Cody’s Note: This post was originally written in August 2020.

Quantity trumped quality when I was a child, but like any child, I wouldn’t have known right from wrong when it came to collecting baseball cards.

The fact that this 8-year old had a whopping “one thousand!” baseball cards seemed very awesome at the time. Yes, 804 cards from the 1992 Donruss factory set played a big part.

Sports stores in downtown Rock Falls (where I grew up during grade school) and Sterling had boxes of cards they sold for either a dime or a quarter. Memorizing the prices of the monthly Beckett magazines, I sought to raid every single dime box I could find. That’s when the “joy” of investment came to me: Here’s this card I bought for $0.10 that I could sell for $1 to someone because that card really is $1 in mint condition! Oh, the dollar signs that spun around in my 12-year-old head had me thinking riches come adulthood!

Of course, that didn’t happen.

I stopped religiously collecting baseball cards when I got to high school, and sports journalism became my future. However, I was left with this massive pile of baseball cards that weren’t going anywhere. When I moved out of the parents’ house, those cards came with me; it took a separate trip down the road to move them. When should be my guest bedroom currently is my baseball card room.

I don’t have those fancy autograph, relic pieces, 1:1’s, etc. Just a lot of junk wax base cards that no longer appeal to the casual collector. Or do they?

Time has passed quick on the junk wax era, which I narrow down to between 1987-1992, when common cards are as low as $0.05. No player from that era plays anymore. Only some names are recognizable to the youngest baseball fans; those of your star players.

Question for you high schoolers: Have you ever heard of Lance Parrish, Frank Tanana, Dwight Evans or Mario Soto? Chances are, you haven’t. Parrish and Evans hit more than 300 home runs in their careers, Tanana won more than 200 games and more than 2,700 strikeouts, and Soto was a good pitcher whose career was shorter than most stars. However, they were stars of their time, and they are not common cards of the junk wax era.

Ask them if they’ve heard of Dale Murphy. There may be a few that indeed have heard of him.

I’ve got plenty of Dale Murphy. But how to market those cards to someone?

I also have plenty of Harold Baines. So if you’re looking for cards of a Hall of Fame player, I’ve got some.

This line of thinking brought me back to my baseball card room tonight to figure out how to market these largely-unmarketable baseball cards and give them new life.

1. Hall of Fame

Induction into Cooperstown doesn’t guarantee a card’s increase in value on that merit alone; nor does the tragic death of baseball player. Growing up, you’ve probably heard about how such cards go up. You probably witnessed the huge spike in Mickey Mantle prices when he succumbed to liver cancer in 1995. Deaths of Darryl Kile, Roy Halladay and Alan Wiggins didn’t do anything to their card values.

The generation gap plays a big role here. Prior to Baines’ induction to Cooperstown, a young collector wasn’t likely to “want” a Harold Baines baseball card from his paling days; they like were dismissive in the form of “Who’s he?” However, since Baines now is in the Hall, he then becomes a player that aspiring collectors have the potential to shoot for to have at least a card of him in their collection. Baines gets in, and he then is swung more in-demand than, say, Dwight Evans.

You can say all you want about Baines’ induction; it does come with a lot of criticism. One interesting thing about Baines that didn’t happen to other recent inductees is that his 1981 rookie cards did NOT go up in value based on his induction.

Ted Simmons is another story. The 2020 inductee saw his rookie card blast through the ceiling when it came to induction. Just 6 short years ago, his 1971 Topps rookie card was a mere $8. It’s $120 now. Much of that has to do with the prestige of the 1971 set, black borders and all. However, Goose Gossage had a similar uptick, but not as expensive, with his 1973 Topps rookie card after his induction into Cooperstown: $6 just 6 years ago, now $40.

Simmons now joins Baines on a “baseball hall of famers want list,” something that Dale Murphy is not a part of. Yet.

Get out those Ted Simmons Braves cards!

2. Brief stint

Let’s say Dale Murphy gets his due and gets in Cooperstown. Younger collectors now have a new name to add to their collection.

What used to be the best way to find Dale Murphy cards was to raid dime boxes. As you are raiding the dime box looking to grab all of the Murphy cards you can get your hands on, how many of those cards are Braves cards? How many are Phillies cards? How many are Rockies cards? Murphy only played for those teams during his career, and you’re less likely to find a Rockies card of him in a dime box than a Braves card. Murphy only played an abbreviated season for the expansion Rockies in 1993, and therefore there aren’t as many Rockies cards of Murphy floating around dime boxes.

Save those Dale Murphy Rockies cards. Potential career arc premium. Those 1993s may not rise in value from his semistar slot, but they have potential to be in demand.

Speaking of 1993 expansion draft players: The same scenario can be made for Trevor Hoffman. You’re likely to find more Padres cards in a dime box than Marlins cards. Potential career arc premium.

If Topps hadn’t airbrushed Reggie Jackson’s 1977 card, and left him as a Baltimore Oriole, imagine the value of that card. If you’re a Reggie collector, you’re less likely to find an Oriole card in the mainstream than you are of him on the Athletics (in both stints), Angels or Yankees.

When you think of Willie McCovey, you think Giants. Billy Williams, Cubs. Joe Morgan, Reds or Astros. Manny Sanguillen, Pirates. But what do these four star players of the 1970s have in common? They all are former Oakland Athletics players. Plenty of cards of their most known teams out there; not so much from their A’s days.

If you’re looking for a Mike Piazza card of his Marlins days – all 7 of them! – they do exist. I recommend having the Pacific Omega card from 1998, which has Piazza playing for the Dodgers, Marlins and Mets on the same card front. Variations of that card exist.

To an even smaller extent, this scenario could also apply to managers and coaches. “I own a Bob Lemon baseball card” could very well apply to the 1971 card I have of him as a Royals manager.

Find 1987 Topps “Astros Leaders” in your collection. On the front is some fat old guy walking away from the mound toward the photographer’s camera. That’s not just any old coach: That’s Yogi Berra. This is the only MLB-issued card of him in an Astros uniform. You can own a baseball card of Yogi Berra, in an ugly Astros uniform, for just $0.10!

3. Managers and coaches of today

As mentioned, players from the junk wax era now are all retired. However, several of them continue to stay in the game as coaches and/or managers.

Dave Martinez, for example, is a junk wax rookie. He managed the Nationals to the 2019 World Series championship. It didn’t do anything to his rookie card value, but perhaps it could if he can lead teams to additional titles.

That worked for Bruce Bochy’s 1979 Topps rookie card. That card, back in 2013 – a year before he won his third title with the Giants, was just $0.75. However, with possible Hall of Fame talk coming along after title No. 3, that card has since jumped to $5.

Martinez’s rookie cards, if the same predicament applies, won’t be that much since there are more than one company producing cards from his time.

I’ll probably cobble up some more thoughts the more I look at my cards.

More thoughts on Junk Wax Salvaging

In addition to a post that I wrote years ago about salvaging certain junk wax cards (linked HERE), I’m trying to think of more ways to do this.

Cameo cards are those with star players in the background. The stars can be either fully seen or somewhat obvious.

The 1989 Topps ‘Padres Leaders” card is meant to be one that tells about the Padres’ statistical leaders for the 1988 season. However, you’ll notice that Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter is on the other end of the card trying to tag out the Padres’ Roberto Alomar – also a Hall of Famer.

Both are Hall of Fame players, so the true “cameo” definition sort of cancels out. However, if that Padres runner were a common (say, Stan Jefferson), then that simple $0.05 card would be worth keeping.

The Alomar-Carter card is $0.25, according to Beckett. The card may be interesting to collectors of Carter.

I have Roberto Alomar’s 1994 Topps base card which has a cameo of his brother, Sandy, sliding into second base. It is one of only a few “in-action” cards featuring the two brothers. Right now, it doesn’t increase the value of the cards, but it may have potential down the road.

Another interesting cameo is Ryne Sandberg on the 1983 Topps Reggie Smith card. Sandberg’s rookie card is in that set. Smith was a good player throughout his career, with more than 300 homers, and this was his last original card. Sandberg is seen returning to first base on a pickoff attempt. Normally, the value of the card without Sandberg is $0.30, but with the interesting Sandberg cameo the value spikes up to “unlisted star status” at $1.25, according to Beckett.

Having a superstar cameo rarely increases its current value, but can be a good sell to individual player collectors.