How to Value Hockey Cards

Learning how to value hockey cards is important when managing a large collection.

I know, I have tens of thousands sports cards and keeping tabs on what’s what can be a nightmare.

In this article, I’ll go over ways I keep on top of valuing my hockey cards.

The Basics of Valuing Hockey Cards for Dummies (or any hockey card novice)

The value of a hockey card is determined by many different factors including:

• Player’s prospects
• Player’s age
• Player’s success in the NHL
• The team a player represents
• The set that the card is from, and many more.

For example, Wayne Gretzky rookie cards are worth thousands of dollars because of the player and the set they come from.

On top of that, the grade of the card makes a huge difference. A card graded a ten out of ten will obviously sell more than a card graded five or six. If you’re interested more in different grading companies, my Beckett and PSA article is a good place to start.

How to Find Out the Value of Your Hockey Card Collection

If you want to learn how to value hockey cards, there’s a few different methods you can use. Basically it’s the same as determining the value for any sports card collection.

There are several methods that can be used to determine the value of a card collection. The most popular method back in the day was using the Beckett Grading Card Guide. The prices listed in the guide are based on several factors including rarity, condition, and Beckett Grading Services’ own opinions.

The Beckett Grading Card Guide is a well-known resource for determining values for collectible cards. They have many different grades and price points which makes it easy to find a card that fits your budget.

Personally, I don’t use Beckett though. I use online tools – these tools scrape sales data online so everything is up to date and pretty much instant.

Not bad considering we used to wait a month for the Beckett magazine to get delivered.

The Best Option: Market Movers

Market Movers (use the code SCR20 for 20% off) is the card price checking tool from Sports Cards Investor and is my favorite choice for those who are serious about their cards.

I’m not going to lie, when Market Movers first came out I rolled my eyes a little. However, they keep improving the tool and it’s now quite a robust way to keep track of a busy hockey card portfolio – along with checking hockey card values.

Market Movers has a lot of positives to it that I know you’ll like.

• Keep track of card prices over time. You can see pricing trends easily and check that your hockey card values are going up or down
• Compare cards on the same chart. If you want to compare two players’ cards, or even two cards of the same player you can do that to see how they’re performing. A great way to keep track of an entire draft class.
• Chart any card, or sealed wax
• You can keep track of sales volume – so not just what price a card is selling for – but how many are selling
• Set price change alerts. This is cool when you’re looking to either buy or sell. You can set a low price on cards you’re looking to buy, that way, when a card sells for that price you’ll get alerted. But you can also do it for cards you’re looking to sell. For example, if you have a rule that you’ll sell a card for double what you buy it for – you can set that price alert.
• Check graded card ratios. You can see the ratio between PSA 9s and 10s of cards to see opportunities with grading.

The price point can be a tad expensive for some – $25 a month for the basic plan, and around $50 a month for the pro plan.

There’s also a yearly plan where you only pay for 10 months. 

But I guess that really depends on how you look at it.

If you’re not really taking your cards seriously and just buy the odd card here and there, then these features might be a little more than you need. However, if you’re managing a card collection worth thousands of dollars and you’re always looking to buy/sell – then, for me, $50 a month to make sure you can keep track of everything mentioned above is a no-brainer…. Just the man hours alone that you’ll save is worth it.

Out of the two, I 100% think the Pro plan is the best value. Everything else in the Lite plan can be done for free (with a little more elbow grease and a lot more time).

Like I said though, it really depends on what you’re after. If you’re just casually collecting cards then I wouldn’t bother – but if you want to keep track of sales prices over time, set price reminders, and all that other good stuff, then I’d give Market Movers a try.

You can try Market Movers out here. And make sure you use the code SCR20 to save 20%.

What Is a Fair Price?

A fair price is usually based on what the cards are worth and how many you want to buy. If you want a bulk of cards for your whole hockey team, then you should probably get them all at once to get a better price.

As the demand for old sports memorabilia and collectibles increases, so do the prices. The most popular sport-related items include: hockey cards, baseball cards, football cards, football helmets, signed jerseys and autographed photographs from professional players.

Frequently Asked Questions