By Steven Luker
Rickey Henderson
For the past few years we have noticed baseball cards have gained value or lost value. The card in question is the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson Rookie card. Rickey Henderson is known for being the MLB stolen base leader in MLB. Some interesting facts about Rickey Henderson’s playing career is that he played 25 seasons in the MLB which is a long time compare to what we see and he had stats such as 3,081 games played, 1406 stolen bases, 297 home runs, 2 world series championship, and 81 times a leadoff home runs.
As of 2021 there was some news regarding Henderson that broke in February 2021 that the 1980 Topps card number 482 had a bid of 180,000 dollars and then a week later a PSA 10 was sold for 168,000 dollars. You may notice the PSA Value sold less than the card raw. You are wondering how that is possible. Well as we know in the late 80s rookie cards are not as valuable to this card because they were over-productive and landed in the category Junk Wax ERA.
Another thing is the PSA card that was sold is a graded card that was sent in by somebody and they received bak as a 10. There are different places to get cards graded from and PSA is the main one. Looking for this Rookie Rickey Henderson card is super rare and a lot of people are holding onto it because it has a huge value. People wonder if this will beat the card that is the highest value. The leading card on the right is a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for 12,600,000 dollars.
This is a big difference then the Rickey Henderson Rookie card. You will notice these cards are trying to go up in value since COVID the reason we see a lot of cards priced really high is because that and we have notice the junk wax a overproduction of cards so the rookie cards you find in that era are not worth a lot so example of card from the Junk wax era would be the rookie card of Randy Johnson when he was on the Expos. As of 2022 sales have come to about $60,000 to $70,000 less than the peak in 2021.
This is on the Rickey Henderson rookie card and how much it is going for now and its probability one. Here are some tips and tricks on how to handle it if you get the Rickey Henderson rookie card. Well step one please wear gloves if you are opening a pack from 1980 or a repackage pack if you are opening a 1980 pack make sure that the gum is not sticking onto the card because that will ding the PSA value.
Step 2 When you get it make sure you put it in a sleeve or a top loader then celebrate that you have it and don’t let your pet take it. Some pets do that to cards they will try to destroy. My last step is try to handle the card with care treat it like it a brand new car keep it sleeved in or in a book or a one touch do not touch it with your bare hands because you can potentially leave marks on it and ruin the psa value of the card so protect the card at all times.
These are my tips and tricks of how to protect your Rickey Henderson Rookie card or any other cards that are high in value. You don’t want it to be a card that will lose value so just be careful with it.