Race, Ethnicity, and Baseball Card Prices

[brewing]

While searching for articles on minor league baseball and baseball cards, I came across this scholarly article. Thought some of you might enjoy it.

http://econjwatch.org/articles/race-ethnicity-and-baseball-card-prices-a-replication-correction-and-extension-of-hewitt-munoz-oliver-and-regoli

[ctownboy]

I saw the title and thought this was going to be some scholarly paper written about how rich white guys wont buy T206 Honus Wagner cards from African American men from Cincinnati.....

David

[Exhibitman]

They looked at the wrong cards and asked the wrong questions. It isn't whether collectors will pay less for rookie cards of black or Hispanic HOFers than for rookie cards of white HOFers because of race. That is impossible to measure from a card standpoint except perhaps for the rare years where great players rookie cards coincide and are from the same series of the issue, and even then there may be other factors at work like team popularity or post-career behavior towards fans. But you can't compare a 1951 Bowman Mantle to a 1954 Topps Aaron; apples and oranges, very different even though both are fruits.

Where they should look is at the pricing on players of specific ethnicities across the same sets and ask whether they get premiums. There you will find some premiums paid based on ethnic backgrounds because [drum roll please] there are more collectors for them than for the regular cards from the set. Hank Greenberg, Sandy Koufax, Moe Berg and Al Rosen sell for more than similar players in the same sets because some Jewish collectors pursue their cards in addition to the set collectors, HOF collectors [for Greenberg and Koufax], etc. Just as some collectors will pursue Negro League players who made it into card sets and will pay more than average for them, or some collectors will pay a premium for a Moses Yellowhorse 1922 Exhibit or a Mother's Cookies Chuck Connors card when their on-field performances were negligible. It is the number of collectors who will amass their cards for other reasons besides assembling a set. Greater demand = higher prices; duh!

[uyu906]

John Bloom wrote a book in 1997 titled House Of Cards: Baseball Card Collecting and Popular Culture. It adresses some of the same themes discussed in this thread.