CENTENNIAL – In the digital age, you can get stats about baseball and rosters online. With tools like that, will baseball cards stand a chance?
Yes, says Brian Drent, the owner of an online sports memorabilia auction business. But the market has changed a lot.
"They're really focused on high-end collectors for the most part," he said. "That doesn't mean that Topps doesn't make baseball cards for kids."
However, the main focus is on collectors who are willing to spend a lot to trade those little cards.
"In the mid to late 90s, baseball card shops seemed to be on every corner," Drent said. "Everybody was selling modern product at that time."
Times have changed. Drent says there used to be 60-70 card shops in the Denver metro area. Now, he says, there are six or seven.
Drent's business focuses on high value investors through online auctions and a catalog service.
"We sold Babe Ruth's rookie card for $90,000 in one of our online auctions about two weeks ago," he said.
While cards like that sell for a big value, Drent says other cards are losing value.
"For middle to lesser grade cards, cards that used to sell for a certain price, really the prices have dropped a little bit, because people understand now that they're not as scarce," he explained.
(KUSA-TV © 2015 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
