Sports cards don't play around

It doesn't look out of place among the other colorfully packaged products, until you see a price tag more fit for a mortgage payment than six pieces of cardboard.

Specifically, that's $799.95. Per pack.

Following a downturn in the baseball-card market in the early 1990s, sports-card prices have jumped as if they were, shall we say, on steroids.

"Every time I've thought there's a limit, we've blown past it," said Jeff Patton, owner of Baseball Card Castle. For example, when Upper Deck came out with $2.99 packs of baseball cards in 1989, dealers thought, "There's no way people are going to buy that."

But buy they have. Patton already has sold out of the dozen or so $799.95 Upper Deck Exquisite packs that he was able to get his hands on.

Upper Deck first broke through the $100 barrier, and then the $500 barrier several years ago, and all three major card manufacturers are now in the "super-premium" market. Donruss released $500 packs of its "National Treasures" line in January, and Topps is set to release $350 packs of its "Paradigm" line in the next few weeks. The suggested retail price for the 2006 Upper Deck Exquisite football cards is $600, but any price much below $800 is considered a bargain.

While the cards are still rectangular and made of cardboard, they bear only a passing resemblance to those manufactured in the 20th century. The "packs" of cards, for example, usually come in a wooden box. Several years ago, Upper Deck pioneered the use of swatches of game-worn jerseys worn by the athletes on their sports cards. Topps now includes pieces of used baseball bats embedded inside cards, while Donruss has pieces of helmets on some historical cards.

The idea is to create products that will lure fans who want to own something literally touched by their favorite players while also making the cards exclusive enough to be good investments.

In other words, it's quality over quantity: For the most expensive cards, only 100 or so are produced, and each is individually numbered, giving collectors a one-of-a-kind product.

In part, it was the lack of exclusivity that tanked the baseball-card market in the early 1990s after card companies ramped up production in the late 1980s. "Those cards are pretty much all worthless because they made millions and millions," said Nick Tylwalk, who writes a column on sports cards for About.com.

The companies figured out that by limiting their production, the cards have an immediate value, eliminating the need of buyers to hold on to them for long periods before they appreciate in value, he said.

Indeed, a single unopened pack of Upper Deck Exquisite basketball cards from the 2003-04 basketball season, which at the time had a suggested retail price of about $500, is now valued at $3,200. A Reggie Bush rookie card from the 2006 Upper Deck Exquisite football set was recently valued at $4,500 — the second highest-priced football rookie card ever.

Of course, just as in the stock market or real estate, "sure thing" immediate turnarounds sometimes evaporate. In the sports-card market, today's golden ticket could be tomorrow's piece of cardboard. The value of cards with jersey swatches on them, for example, already has started to drop as more companies start to manufacture them.

Card aficionados point to last week's $2.35 million sale of a 1909 Honus Wagner card, however, as a sign of the strength of the collectibles market — driven in part by the high dollars paid for super-premium cards.

Card companies also point out that while serious collectors might plunk down hundreds of dollars per pack, their core market is still children and casual collectors. The top-selling Topps packs cost $1.99, said spokesman Clay Luraschi. The $100-plus packs are a sliver of the company's business.

what they cost

Prices for cards turned down in the early 1990s, but now they've come back, big-time.

and here's the proof:

$2.99

Cost of Upper Deck baseball card packs in 1989

$799.95

Cost of an Upper Deck Exquisite Pack in 2007 at Baseball Card Castle in Pittsburgh.

$3,200

The value of an unopened pack of Upper Deck Exquisite basketball cards from the 2003-04 basketball season

$4,500

The value of a Reggie Bush rookie card from the 2006 Upper Deck Exquisite football set

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette