OT: Value of Bonds/Clemens cards
 

Wondering if the value of Bonds and Clemens cards would increase if they were elected to the Hall. Or is the value already baked into them regardless?

I'm sure there will be a short-term bump when the Vets eventually do the right thing, but the value is already baked in.

+1 agreed short term bump for anyone elected in HOF because it creates a reminder/ awareness for that player from the casual collector or casually fan. But by an large already baked in. If the player passed away that also has a bump usually a little bigger jump for a little longer period

I don’t think they will be admitted via the committee route. I think Bonds and Clemens are Jackson without the story and rarity. As such, I see their prices dropping further. Add Aroid to this group too.

I haven't been following Clemens as much, but I do collect Bonds and over the last couple of years, his 1986 Topps Traded Tiffany cards have taken off. The PSA 10's hovered around $1K for a long time, then jumped to $3K, then $6K. One just sold on auction last weekend for $12K.

I do think they will probably level off or even go down a bit since he didn't get in.

Prices will go up. It will turn many non-believers and create hordes of new registry chasers

I believe they were also 20k+ last January-February

Oh wow, I never knew they got that high.

In the BST, I've offered (6) Topps Tiffany sets for sale. The only one that draws a lot of interest is the 86 Traded set. Bonds is part of that set so I figured he was the reason for the interest. I'm trying to move all 6 sets in a single deal, but may have to re-think that logic.

When you really think about this, Bonds is the all time HR leader and his MVP awards (total of 7, although the last 4 in a row from 2001-2004 were PED enhanced seasons) would seem to indicate that those 86 Traded (Tiffany) cards should be worth a bit more due to the limited number of Tiffany sets (5K) put about by Topps in 1986.

Yes, that was a shameful plug that should have been saved for the BST...:p

Clemens rookies (if you're into rookies) should be worth a bit if you value those cards on MLB performance and compare them to other players of his era. Oh yeah, it was a PED enhanced performance, that was denied.

I hope Bonds cards go up and are more desirable when he gets voted into the Hall. I was a Bonds fan when I lived in Sonoma County just north of SF and I got a chance to follow him and the team game by game. So I became a SF Giants fan and still am. And I became a Bonds fan at the same time, and still am.

I don't care about Clemens cards.



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I don't believe election to the HOF matters for Bonds or Clemens, and it won't matter for Arod, either. I also don't believe that subsequent election will change anything on their cards other than potentially a very short term bump due to uneducated buyers assuming that it would permanently move their markets higher.

Collectors generally don't care about this anymore, especially considering how watered down the baseball HOF has now gotten, not to mention the hypocrisy of election of suspected PED users already.

If you don't believe me, go back and look at Pete Rose card prices and tell me that the HOF is holding them back?

And we all saw the Joe Jackson CJ last night in Heritage.

These three are all-time greats, HOF election or not. They should have been elected with Ortiz and Schilling to make up the "asterisk class", but the writers were too short sighted to see that was actually the best answer for everyone involved - players, fans and writers.

The value of cards and items is not just strictly tied to their actual sports achievements alone, especially in today's world where everything seems to be driven more by social media, so-called influencers, and the like. The stories and background of many players far exceed their on-field acts, and drive the prices of their cards. In many cases, it is probably better to be infamous, rather than just famous. For example, would anyone really be that interested in any of the Black Sox players (besides Jackson), and pay as much as they do for them if they hadn't been part of the scandal? And speaking of Jackson, he'd likely be in the HOF if not for the scandal, but not necessarily as an elite top tier HOFer, and certainly no one would be paying anywhere near the kind of prices they pay for his cards today. I doubt he'd have even made the inaugural HOF class.

With the records and achievements of players like Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, and so on, over time I can see more and more people who weren't around during their playing days actually forgetting about all the arguments and debate over what they did or didn't do, and actually start embracing cards and items of theirs as its own separate branch or niche of our hobby. Kind of like being seen as the unjustly persecuted few off baseball. There's always a significant portion of the public that seems to have a strange fascination and attraction to the perceived rebels and "bad boys" that are out there. And they won't be so harsh to judge the alleged, or otherwise, PED or 'roid users, especially in light of the indifference and blatant hypocrisy shown by MLB when faced with other cheating incidents and scandals, such as what the Astro's pulled, but for which it seems no player really received any deserved punishment.

I can even imagine and foresee that one day some current HOF voters may be viewed on a par with Joseph McCarthy, and the way his accusations and allegations of people being Communists was initially embraced, and how the accused were punished and ostracized for it. But that over time, as more information came forth, and more intelligent and clearer thinking heads prevailed, a lot of what he originally said and did has been abandoned, if not outright condemned as wrong.

Now don't any of you come back with the stupid jokes and comments because I mentioned McCarthy and Communists, I'm not comparing Bonds, Clemens and others to being Russian or Chinese spies. I'm merely showing the the potential parallels between the two situations, and how over time thinking and public opinion can dramatically change. So no juvenile comments or crap please!

Being associated with PEDs and being extremely unlikeable men is a double whammy for Bonds, Clemens, and probably ARod. I don't see any huge upside vis a vis the overall market.

I think McGwire may eventually be pardoned to an extent in the court of opinion, because he wasn't an outright jerk. I can't see it for the other three.

Yep. McGwire has also been contrite, and paid his dues to some extent.

I personally buy Bonds Clemens Puckett Arod, et al all the time. Can be had in 8"s for cheap.9's pretty cheap as well.