Have you visited our store? Click here.Once upon a time, former professional baseball player, Dmitri Young collected baseball cards. His focus was PSA 10 examples of all the key rookie cards. His collection was considered one of the best in the world. In 2012, that all changed.
In 2012, Dmitri Young put his entire collection up for bid to raise money for a charity. In the lot were some of the nicest cards you could ever imagine and the returns for them at the time were considered some of the highest for the associated cards. Among them was the single PSA 10 example of the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas rookie card without the name plate, a.k.a. the Frank Thomas 1990 Topps NNOF.
The auction closed with 16 bids at $24,244. I was so impressed by the closing price that I had to get a screenshot and I’m glad I did because 12.5 years later, I can finally use it!
The buyer was former professional football player, Evan Mathis. It turns out, he’s a collector too.1
Notice the flip says, “Dmitri Young Collection.” After he won the card, Evan had the flip changed out so it reflects the NNOF designation, which while I understand the thinking, I’d have left the pedigree intact since it’s part of the historical significance of the card. Alas, it doesn’t change the card and that’s what matters most.
12.5 years later, the card enters a Goldin auction and closes with a return of over 602.8%. This sale makes this card the first from the Junk Wax Era (1986-1993) to achieve a 6-figure return.
Sold: December 17, 2022
# of Bids: 25
Final Price: $170,400
References:
- I’ve met Evan at shows a few times over the years and he’s always been super cool and his collection is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Some of the stuff he’s sold has made headlines over the past couple years. ↩︎
That is an amazing sale for sure. I typically prefer Thomas’ other rookies from 1990 that feature him in a White Sox uniform, but I agree that it is cool to see an incredible sale from a period of cards that is often forgotten (from a monetary standpoint at least). I believe the 1993 SP Jeter has topped six figures, although I am not sure if 1993 SP is considered “Junk Wax” or not.
I don’t consider 1993 SP a Junk Wax product. Even though it was released in the Junk Wax Era, it’s so tale-end and high-value that it doesn’t really count.
I have a very large extensive collection of baseball cards from the wax years. Most of the cards are from the years of 87 to 93. I probably have several hundred that are in a range of 9 to 10 as far as grades go. I do however need to get them graded. Any thoughts or suggestions that I may use for the near future? Thank you
Hi Shawn,
Thanks for the comment. In case you don’t already know, that block hails from the Junk Wax Era (1986-1993). If it were me, I’d look for Ken Griffey Jr. RCs (1989) and Derek Jeter RCs (1993) and if they look high grade enough to make the ratio of submission fee to resale value (assuming you wanna resell them) make sense, I’d send them to one of the big four grading companies: PSA, CSG, SGC, and BGS. There are other notable cards from that block but those are the more significant ones. Good luck!