How to Appraise Baseball Cards

Buy a magnifying glass and use it to appraise cards. You might need it to detect minor flaws on cards that appear to be in perfect condition to the naked eye.

Purchase a current price guide. Keep in mind that most price guides list values for cards in mint condition. Cards in conditions inferior to mint are usually valued at a percentage of the price of a mint-condition card.

Give strong consideration to using the Beckett baseball card price guide. It is considered authoritative by many collectibles enthusiasts, and an online version is available (see Resources below). You can also purchase price guides in hard copy form at online and in-store book retailers.

Bear in mind that sports card appraisal is an inexact science. One collector might consider a card to be in "excellent" condition, while another might judge the same card to be "very good." Also, the exact lines between the different condition grades are not set in stone, so an element of interpretation is always at work.

Learn about the varying card grades. A "Mint" card is a card that has no printing or condition imperfections whatsoever. Mint cards are considered to be worth 100 percent of guide value by most collectors.

Appraise a "Near Mint" card to be worth anywhere from 75 to 95 percent of a card's listed mint value. Near mint cards have very minor flaws, such as one slightly frayed corner, an off-centered printing imperfection or extremely minor, almost unnoticeable damage to the card's edges or surface.

Expect a card in "Excellent" condition to command 60 to 75 percent of full value. Cards in excellent condition have minor but noticeable damage in one or two spots.

Appraise a card in "Very Good" condition to be worth about 50 to 60 percent of the value of a mint example of the same card. The "Very Good" grade is used to describe cards that are in decent shape but have two or more pronounced conditional flaws.

Grade cards with creases or one instance of major damage in the "Good" category. These cards will usually sell for around 40 percent of full price.

Expect to get 10 to 25 percent of full value for cards in "Fair" to "Poor" condition. These cards have more than one source of major damage--often severe creases, water damage or bent or frayed corners.