My Top 3 Selling Baseball Cards of 2010

The year 2010 was a great year for the sport of baseball. It was also a great year for the hobby of baseball card collecting. The rookie class of 2010 drove sales wild as first Jason Heyward, then Stephen Strasburg sent Bowman baseball card sales through the roof. Then Buster Posey showed up and did his thing as well; not to mention Starlin Castro, Mike Stanton, Tyler Colvin, Carlos Santana, and Austin Jackson. I left many out, but only two are going to be mentioned again in this article because I'm here to talk about how great the baseball card market treated me and my top three sales when it came to players.

A baseball card collector is like a crack addict in many ways. Well, I don't break into people's homes and steal their toaster ovens to sell for cards, but like many drug users you become a dealer as well. I sell baseball cards to help buy the ones I want. The following three cards were the ones I sold for the most in 2010; from least to most.

3. Buster Posey - 2008 Tristar Autographed Printing Plate - Sold for $156
I do not recall which exact card or color I had the printing plate for, but it was a 2008 Tristar minor league card, possibly the Farmhands theme. The printing plate is a one of one type of insert, the actual metal plate used to manufacture the baseball card; usually one can try to find four plates, one for each color in the process. This plate was simple in appearance, dinged up a little around the edges, and with some ink residue still on the surface. The autograph on the plate was a sticker autograph, meaning the company had Buster Posey sign a sticker which they then applied to the printing plate card. Being an Indie movie producer in an American economy gone awry, I found myself in need of some cash one day and thus had to pick a high dollar card to part with. I chose this Buster Posey because, even though autographed, it was not my favorite. I wish I still had it though.

2. Frank Thomas - 1993 Finest Refractor PSA graded Gem Mint 10 - Sold for $275
I was a huge baseball card collecting fan as a kid and this card here became my prized possession of cards. I REALLY wish I had this card back. I have never seen another Gem Mint 10 of it yet for sale. Gem Mint 10 means it was graded by the company PSA and they deemed it to be in perfect condition. A real rarity this one. I sold it because I live in California, but was going to go visit family in Missouri and needed the extra spending cash for the trip. I ended up using the cash for gas money and I bought an HD Flip camera.

1. Stephen Strasburg RC- 2010 Topps Chrome Autographed Gold Refractor - Sold for $290
The 2010 Topps chrome product was one with a lot of production quality issues, but I bought a case of it really cheap off of Ebay and decided I would see what I could pull. I pulled this Stephen Strasburg rookie card out and was amazed to see that the book value on it was listed as $500! It was a gold refractor autographed card serial numbered out of 50 I believe, meaning only 50 were made. The case was a great case overall and I pulled several other valuable cards as well. I put this one up on Ebay to recoup some of the moolah and settled for $290 just to top my Frank Thomas sale. I was not feeling greedy that day, though I know I could have held out and sold it for even more.