Three essential Cal Ripken Jr. autographed baseball cards
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Cal Ripken jr., the Iron Man, played from 1981 to 2001 and broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak of 2,130. He ultimately ended that streak at 2,632 games played in a row. His career also bridged two eras in the card collecting hobby from the end of the vintage era into the modern era.
While autographs are pretty prevalent in the hobby, Ripken played when that innovation was first introduced. Since then he's had quite a bit of creative and extremely collectible autographed cards, here are three great ones for any Ripken collector to put in their personal collection.
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2004 Upper Deck SPx Swatch Supremacy Signature #/75
Upper Deck put out some iconic cards. And their SP line is one product that has turned into a treasured card in the hobby. His 2004 SPx Swatch Supremacy card, numbered to 75, is a great addition, and at a reasonable price. The card is horizontal and includes a dark blue inked signature with a piece of one of his game-used jerseys.
There aren't many sales to look at for comparison. But the few that are raw that show up on 130 Point went for under $75 each. Currently, there are a few graded PSA 8, that are listed between $115 and $199.
2007 SP Authentic Chirography Dual Auto Cal Ripken Jr. & Derek Jeter
This one is sort of a 'two birds with one stone' sort of a thing. Another great Upper Deck piece, this one features not only Cal Ripken jr., but also the great Derek Jeter. Another horizontal card, the card features bust portraits of both Ripken and Jeter, with their signatures sitting right next to the players' images.
It's very hard to find comparisons of this card. Searching 130 Point garnered no results. A similar result occurred on eBay sold listings. However, there are three listed for sale. Two PSA 8s, one for $1,299, and a BGS 9.5 for $1,750.
1992 Donruss Elite Signature Series
Cal Ripken jr.'s 1992 Donruss Elite Signature Series is not only one of his most famous autographed cards, it's one of the most famous autographed cards out there. At a time when the hobby was still in the middle of the junk wax era, Donruss came out with the innovation of the pack-pulled autograph. These cards, serial numbered to 5,000, it's flashy and very hard to miss.
This card is a bit more to add to your collection. Raw versions can cast you as much as $800. But in a weird twist, versions graded PSA 8 or lower have sold for around $500 in some cases. The card is so famous and the fact that there's 5,000 out there, can cause this value to be real volitale.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz