider selling them now, according to a vintage sports card and memorabilia appraiser who plans to evaluate a Greensburg-­area collection this week.

“Now is a good time to sell. Prices have exploded higher than before March and April,” said Michael Osacky, 40, lead appraiser for Professional Sports Authenticator of Newport Beach, Calif., a third-party trading card authentication and grading company.

Sports trading cards and memorabilia, such as autographs and baseballs, are becoming a valued asset in this time of pandemic-related restrictions on the economy, said Osacky, owner of Baseball in the Attic, which is in partnership with Professional Sports Authenticator.

From the perspective of Baruch Hyman, who has owned Crown Antiques & Collectibles on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh since 1968, valuable trading cards in perfect condition have increased in price, but ones not in good condition might have risen in value by only a $1 or less.

“Condition (of a card) is everything. It’s that huge of a difference,” Hyman said. Desirability also is a factor.

For example, Hyman said, a 1955 Roberto Clemente rookie card in perfect condition could be worth $10,000. The same rookie card of the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer that is not in good condition “is worth a couple hundred dollars.”

An example of just how much prime sports card values have risen from pre-pandemic days, Osacky said, is a card depicting Pirates Hall of Famer Honus Wagner. One sold for $3.25 million in October even though it was rated a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. By December, that same card featuring the Carnegie native who played for the Pirates from 1900 to 1917 sold for $3.7 million to a California investor, who paid more than double the $1.8 million value of the card just two years ago, Osacky said.

“It is the Holy Grail of cards,” Osacky said.

Hedge funds and private equity investors are getting involved in the trading card and memorabilia business.

“They see this market as an asset class,” Osacky said.

As a result, the people who collect trading cards as a hobby “are being priced out of the market,” he added.

Lest someone think the sports card trading and memorabilia collection is small business, consider the value a buyer placed on Collectors Universe Inc. of Newport Beach, the parent company of PSA. Collectors Universe was worth $700 million to a collector and an investment group that agreed to purchase the company in November. The sale is expected to close early this year, according to the company.

Evaluating cards

In the case of the Greensburg area collector, whom he declined to identify, Osacky will be valuating football, basketball and baseball cards and sports memorabilia — autographs, bats and balls — dating back to the 1950s that the collector received from his grandfather. Among the cards he will be studying are baseball Hall of Famers such as Clemente, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, football stars including Jim Brown and Youngwood’s George Blanda and basketball’s Wilt Chamberlain.

The value of a card or other item is determined by its replacement value.

Osacky, a certified appraiser who has been in the business since 2007, said he is on the road appraising sports cards and memorabilia 180 days a year. Some of the appraisals are for insurance purposes, while others are for donations to a museum or the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Under the appraisal standards, he is not permitted to buy what he appraises because it would be a conflict of interest.

For someone who might be buying trading cards in hopes of acquiring a valuable card, Hyman has a warning: There are a ton of fakes.

“They (buyers) should make sure what they are doing” and get a card appraised, Hyman said.

Referring to the $3 million Wagner card in particular, Hyman said, “there’s some three million fakes and only seven real ones.”