Derek Jeter Rookie Card Sells For Nearly $100K

I used to collect baseball cards, so it might be time to dig through my mom's attic and check my collection for anything of value.

A mint-condition Derek Jeter rookie card was just sold for $99,100. It's not quite at the level of the millions of dollars that have been spent on the legendary Honus Wagner cards, but it is the highest amount ever paid for a card from the "modern era" of cards, which ranges back to 1986.

The card is rare because of the perfect condition it is in. Card grader PSA/DNA says they have graded 8,308 Jeter rookie cards that score 8 out of 10. 560 score 9 out of 10, and only 22 as 10 out of 10.

This is such a perfect microcosm of how an economy works and why I'll never fully understand it. There is literally no real value to this card; it can't be exchanged for goods or services, it's not functional in any way, it's just a piece of cardboard with a patch of foil. It's value is simply assigned by what someone will pay for it. If the owner sells it for $100k, it's worth $100k. If the owner sells it for a million, it's worth a million. If the owner sells it for twenty bucks, it's worth twenty bucks.

I hope to one day reach the financial level where I can even consider spending almost $100k on a baseball card, then remembering that's dumb and putting the money into savings instead.

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