Before the numbers start going up quickly, there’s a certain kind of silence in an auction room, or these days, an auction feed. People who have been collecting for a long time know what it is. When the bids first come in, they are slow and almost polite. Then something changes, and all of a sudden, those who said they had a ceiling are shown to be wrong.
This is pretty much what happened when a lot of Don Mattingly’s 1984 Donruss rookie card in PSA 10 condition hit the market not long ago. It’s not a new card. People in the hobby have known about it for many years. However, seeing the bids add up in real time reminded me that some cards have a pull that doesn’t go away with the passing of time.
Mattingly was the face of the New York Yankees for most of the 1980s. In baseball terms, this meant he was one of the most well-known players in the game. In 1984, his batting average of.343 was the best in the league. His 1985 American League MVP season is the kind of year that makes collectors always think of that player. Nine Golden Gloves. Six times as an All-Star. Back pain at age 34 cut short his career. Even though the story is well-known, it keeps getting read by new people.
There’s an interesting mix of nostalgia and real scarcity in the 1984 Donruss card in question. Around 13,000 copies have been sent to PSA to be graded, and only 2.5% have come back with a perfect 10. It’s not as important as that number might seem at first. What about Darryl Strawberry’s rookie from the same set? It hits a PSA 10 about 1 in 11 times. The grade for Tony Gwynn’s second-year card in the same 1984 Donruss set is 13%. Even the famous 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. card, which is probably the most famous card of its time, only gets a PSA 10 about 3.8% of the time, which is still a lot more often than Mattingly’s rate.
Collectors still don’t agree on what makes the Donruss card so hard to get right. In general, 1984 Donruss cards weren’t always printed well, and the Mattingly is the most-wanted card in the set, so it’s also been handled the most. It costs around $30 to $40 for a raw copy that is in good shape. It could cost between $50 and $60 for a PSA 8. The price of a PSA 9 is between $150 and $200. But a PSA 10? Collectors have been giving more than $3,000, and sometimes they’ve even paid close to $4,000.
Wars over bids happen in that space between a 9 and a 10. When there is a lot at stake, it’s hard not to notice how that one grade point turns into something almost psychological. People who bid on PSA 10 Mattingly cards seem like they’re not just buying a card. They’re paying to be sure that they found the one that got through.
There is still no clear sign on whether these prices will keep going up or reach a plateau. There are ups and downs in every hobby, and nostalgia for baseball cards from the 1980s has been strong but not unbeatable. But the most recent auction showed that the desire is real and present, not just an idea. The room didn’t hesitate when that lot showed up. It held its own.
For forty years, a piece of cardboard will still be valuable. The World Series ring Mattingly never got washed. It looks like his cards are still looking for a ceiling.
