Does the steroid scandal affect the value of Barry Bond baseball cards?

Answer 1

Old school vs. New schoolSix MVPs, a single-season record 73 home runs, currently second on the all time home run list, and countless other accomplishments. The numbers are there to considered him as an all time great. Yet, some members of the Hall of Fame committee are already questioning if he should be in the Hall of Fame at all. Its a question of "old school" verses "new school," and the same will be for Barry Bonds memorabilia.

Read my article from March 2006 "Steroid Effect on Barry Bonds Memorabilia" A quick survey on eBay November 11 2006 shows no signs of a decline in prices. The money is still being spent. I am not a Barry Bonds fan. This is based on facts, not an opinion.

I'm "improving" the answer above....

In my opinion, Bonds' memorabilia value is hurt by the steriod scandal in the short run, but probably not so much in the long run. I think the real problem people are having - and will continue to have - is that Sports Memorabilia has become big business. Athletes are creating entire 2nd careers signing autographs and collectors are preserving and maintaining their memorabilia much better than they were before. Additionally, there's about 600 different brands of baseball card now. I think Bonds has like 7-10 different "Rooke Cards" whereas Hank Aaron has 1. So, I don't believe any modern day star will ever command the prices that Babe Ruth and the other guys from the 20's - 60's memorabilia will, I think regardless of the Steriod Cloud hanging over Bonds and other stars in this Era, my opinion is that in 50 years, Bonds' autograph, baseball cards, etc...will be worth the same as they would had their been no steriod era.

In my opinion, Bonds was a better player than Willie Mays, but Bonds will never be the icon or hold the same mystique that Mays had. I think if I had the choice between a Willie Mays autographed baseball and a Barry Bonds baseball, I'd take the Mays ball and not think twice about it. He just has that "it" factor that Bonds doesn't have. When I think "Baseball Legend", I think about Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, etc... For some reason, Bonds just doesn't hit that level for me, and I think Bonds was maybe a TOP 3 Greatest Player Ever in terms of statistics. He's the greatest player I've ever seen play in my lifetime. But, for some reason, I just don't hold him in the same regard (and its not because of the steriod issue). He just doesn't transend history like the others do. And, if Mays, arguably a TOP 5 player to ever take the field, is only fetching $200 - $300 for an autographed baseball, maybe $400 for an autographed jersey on a good day. What's Mays' RC valued at? Let's say $10,000 in perfect condition, but could probably find a quality, highly collectible example for less than $1000. I just don't think Bonds is a worth-while collectible. I don't think anyone in the modern era is worth significant investment. Pujols is the only hitter in the last 50 years I can think of that "might" be worth collecting. "Maybe" Ken Griffey Jr.? Like I said, Griffey might be a better player than Mickey Mantle, but for some reason Mantle will always command better prices on memorabilia. There's that "it" factor that I think the modern guys don't have.

Supply is a killer too. You want to collect something, find the "rare" stuff. That's what might be worth money. I look at old baseball cards for guys I've never heard of going for thousands and thousands of dollars. Because they were great, great players? No. Because there is only a few examples of the card still known to exist. Find the rare stuff.

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Answer

Probably, yes. I know that it happened to Roger Clemens. As soon as everybody found out that Clemens was taking steroids, the price of his rookie card went down by alot.