The event marks the closing night of Goldin’s Spring 100 quarterly auction featuring 100 elite, grail-level collectibles spanning all sports.

The Spring Goldin 100 Close Night Live event will combine a live auction with entertainment on global livestream at Goldin’s headquarters in Runnemede, N.J.

Towns will participate in the event just after leading the Knicks to the NBA Finals.

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He will appear with collector and YouTuber Jesser, who has more than 44 million YouTube subscribers. Fans attending in person will have the opportunity to meet Towns. The event will be broadcast on Jesser’s YouTube channel and on eBay Live.

Ahead of the event, Goldin is hosting a Live Box Break Event Auction, featuring 48 pack-slot lots now open for bidding. The auction went live June 8 and will close with extended bidding on June 13. Winning bidders will have their packs ripped live on stage during the June 28 event. Winners will also receive an invitation to attend the event in person at Goldin headquarters.

The five featured products include some of the hobby’s most iconic sets, including:

• 1980 Topps Basketball, which features the iconic rookie cards of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, along with superstar Julius Erving.

• 2003-04 Topps Chrome Basketball, which features a Lebron James rookie card alongside rookies of legends Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh.

• 2018-19 Panini Prizm Basketball, headlined by Luka Dončić Rookie Silver, Gold Prizm and Black Finite 1/1 cards, along with rookies of Jalen Brunson, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Trae Young.

• 2025-26 Topps Chrome Basketball Jumbo, which features Victor Wembanyama autos and parallels and rookie cards of such young stars as Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Dylan Harper.

• 2018 Bowman Chrome Baseball, featuring Shohei Ohtani rookie cards, Refractors and Superfractors, and key cards of MLB stars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Juan Soto.

The post Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns to headline live auction, box breaks at Goldin appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

But it was a 1959 Topps Baseball set that stole the show.

A 1959 Topps Master Set, ranked #5 on the PSA Set Registry with a 9.067 GPA, was broken up and sold for a cumulative total of $489,027.

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The set produced several record results, including a 1959 Topps #50 Willie Mays (PSA 9) that sold for $72,814, shattering the previous high of $22,800. A #336 Billy Loes Trade Statement (PSA 9) card, which sold for $304 in 2009, sold for a whopping $17,580. A #564 Mickey Mantle AS (PSA 9) also set a record, selling for $11,752, almost twice the previous sale.

Mile High’s Spring Auction featured more than 1,800 lots and set several records.

“The results of this auction confirm that the investment potential in our industry remains as strong as it’s ever been,” MHCC President and CEO Brian Drent said.  

Other top sales include:

• A 1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal 350/30 Cy Young Portrait Green (PSA 8, MBA Gold Diamond) for $114,402.

• 1915 Cracker Jack #30 Ty Cobb (PSA 4, MBA 4.5 Gold Diamond): $103,765.

• A rare 1915 Boston Red Sox team photo featuring Babe Ruth in his rookie season: $94,117.

• A 1909 E90-1 American Caramel Joe Jackson (MBA 2 GD Silver Diamond) for a record $109,518.

• A 1969 Topps Football complete set, #3 on the PSA Set Registry with a 9.478 GPA: $85,808.

Other record prices include:

• 1908-09 Rose Postcard Honus Wagner featuring the same image as the T206 card (PSA Authentic): $33,306.

• 1964 Topps Giants #2 Ken Johnson (PSA 10): $14,799

• 1964 Topps Giants #35 Dave Wickersham (PSA 10): $13,422.

• 1966 Topps #482 Cubs Rookies (J. Boccabella/D. Dowling) (PSA 9): $11,732.

• 1969 Topps Football #68 Billy Cannon (PSA 9): $7,496.

Other key sales include:

• 2024 Eminence #TCT-GRE Triple Championship Tags (1/1) Antetokounmpo/James/Tatum (PSA 10):  $50,166.

• 1911 National Circulation Grover Alexander rookie card (PSA 3): $65,488.

• Babe Ruth’s personal copy of his own 1933 Goudey #149 Babe Ruth card (PSA Authentic): $18,885.

• 1910 E98 Ty Cobb Black Swamp find Red (SGC 9): $32,254.

• 1971 Topps #513 Nolan Ryan (PSA 9): $43,227.

• 1909-11 T206 Piedmont 150/25 Ty Cobb Portrait Green Background (SGC 5): $28,098

• 1933 Sport Kings #2 Babe Ruth Baseball (PSA 5): $23,114.

• 1933 Goudey #160 Lou Gehrig (PSA 6): $30,979.   

• Ty Cobb photo from Carl Horner (1907) that was used for the T206 card and signed to Smokey Joe Wood: $29,967.

• 1923 Christy Mathewson-signed Spalding ONL (Heydler) baseball from the Boston Braves Opening: $44,281.

• Spectacular Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig signed Reach OAL (Harridge) baseball: $29,967.

• Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig signed Reach OAL (Johnson) baseball: $20,278.

• 1902-1904 Christy Mathewson Type I Photo (PSA Authentic): $27,818.

• 1940s Babe Ruth-signed photo (PSA Encapsulated):  $17,656.

Other complete sets include:

• 1956 Topps high-grade near complete Super Set, #13 on the PSA Set Registry, for $72,136.

• 1959 Fleer Ted Williams complete set with wax pack, #5 on the PSA Set Registry with a 9.12 GPA: $30,128.

• 1970 Kellogg’s complete high-grade Master Set, #3 on PSA Set Registry with 10.94 GPA: $22,012.

The post 1959 Topps Baseball set steals show in Mile High auction appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

Jackson batted .250 with 29 home runs and 74 RBI in 154 games for the Oakland A’s. Ryan pitched 134 innings for the New York Mets, producing a 6-9 record with 133 strikeouts.

Jackson would break out in a big way in 1969, belting 47 home runs with 118 RBI. Ryan pitched just 89 innings for the “Miracle Mets” in 1969, going 6-3 with 92 strikeouts for the surprising World Series champions.

Both would go on to establish themselves as game-changing stars, Jackson as an elite slugger and Ryan as one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. Jackson finished his Hall of Fame career with 563 home runs and 1,702 RBI. Ryan won 324 games, tossed a record seven no-hitters and finished his career with a record 5,714 strikeouts.

Both also have two of the most coveted rookie cards from the 1960s.

Jackson’s 1969 Topps Rookie card, graded PSA 9 with a PSA 10 autograph, topped the Spring Rarities Auction at Memory Lane Inc., selling for $135,484.

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An autographed 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie card, graded PSA 8 with a 10 autograph, sold for $116,742.

The $7.75 million auction featured several other big sales, including:  

• A 1948 Leaf Satchel Paige rookie, graded PSA 7, which sold for $184,736, a record for the grade, surpassing the previous mark of $158,600 set last year.

• A signed 1984 Topps John Elway rookie card, graded PSA 10 with 10 autograph, brought $111,182.

• A signed 1984 Topps Dan Marino rookie card, with dual 10 grades, reached $79,015.

• A 2024 Topps 50/50 Shohei Ohtani Autograph Relic Gold card, numbered to 50 and graded PSA 10 with a 9 autograph, sold for $96,043.

Other vintage baseball cards that netted big sales included:

• A signed 1955 Topps Jackie Robinson card, graded PSA 3 with an 8 autograph: $61,909.

• A signed 1970 Topps Super Roberto Clemente card, graded PSA 7 with a 9 autograph: $38,359.

• A 1964 Topps Pete Rose card, graded PSA 9: $79,015.

• A 1959 Topps Roberto Clemente (PSA 9): $78,235.

• A 1963 Topps Stan Musial (PSA 9): $62,479.

• A 1954 Topps Yogi Berra (PSA 9): $28,030.

• A 1969 O-Pee-Chee Roberto Clemente (PSA 10): $38,359.

• A 1968 O-Pee-Chee Clemente PSA 9: $27,258.

• A 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie (PSA 8): $19,541.

Several pre-war cards also netted big sales, including:

• An 1888 N162 Goodwin Champions Cap Anson (PSA 7): $85,141.

• 1887 N172 Old Judge Ed Delahanty (PSA 5.5): $58,961

• A trio of high-grade E98 cards, including Ty Cobb at $41,903, Cy Young at $43,484 and Lefty Grove at $48,416.

Several T206 tobacco cards also attracted heavy bidding. A Christy Mathewson White Cap PSA 8 realized $122,579, while a Mathewson Portrait PSA 8 sold for $91,470.

Two Ty Cobb examples brought $47,257 and $40,823, respectively, and a Hughie Jennings Portrait PSA 8 sold for $42,864.

The post Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan rookie cards top Memory Lane Rarities Auction appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

Young fans could get sporting news in a fun way and read about their favorite athletes. 

But it was a special insert that really caught the attention of kid subscribers. Included in every magazine was a sheet of nine cards—three cards wide by three cards high—highlighting world-class athletes. Over the years, the magazine has featured tennis players, cyclists, golfers, basketball players, surfers, beach volleyball players; the list goes on and on. 

When a new issue of SI for Kids arrived in the mailbox each month, it wasn’t uncommon for kids to rip out the card sheet and either try and tear each card out with reckless abandon or take scissors to them. These highly sensitive cards could be all but destroyed pretty easily. 

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Little did anyone know back in the late 1980s and ’90s that 30-plus-years later these cards made of ultra-thin cardboard and perforated edges would become collectors’ items.

With SI for Kids still being published after nearly four decades, there have been close to 4,000 cards inserted into the magazines. 

For some athletes, SI for Kids offers the only card they have ever appeared on. That’s a huge draw for collectors. 

Cards for such legendary athletes as tennis player Serena Williams, golfer Tiger Woods and soccer player Mia Hamm have fetched some hefty prices in the last few years.

Tyler Nethercott, senior vice president of product for Sports Card Investor, has always thought that those who collect SI for Kids cards as part of a very niche group.

“There’s kind of an audience of people who think very highly of those cards,” said Nethercott, who is prominently known as T-Pott in the hobby. “In almost all cases, they are the first card accessible for any given athlete where they don’t have a lot of other cards. I’ve always likened the importance of them specifically to tennis, golf and Olympics. Those are the ones that tend to carry the most weight and the most prestige in the hobby because most of those athletes don’t tend to have other super notable rookie cards.” 

A big soccer fan and collector, Zach Gilula started looking around 2020 for rookie cards of his favorite soccer players. He quickly realized there weren’t many mainstream cards available. 

“I just kept coming back to the rookie card for a lot of these players are SI for Kids cards,” Gilula said. “Women’s cards, soccer cards, any non-four major sports cards.”

Gilula considers himself a contrarian collector, so going after rare, oddball items is right up his alley. As a kid, Gilula had a subscription to SI for Kids. He would rip out the cards, not worrying about their condition. Fast forward about 30 years, Gilula got into the magazine again.

“I started looking at the history of it and didn’t realize they were still going, so I bought myself a couple subscriptions,” Gilula said. “But then, personally, the first set started in 1989 and I was born in 1988. So, for something that is continuous, I don’t think there’s a more important set out there in the world than what SI for Kids brings to the table. I was born in October 1988, so, literally, this set has been running since January 1989. My entire life is cataloged through this set. That’s for all millennials. If you’ve been alive since the late ’80s or earlier, this set is a chronicle of the biggest sports stars and what the times were.”

Gilula loves the nostalgia tied to the cards. Once he got started collecting SI for Kids cards, he went all in. He is now attempting to collect every SI card that has ever been made. And he’s trying to do it in the highest grades possible. Gilula owns the No. 1 current set on PSA’s Set Registry.

Toward the end of 2025, Gilula had between 400-500 graded SI cards. But he has thousands of cards that are either still sitting in magazines at his house or already torn out of the sheets. Gilula figures he buys 98% of his SI cards raw—picking up lots on various marketplaces.

HOW TO COLLECT

There’s no right or wrong way to collect SI for Kids cards. It’s all in the eyes of the collector. 

When Andy Bowman started chasing SI cards, he added a personal touch. As a collector in the “Junk Wax Era,” Bowman would pull out the SI for Kids cards from magazines with his sister. After years away from the hobby, Bowman latched onto SI cards. The inaugural year of the magazine, 1989, holds a special meaning for Bowman because he was 8 and 9 years old during that year. 

Right before COVID hit, Bowman decided to go after the complete 108-card 1989 set.

“I wanted to collect the cards in grades 8 or 9, because I was 8 or 9 during that time,” Bowman said. 

Bowman is about halfway done with his project. He’s having a great time. However, he’s found it extremely challenging, because for some of the athletes with cards, there haven’t been many graded, if any at all.

Out of the entire 1989 set, PSA has graded just over 1,700 cards. Of the 108 cards, five athletes haven’t had a single card slabbed by PSA. 

“The funny part about this set is the less-known names are going to be the hardest ones to find,” Bowman said. “It’s like a runner from the Olympics or like a cyclist from Indiana. As you did back then, you learn about these other sports, water skiers, volleyball players, whatever, that are outside of the big four sports. That’s part of the fun, too, I think.” 

Bowman has a Michael Jordan copy in a PSA 9, which has a population of seven and is the highest graded copy. Bowman’s Mario Lemieux in a PSA 9 is a pop seven with five higher and his Wayne Gretzky in a PSA 9 has a population of 10 with four higher.

“They’re kind of hard to find,” Bowman said. “If you send any in for grading, which I haven’t but I know some guys that have, they come back altered or too small. So, it might be a lifelong journey.”

For Kevin Almasy, after collecting cards as a kid, he got back into the hobby during COVID. He goes after SI for Kids cards because he feels like it’s an easy set to collect. Almasy doesn’t have to worry about parallels and inserts like modern and ultra-modern sets. He added his own wrinkle on how he collects the magazine cards.

“The one thing that’s interesting is there’s not an agreed [upon] most valuable [card] and what would you put at the top of your list,” Almasy said. “So, I kind of have my own list of 75 that I’ve been trying to collect and then grade myself.” 

Almasy is attempting to collect his top 10 cards in PSA 7. That list is Woods (produced in 1996), Williams (1997), Hamm (1992), skater Tony Hawk (1990), Michael Jordan (1989), surfer Kelly Slater (1993), golfer Scottie Scheffler (2017), Kobe Bryant (1997), swimmer Michael Phelps (2004), and basketball star Caitlin Clark (2021). 

GRADING ROLLER COASTER

One major reason it is so hard to find SI for Kids cards in high grades is due to the fact that removing cards from a sheet and keeping the perforated edges pristine is extremely difficult. 

The condition-sensitive cards need to have the perforated edges in order to get graded. Removing cards from a sheet by using scissors won’t keep the perforated edges. And how they were produced, each card’s centering and size can be erratic and not meet grading standards.

“For every 10 cards I send into PSA, six come back not in the minimum size requirements,” Gilula said. “There’s a history with PSA where they stopped grading SI for Kids cards for a long time because they’re difficult to grade.” 

Gilula recently submitted a batch of cards to PSA. Out of 43 cards, only 12 were graded because they didn’t meet the size requirements.

Gilula spends a great deal of time reviewing his raw SI cards before sending them in for grading. It can be a crapshoot trying to figure out if a card is going to get a 5 or 6 or if it could score an 8 or 9.

“I’ve spent way too long analyzing images and looking at my own cards and sending them off and thinking, this looks exactly the same, going through surface, perforation, all of it,” Gilula said. “The cut is always difficult with SI for Kids.” 

From the 1989 SI set, there have been just over 125 cards that have received PSA 10s. 

“The grade sensitivity is what makes it really tricky,” Nethercott said. “You can have grades all the way from 1 up to 10—the perforation on the edges, the centering. These aren’t exactly cards that were meant to be by design stuck into a page in a magazine, to be like, ‘Oh, wow, let’s make sure these get printed off the printing press in absolutely pristine conditions.’”

According to Gilula, the toughest card on a sheet to receive a high grade is on the bottom right corner. That card can get dinged easily and if the cut is wrong, it’s going to impact the entire column of cards. Gilula noted the best players’ cards are generally placed in the bottom right, including Jordan, F1 racer Lewis Hamilton and soccer player Carli Lloyd. 

“I have to think that the designers are thinking, if you’re just flipping through a magazine, what’s the first card you’re going to see? It’s that bottom right card,” Gilula said. “So, a lot of the best cards of a sheet are there.”

Gilula has thousands of SI for Kids magazines that he’s purchased on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. He bought one 50-magazine lot for $50 a few years ago and submitted a Serena Williams rookie that earned a PSA 10. At the time, it was only the ninth Williams 10. Gilula sold it for $11,000. 

Gilula removes the cards himself from sheets in the magazine. He has his technique down to a science. Well, he hopes anyway. 

“The cuts are really difficult,” Gilula said. “Removing the cards, I have my own technique to do it and the best way possible. But you can still screw up a corner or rip off something you need. It’s tough. It’s kind of like an art.” 

Gilula calls it a “total treasure hunt” when sending in SI for Kids cards to get graded.

“I don’t know how the graders are going to look at it, so I just keep rolling the dice,” Gilula said. “The pop counts are just so low that it’s cool. I’ve got the top card for many, many of the cards in the world.” 

A few of Gilula’s favorite SI cards include rookie cards of Woods and soccer player Alex Morgan from 2011. 

“I love, love, love the April Fool’s and like the Halloween caricatures like the Kobe Bryant from 1999 where he’s dressed up as a vampire,” Gilula said. “There’s the April Fool’s one where Michael Jordan is overlaid and his face is on Tiger Woods. I literally have a list of the top cards that I know what magazine it’s in and I know what the pop counts are. 

“Then the modern cards, you have the Caitlin Clark, you have the Wemby [Victor Wembanyama]. If you just look at those cards and you’re not familiar with SI for Kids and you see a Caitlin Clark in a PSA 7, you’re like, I don’t want a PSA 7. But that’s actually the third highest graded card you can get. Same with Wemby. Those cards are just horribly miscut.” 

VALUABLE CARDS

Nethercott tracks prices of SI cards on the Market Movers app. What he has noticed are prices have certainly fluctuated in the last few years. 

At peak COVID prices back in 2022, a Williams PSA 10 rookie sold for $117,000. In July 2025, a different Williams PSA 10 went for $9,900.

“That just kind of shows the peak insanity of COVID when that was going on,” Nethercott said. “That sale really was kind of an outlier back then. The rest of them have definitely chilled out.” 

The six-figure Williams is the highest ever paid for a SI for Kids card. 

Woods’ cards are the most frequently transacted for the brand. On Oct. 27, 2025, a Woods in an SGC 10 sold for $14,000.

Nethercott believes the cards for Williams and Woods are good investments and long-term holds because neither have many cards on the market.

“They both completely cemented themselves as, in many peoples’ minds, the GOATs of their respective sports,” Nethercott said. “Serena’s cards sell for significantly more in most cases than even any of the men in tennis, who are obviously incredible talents, too. She and Tiger, for a myriad of reasons, just kind of command that premium.” 

In 2022, Bryant’s SI for Kids Rookie card in a PSA 10—one of only two that exist—went for $90,000. When a Hamm 1992 rookie in a PSA 10 sold for astounding $34,400 in June 2021, it became the most expensive female sports card of all time.

According to Nethercott, the cards of a pair of golfers have become popular recently with SI for Kids collectors. 

“Scottie Scheffler and especially Rory McElroy have been ticking up quite a bit in sales volume this year,” Nethercott said. “Rory, obviously, having finally gotten the Masters done last year, I think that led to a renewed surge in interest for him.” 

ONGOING PROJECT

While he tries to complete the 1989 SI for Kids set in high grades, Bowman has come to the realization that he may never finish his project. 

“I think what’s part of the fun is I can’t just go out and buy a complete set,” Bowman said. “Would I? Maybe. But part of the fun is that it’s going to take me quite a while, and the fact that it might be out of reach is also part of the fun.” 

For Gilula, he’s working on a lifelong project. Since an SI for Kids issue comes out every month, it adds more cards to Gilula’s list. 

“The ultimate goal is to have a graded example of every card ever made,” Gilula said. “That’s a lifetime goal. I hope it continues. But it’s just a continuous chase.”

The post With rare rookies of elite athletes, SI For Kids cards a fun, challenging set for niche collectors appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

That segment is known as niche collectors. I believe this is one of the more overlooked segments of the hobby, and one that I’ve become interested in. Niche collections can include different types of cards or unusual items that have become hidden gems.

One unique set of baseball cards that came out in 1989 was aimed at a slightly different hobbyist than your traditional wax pack collector.

BASEBALL TALK CARDS

In 1989, toy company LJN decided to enter the highly competitive sports card arena. By then there were three major “gum” card producers: Topps, Donruss and Fleer. Each company had their own approach and had been around for years.

LJN Toys was a well-established toy company and was already competing with Mattel and Milton Bradley in the hand-held video game arena. But LJN shifted gears and attempted to create a new type of sports card product—talking sports cards.

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While not exactly a new idea, LJN’s approach was innovative. LJN formed a partnership with Topps to not only bring the cards to fruition, but also give them the backing of the most reputable sports card company in the world.

The cards look, for the most part, like traditional sports cards in that they have a photo of the athlete on the front with their stats on the reverse of the card. However, they are considerably larger than traditional sports cards and the same size of a 3-by-5 note card. The reverse also includes a method for allowing collectors to play a short audio clip featuring the athlete pictured on the card.

This was a time before there were such things as MP3 players or RFID chips that could be embedded into a card and merely scanned by a sensor to play the desired recording. LJN opted to take a page from early shopping mall kiosks and create small, flexible records that they could affix to the card and somehow play.

It was a huge leap of faith, but they managed to accomplish the task and affix a small vinyl record to the cards, which were just slightly larger than a quarter. The next hurdle was harder, because they would have to allow playback of the recording on the vinyl record, without the device being too large to be portable.

PLAYER DESIGN

LJN faced a sizable challenge with the design phase of the playback device. They wanted the device to be portable so kids could take it with them wherever they went but easy to handle. The tactic they used was one that another company figured out decades earlier.

Toy manufacturer Kenner released a unique children’s record player in 1967 dubbed the Close ’N Play. It was battery-operated and children could play 45-sized records in the portable record player. They would simply put the record onto the turntable, turn on the device and close the lid. The lid’s underbelly housed a stylus, which sat on the vinyl record and allowed the music to play.

LJN must have liked this solution because they took a similar approach, but this time technology enabled them to make their device even smaller than the old Kenner product. LJN wanted the device to be hand-held, so they opted for a palm-sized device that looked like a Communicator from Star Trek. The playback device was blue and had a clear plastic flip-up lid. On the side was an on/off slide switch and the center of the device looked like an upside-down turntable with its own miniature stylus. Also on the base was an orange slider that unlocked the lid.

It was a compact design that not only allowed for portability but was ergonomic in a kid’s hand. It also had a strap for easy carrying. The Trek fan in me fell in love with the design of the player when I first saw it. What kid wouldn’t want to look like Captain Kirk with a giant communicator in his hand?

The device was developed specifically to work with small vinyl records on the back of each of the 164 Talk Baseball cards. The user would place the card so the record would sit firmly onto the base of the turntable, close the lid, and turn it on. If the card was placed correctly, they would listen to a 2-minute recording featuring Mel Allen speaking with one of the 164 featured players in the set.

SOUND QUALITY

When I tried out the Talk Baseball equipment on the cards I was able to get on eBay, I was shocked how well the audio works on the playback. Aside from the fact that the player I got worked, I was surprised by the volume. LJN omitted a volume control, but that’s a minor omission. The sound quality is nice, given that the records on the cards I have had been sitting around on top of each other for a few decades.

A couple of the cards were old and scratched, thus producing typical skipping or repeating. The cards themselves look great, and it’s interesting to listen to the audio they managed to fit onto a record not much bigger than a quarter.

The only downside is the placement of the adjustment dial for the audio. It’s inconveniently placed on the underside of the unit and needs to be adjusted with a screwdriver. I’m not sure how many kids would walk around with a pocket screwdriver to adjust the sound.

COLLECTIBILITY

If you’re wondering if Baseball Talk cards are easy to collect, the answer depends, like all collecting nowadays, on whether the cards are graded or not. A typical ungraded card could go for less than a dollar in good condition to over $100 for a PSA 10 grade.

With tons of superstars and Hall of Fame players, it’s an interesting set to collect.

The one speedbump you might encounter is obtaining a clean, working playback device. The device takes four AA batteries and if you’ve hit any yard sale over the years, you know that toys from this era and older often have old batteries in them. Those batteries are usually corroded and render the electronics useless. This happened to me with the first LJN Baseball Talk player I obtained. I tried to clean the connections, but it was a lost cause. I wound up getting another one on eBay that one was in perfect condition.

LJN had set its sights on also producing a set of Football Talk cards. It produced a small run of test cards which were limited in the Midwest. There were apparently two different blaster packs featuring six players and two cards featuring the last NFL Championship game as well as the first Super Bowl.

I don’t believe the football set received the interest the Baseball Talk cards initially did. The Football Talk cards were never mass-produced and only a small number are still around—if you can find them.

FINAL ANALYSIS

I don’t believe LJN had enough market interest in the Baseball Talk cards to proceed with a second year of cards. This set was basically a one-and-done type of set, but it was an ambitious set that found a unique niche.

I think if a company like LJN approached this type of product today, there would be far more options. Hallmark designs Christmas ornaments of the fabled Peanuts gang with RFID chips in the bottom so the player could simply read them when the ornaments are placed onto it. Could Topps and another company do likewise with another type of device?

LJN gave us a unique set of baseball cards, and while it may not have been the hit they hoped for, they’re still fun to listen to today.

The post TALKING BASEBALL: 1989 Topps/LJN audio player brought baseball cards to life for niche collectors appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

It was the Roaring Twenties­—1925 to be exact. And baseball cards were just starting to come into their own. 

The Exhibit Supply Company became the first company to produce trading cards that weren’t used for advertisement purposes or as an add-on to a product such as tobacco, candy, caramel or gum. The Chicago-based company’s first release was in 1921, but it’s the 1925 product that is perhaps the most coveted by collectors.

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That year featured future Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins. But it’s a card of legend Lou Gehrig that is the most valuable Exhibits card in the company’s vast history. 

The 1925 Exhibits set—which hit the century mark last year—was its biggest ever to date, containing 128 cards. In previous years, the sets were only 60-70 cards. The 1925 cards were oversized, much like postcards at 3 3/8-by-5 3/8 inches. 

That year’s cards have proven to be tough for collectors to find in good condition. PSA has graded just over 1,300 cards, while SGC has graded just under 800. PSA’s highest graded single card is a 7, followed by one 6.5 and 13 in grade 6. SGC has slabbed eight 6.5s and eight 6s.

“I think because of the size of the card, I don’t think people kept them,” renowned vintage baseball card collector Marshall Fogel said. “They weren’t something you could keep in a box or in a sleeve. They were like postcards.”

When Fogel was a kid in the 1950s, he recalls going to an arcade where Exhibit cards, which included sports and non-sports, were available in vending machines. He would put a coin in, pull a lever and out came cards. It was like rolling the dice for Fogel since he didn’t know what cards he was going to receive.

According to Exhibits collector Jim Chanin, the cards could be obtained in two ways: via vending machines at arcades; and over the counter. 

“I don’t know if they were wrapped in plastic and sold in multiple copies like I know the 1947-66s were sold, because I have those packages,” Chanin said.

Said fellow collector Bob Warren: “What they did is Exhibit packed 250 cards and they’d put brown paper around it and then they loaded the Exhibit machine. They called those 250 cards in brown paper, before they put it into the machine, bricks. So, they were shipping bricks to all these places that had the Exhibit machines.”

Warren, who only collects Exhibit cards and started in the early 2000s, also remembers heading to the arcade for cards in the 1950s.

“I picked up some myself at the Seaside Heights down there in the Jersey Shore, and that’s where I got my first ones back in the ’50s. I got a bunch of them, but I never really got the early ones,” Warren said. “The problem with the early ones, how do you protect them? You go to an arcade, you pick them up, you get on a few rides, you go home and they’ve got creases in them. There were no plastic sheets and stuff like that to protect them.”

A CENTURY OF COLLECTING

The population reports from PSA and SGC certainly reflect a lack of interest in young kids holding onto the cards back in the 1920s. That has made it difficult for current-day collectors to go after sets of 1925 Exhibits.

But that hasn’t stopped Chanin and Warren, who are the only two collectors in the PSA Set Registry to have completed and kept in tack current sets of that product. Chanin has the No. 1-rated 1925 Exhibits set, while Warren is a close second.

Chanin started collecting the Exhibits cards 25 to 30 years ago. He has completed every Exhibits set. Warren first picked up the 1947-66 Exhibits sets, and then thought he might as well collect the earlier releases, too.

“I fell in love with them, because they actually started in 1921,” said Warren, who owns either the No. 1 or 2 ranking in the PSA Registry for all the Exhibits sets. “Basically, they put out a set every year until 1966 when they went belly-up.”

Chanin and Warren consider themselves friendly rivals when it comes to the PSA Set Registry. What made it difficult for them at the beginning of collecting Exhibits was the fact the company didn’t have a checklist of which players were included in sets and the cards were not numbered. 

“It’s hard to collect a set when you don’t know how many are in the set and who the players are,” Warren said. 

Between Chanin and Warren, they have amassed the majority of the top PSA-graded cards in the 1925 Exhibits set. The only PSA 7 that exists, Hall of Famer Max Carey, is owned by Warren. He also has six of the 13 PSA 6 graded cards without qualifiers. Chanin has one 6.5, Cobb, and three 6s, including Johnson. Chanin’s GPA Weighted score is higher than Warren because Chanin’s bigger cards are in higher grades.

GEHRIG ROOKIE

Gehrig’s 1925 Exhibits card shows the young Iron Man taking a warm-up swing. When Exhibits released its set the next year, the image used for Gehrig’s card was the same as the previous year. The cards were nearly identical on the front and back. And since the cards didn’t contain numbers, it was tough to tell the difference between the two years.

That caused problems for collectors, grading companies and auction houses for years. Gehrig cards from the 1926 set were being identified and labeled as a ’25, and vice versa. The only way to sort out the difference in the years is to check the colors on the front of the card. 

“If it’s the blue tint, a very slight blue tint, it’s a ’26,” Fogel said. “If it’s a light gray tint, it’s ’25. So, some of those cards have been mislabeled.” 

Warren and Chanin made it their mission to make sure third-party grading giant PSA was labeling the Gehrig cards correctly and by the appropriate years.

“[We] had to tell PSA they were screwing up royally by not differentiating,” Warren said. “I said it didn’t really matter except for the Lou Gehrig rookie card in 1925. 

“I bought, theoretically, a Lou Gehrig rookie card, but it turned out to be a 1926 card because of the tint.”

After a long, drawn-out process, PSA finally decided to recognize the distinction between the 1925 and ’26 Gehrig cards. Chanin said the hobby then caught on quickly to the fact that the ’25 is Gehrig’s rookie.

“The card that was practically worth a few thousand dollars went up,” Chanin said. “At its peak it sold for a million or something, but now it’s more like a couple hundred thousand for a 5 or a 6.” 

Chanin owns one of the four PSA 5 Gehrig rookie cards, while Warren has a PSA 2 in his collection. PSA has graded just 49 Gehrig cards from the 1925 release. 

Fogel has a rookie card of Gehrig in an SGC 6, which is the highest graded example from the grading company. SGC has slabbed 32 Gehrig rookies. 

“When I bought that card, it was in a Mastro Auction out in California and I had no idea what I was doing,” Fogel said. “[Bill] Mastro said, ‘You’ve got to buy this card.’ And I paid $20,000 for it, and I regretted it. For years, I lamented over the fact that I paid all this money. And I was dead wrong, that’s for sure.

“I know that people have offered up to a half a million dollars and more for a 6.”

Since Chanin and Warren both completed their 1925 Exhibits sets years ago, they have just been upgrading cards when there is an opportunity. When Exhibits collector Don Spence broke up his ’25 Exhibits set to sell the cards individually around a year ago, Chanin and Warren were able to pick up some higher graded cards to add to their collections.

But with Chanin soon retiring from his day job, it has become tougher for him to acquire 1925 Exhibits because they have become quite expensive; he’s found an alternate way to upgrade his collection. 

“I trade with Bob every now and then,” Chanin said. “It’s mainly trading with Bob so I can get stuff. Between him and me, we have pretty much every number one card. He’s not going to sell his and I’m not going to sell mine, so that leaves very little.” 

The post Exhibit Supply Company launched its first baseball set in the 1920s, collectors have been chasing the classic cards ever since appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

Pujols was an absolute force during his 22-year career, blasting 703 home runs—fourth-highest total ever—while batting .296 with 2,218 RBI and 1,914 runs. The first baseman was well-decorated, too, notching three MVP awards, two Gold Gloves, nine Silver Slugger awards and 11 All-Star selections, among countless other honors.

Collectors are keeping a close eye on Pujols cards. The best example during this survey period: a signed 2001 Bowman Chrome Refractor rookie that soared to nearly $29,000. The card’s condition, reflected by its PSA 9 grade, helped. So did its scarcity; only 500 were produced. Just a month earlier, a PSA 8 specimen of the same card sold for $21,600 on 78 bids.

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Last month in this space, we reported on a 2018 Topps Triple Threads  #1/1 card featuring the signatures of Pujols, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. It brought $60,500 on 89 bids. Two other multi-signed Pujols cards, however, recently got away for far less:

• A 2001 Topps Chrome Traded “Retrofractor” featuring the signatures of both Pujols and Seattle Mariner hit-man Ichiro Suzuki sold for “only” $7,200 on 38 bids. It was graded PSA 9.

• A 2024 Topps Definitive Collection Trio Autograph card of Pujols with Ohtani and Trout sold for $6,278 auction. Marked #13/25, this one was ungraded but clean and sharp-cornered.

Then there’s Topps’ 2025 Definitive Collection Triple Autograph inserts featuring a “home run heaven” lineup: Pujols, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. That trio combined for 2,161 homers (Bonds with 762, Pujols with 703, A-Rod with 696).

In May alone, we saw four Triple Autograph cards of the trio sell on eBay. Three of them came from an edition of 25 and sold for prices of $4,270 on 34 bids (#8/25), $3,800 on 45 bids (#5/25) and $3,206 on 39 bids (#20/25). We also saw a “black” variation of the same card sell for $4,050 on 26 bids. Black variations appeared in an edition of 10, the visual difference being black shading along the top edge and upper-right area. 

For Pujols “solo” cards, collectors will find a steady stream of creative efforts that make eye-catching displays. Prime examples span from the start of Pujols’ career all the way to today. For example, Upper Deck’s 2001 SP Authentic “Future Watch” card features a high-impact full-body batting pose of young Albert. Made in an edition of 1,250, it’s an appealing rookie card that sells for four-figure prices. One recent offering graded PSA 10 brought $5,008 on 49 bids. Another, also PSA 10, fetched $4,300 on 44 bids.

Some 24 years and thousands of Pujols cards later, Topps created a Museum Collection Emerald card featuring the nameplate from a game-used Pujols bat. That #1/1 rarity sold for $3,852 on 38 bids.

The post PRIME PUJOLS: Albert Pujols cards begin to rise for future Hall of Famer appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

A 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle card graded PSA NM-MT 8 ranks among the top five to 10 percent of all known PSA 8 examples, according to Goldin.

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PSA has issued only 35 PSA 8 grades for the rare card. A SGC 9.5 example set a sports card record in 2022, selling for $12.6 million. PSA 8 prices have ranged from $1.1 to $1.5 million.

Two other coveted Mantle cards also headline the auction—a 1951 Bowman #253 Mantle Rookie graded PSA 8, with only 10 copies graded higher; and a 1957 Topps #95 Mantle graded PSA MINT 9.

The auction, which runs through June 20, also features just one of nine examples of a 1933 Goudey #144 Babe Ruth-signed card in any grade, with the offered copy among the finest known autographed examples, according to Goldin.

Two other Ruth cards also headline the auction—a 1917 Boston Store H801-8 #147 Ruth, one of just 11 total documented examples across both PSA and SGC, and a 1915 Boston Red Sox Team Photo Postcard featuring Ruth’s first-ever appearance on any cardboard collectible.

Other iconic vintage cards in the auction include:

• A 1955 Topps #164 Roberto Clemente Rookie (PSA NM-MT+ 8.5), one of just two known copies with the 8.5 grade with only 12 graded higher.

• 1910 E104-2 Nadja Caramel Honus Wagner (SGC VG-EX 4), one of just eight documented examples in any grade across both PSA and SGC.

• 1914 E145 Cracker Jack #57 Walter Johnson (SGC NM 7). 

• 1971 O-Pee-Chee #160 Tom Seaver (PSA GEM MINT 10), the finest known example.

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The post High-grade 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, Babe Ruth gems headline Goldin Vintage auction appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

Now another Jordan rookie card is setting records with a period-signed 1984-85 Star Basketball Court Kings #26 Michael Jordan Rookie, dual-graded by CGC and JSA, selling for a record $114,000 in the Spring Auction at Huggins & Scott Auctions. It is the first time a card from the set has topped six figures.

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The 1984-1985 Star Basketball Court Kings set is a 50-card set of oversized cards sold separately from the 1984-85 Star Basketball set, which also features a coveted Jordan rookie card.

A near-complete set of 1984-85 Star Court Kings cards with 38 signed examples, including Hall of Famers Julius Erving, George Gervin, James Worthy, Moses Malone and Isiah Thomas, sold for $90,000.

The auction also featured a PSA 8 example of the iconic 1961-1962 Fleer Basketball #8 Wilt Chamberlain Rookie, which sold for $69,000.

Also setting a record was a 1980 Charlotte O’s Police Orange Border Cal Ripken Jr. Minor League Rookie card (SGC EX+ 70), which sold for $81,000, shattering the record set by a PSA 6.5 in Huggins & Scott’s Summer 2024 Auction.

“This was an incredibly exciting auction by a number of different metrics, including rewriting the hobby record books for many items as well as engaging the highest number of bidders in company history,” said Huggins & Scott Vice President & Director of Consignments Ron Oser. “We saw strong interest across a variety of different areas within cards, comics, and coins, demonstrating what a great place the hobby is in as we enter the summer.” 

Rounding out the tops sales was a pair of Goudey Babe Ruth classics—a 1933 Goudey #144 (PSA 5) for $42,000, and a 1933 Goudey #53 Babe Ruth (PSA 4) for $33,600.

Other notable sales included:

• 1964 Topps Near-Complete PSA-Graded Set (502/587) $28,800.

• 1939 Play Ball #92 Ted Williams Rookie (PSA NM 7) $24,000.

• 1933 Goudey #92 Lou Gehrig (PSA 5) $23,400.

• 1909-1911 T206 White Border Ray Demmitt St. Louis (PSA VG 3, Polar Bear Back) $20,400.

• 1952 Topps #312 Jackie Robinson High Number (PSA 4) $19,200.

• Thurman Munson single-signed bat with full Beckett LOA $18,000.

• 1969-1972 Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh Pirates game-used bat (PSA/DNA GU 7) $17,400.

• 1957 Topps Near Complete Set (388/407) with (78) PSA-graded, including 50 PSA 8 $17,400.

• Babe Ruth signed OAL/Harridge baseball (PSA/DNA overall Grade 6, signature Grade 7) $15,000.

The post Another Michael Jordan rookie card sets a record appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.

The spike flooded PSA’s grading team with another 1.6 million cards to grade, creating a backlog of nearly 10 million submissions.

The flood of new submissions has prompted PSA to pause some of its services to catch up on the backlog.

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According to PSA, it’s grading output is at an all-time high—up fives times since 2021, when it faced another backlog of nearly 11 million cards.

“Continuing to accept submissions at this breakneck pace would put more pressure on our operations and compromise the turnaround times of existing orders,” PSA said in a statement released May 28.

To help clear the backlog, PSA is pausing new submissions for its four Value service tiers beginning on June 2. The Value service tiers include: Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, and Value Max. All active submissions will continue to be processed under the submitted turnaround times.

“We are aggressively committing our resources to focus on processing the cards currently in our care,” the PSA statement read.  

PSA’s Regular, Express, Super Express and Walk-Through services will remain active. 

The estimated turnaround times for Regular service will be temporarily extended from 40 to 50 days, and 50 to 60 days for dual-service authentication. PSA says keeping those services open will not slow progress since they represent a smaller fraction of its total volume.

PSA estimates it will take up to four months to reduce its backlog by five million submissions.

PSA says the move will not impact the $200 million capital investment it announced recently.

“This pause is a deliberate, structural defense of the future we are building, not a retreat from it. PSA’s operational health has never been stronger,” the PSA statement said.

“By temporarily halting the influx of our most in-demand service levels, we are giving our newly upgraded facilities, advanced machine-learning logistics tech, and new team members the necessary breathing room to operate at peak efficiency and provide collectors with the service you and your items deserve.”

The post PSA halts Value grading services amid 10 million card backlog appeared first on Sports Collectors Digest.