What’s one way to significantly increase the value of a common or base card of a good to superstar athlete?
By sports card manufacturers buying back some of those relatively cheap unsigned cards and then getting them authentically autographed by the player.
And since these “buyback autograph sports cards” are limited in number, the value will increase.
Some of the older sets don’t have much value in itself, other than the nostalgia felt by some of the old-school collectors, with many of the cards being mass produced (especially during the 1980s and 1990s.)
So this is one economically smart way to extract value from many of these long forgotten cards. It’s also a good way to get legit autograph cards from older athletes whose cards came out in sets where autograph cards in hobby boxes were less common.
Here are some of the high-end buyback cards currently available on eBay with links taking you right to the listing.