When was the last time you looked up the value of your cards? Not because you wanted to sell or trade something, but a card in your PC? Did you check recent sales on eBay, or look up prices on Beckett?
Does anyone still use Beckett anymore?
I'm in the middle of cataloging my collection on TCDB (I'm about 1/3 finished) and I've got room for one card in my higher-end hits/relics/autos box. Can't fit a relic so I shopped for low-numbered parallels of players I like, and/or color-matching refractors. And that's when I realize that the 'hit' I was looking for was hiding in my lower tier box all along.
The card I was interested in was a Topps Chrome Black Refractor parallel from the early 2000s. And it was priced much higher than I expected. I crossed that card off my want list and started looking elsewhere. And then I had a thought. I have some black refrators.... I wonder if they're worth over $20?
This one is not a $20 card (recently sold for $11.99). But it color matches and I'm a big fan of the 2011 Topps design.
I thought that Peavy would be my cheapest Black Refracor but that ended up being Tyrod Taylor:
A rookie card of a still-active QB... and it only sells for about $5? Fine with me, I wasn't planning to sell it anyway.
Here's another QB from the 2011 rookie class. I knew this was a $100 card years ago, back when he was still playing. Recent sales are all over the place - anywhere from $40 to $120.
Let's go back a few years for another Carolina Panther:
This Steve Smith Sr. card was sitting in my non-PC box of football, where I keep anything that's not a set filler or high end card. I figured it was about $5 or so, as Smith is not yet a Hall of Famer and 2003 chrome black refractors are serial numbered to 599 (as opposed to /100 or /299 numbering for the 2011 edition.)
Ah, but it's older! I guess that explains recent sales in the $15-25 range.
How about a legit first-ballot HOFer and league MVP?
If Smith is around $20, then Tomlinson should be somewhere around $30.. yes?
Nope. The LT sells for around $100!
Does hockeydude have any black refractor hockey cards?
He does not. Topps only made black refractor parallels in 2001-02 and 2002-03. The 2002-03s were numbered to 100 while the ‘01-02 cards were numbered to 50. Even common players are $15 and up, with some Hall of Famers selling for over $300. Which isn't bad at all if you compare the scarcity to their football counterparts (someone got a steal on this Adam Oates card)
However, I do have a couple more to show off. These were sitting in my baseball boxes. Again, I assumed they were $5-10 cards, max.
Here's another guy who hasn't made the Hall of Fame yet, but might soon:
These 2006 Topps Chrome black refractors are numbered to 549. King Felix here just sold for... under $10 delivered. Lol, that's not far off from what I had originally thought.
But here's the hidden gem. This is the one that slid into a one-touch and grabbed that open space in my box of higher-end hits.
Recent sales of Cabrera black refractors range from $215 to almost $500 ... for 2004 black refractors. The only sale of a 2006 that I saw was for about $70. Which isn't far off from what his rookie card sells for.
Looks like I'll have to make room for two more higher-value cards. Or maybe I should cash them all in for a single $250-300 card?!?
Do you have any Black Refractors in your collection? Have you recently discovered a card in your PC that was worth far more than you expected?
Back to cataloging...see you in a couple weeks :)
Thanks for reading!
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