It may never happen but........
 

After the 52 Mantle, do you think there is another 50's card that will take off ?
Not like Mantle but a big mover that you'd invest in if you had the money, but what ?

Mays rookie.

You can't go wrong with any 50's Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, etc.
If the market ever appreciates how good Ted Williams was and pays accordingly his 54 Wilson Franks should be a 5 figure card due to rarity, condition, and beauty.

If you're looking for 1 card to invest in that will increase quickly I'd say 53T Mantle. I would also say smart money would be investing in 2nd year cards of the big boys.

I think 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente, which has already had a good run, will go higher.

I agree. It's jumped quite a bit in the last couple of years, but is showing no sign of slowing down. I also think -

51 Bowman Mantle/Mays
54 Topps Aaron
54 Topps Banks
52 Topps Mays
Really ALL 50s Mantles/Mays/Aarons
55 Topps Koufax
59 Topps Gibson
57 Topps Brooks

Just digging into the 52s myself and noticed some super hot cards...I am sure the upcoming HOF decision will influence a certain 50s player (I NEED that 52 card...lol).

Not sure if anything will get to 52 Mantle status aside the 51 Mantle Bowman...but the 54 Aaron and the 55 Clemente should...both still under priced in opinion.

Clemente rookies are down 25% from 3 months ago.

Aaron and Mays, which both took ridiculous jumps over the last year, have dropped off more than Clemente but I would say those two are still overpriced and will fall some more.

Mantles have held up better than most cards the last few months, and since they didn't increase as much as some others over the last year they may be a good value now. I don't see a reason for any specific Mantle card to go up more than another though.

The player whose card values surprised me the most was Nolan Ryan. Didn't see that coming. So I would say the next big thing will be another pitcher. Pick your favorite. How about Bob Gibson?

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You're so right about Nolan Ryan. I was early on the Ryan Express, watching his values explode, so I grabbed a couple of mid-grade (5.5, 6.5) 1971s that looked pretty sweet (and a PSA 9 OC 1970 #197 "Ryan Saves The Day!") at really good value prices. Hopefully it's just the beginning of his cards' ascent.

Interesting to see any data in "months"...clearly there was a spike but as a vintage buyer and not really a seller/dealer I can only see what I paid for a Clemente Rookie 4 years ago, vs one bought recently. A rather LARGE difference...

I did buy a Ryan rookie in March of 2020, an SGC 3 for $225. I remember having several to chose from. I don't think if I sold that same card today for the same price it would last too long...haha.


To be honest for a guy like me who just buys cards and not really caring about the investment either increase or decrease, a significant increase probably means I've evened out on some recent purchases...haha

As a kid in the late 80s/early 90s, it doesn't surprise me whatsoever that Ryan has exploded. He was THE MAN growing up. Everybody wanted to throw 100mph heat, and he did it year over year forever. I think his booming prices are probably driven by people my age who have started earning real income and can finally live the dream of owning the Ryan/Koosman and other vintage Ryan cards.

I think the same logic can be used to explain the boom in Bo Jackson lately, as well as Ken Griffey Jr. Childhood heroes finally becoming financially attainable all these years later.

Exactly

Ryan is interesting in that he was one of the few remaining active players who saw a vintage RC boom in the latter part of the first hobby explosion in the early 1990's. This was before grading, but once Nolan became a Ranger and it became clearer to everyone that he was on the verge of things like his 300th win and 5,000th K, that card just went through the roof. In an age when today's EX-MT was routinely considered NM or Mint - that card even in EX shape was selling for more than $1,000. It came back down to earth after a few years of that, and people realizing that (unlike the '67 Seaver...) it wasn't a particularly rare or tough card. Since then it has spiked and fallen pretty much along the same trend as the rest of the vintage hobby - but for a brief period of time I feel like that card was an anomaly. Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Williams, Koufax, et al. had all been retired for a long time and their cards were already worth big bucks. But it's like Ryan went from being a modern semi-star to vintage HOF status overnight. As a teenager around 1992-93, the RC was unattainable - and many of my friends and I were looking just for any early Ryan cards. I eventually landed an OC '73 Topps that I treasured for quite some time. But it was all instantly expensive. Any card of Nolan on the Mets was suddenly north of $100. I later remember paying about 50 bucks for a nicely centered '76 Topps Ryan - which by today's standards was insane for the early 90's.

Also interesting to me that Ryan and his cards didn't get hot until he went to the Texas Rangers, so like 1989 and later. When I started collecting in 1986, I can tell you nobody gave a flip about Nolan Ryan, despite the fact that he was a star pitcher with multiple strikeout records and 5 no-hitters under his belt at the time. As late as 1988, his RC was still only about a $200 item in NM in the Beckett yearly guides.

I would say 4 guys from my Childhood have the most potential upside

Ichiro, Jeter, Ken GriffeyJr, and Pujols.

T Gwynn. His rookie cards have been increasing rapidly. Sold some psa 10 dupes recently for almost 4x what i got them for in just a few years. Attachment 468109

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His PSA 10 Topps RC is down about 50% from it's peak earlier this year when it was touching $5k.

Late 2019/ early 2020 83 Topps psa 10 Gwynns could be purchased for $500-600 range. They jumped to high 3ks but have leveled off in the mid 2k range. Seems like a pretty large return in a year. Even his Donoruss and Fleers have jumped 4x in 18 months. Sounds like a solid return to me.
But your right, yes they peaked at the beginning of 2021, like every other card in the world.

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I don't think you can discuss the 1989-present stuff, the 1981-88 stuff, and the older cards the same way. No one is going to pay up for a beater 1989 UD Griffey. Ever.

You would think, but I've actually seen like a PSA 6 of that card sell for way more than it should just because it's rare in that grade. Sometimes collectors don't make much sense.