Barry Bonds Federal Charges: What Will This Do To His Cards?

Yesterday the government filed a new indictment against Barry Bonds related to his 2003 testimony for the federal government’s doping investigation where he stated that he did not knowingly take performance-enhancing drugs. The original indictment included four felony perjury counts and one felony obstruction of justice charge. The new federal indictment increased the perjury counts to fourteen and still includes the one count of obstruction of justice for hindering the government’s doping investigation. The new charges address the same alleged lies but were pulled out individually to increase it to fourteen, which is making legal experts and analysts conclude that if Bonds is found guilty, the punishment will not be much more severe than the original federal indictment.

With this new news what can we say about the value of Barry Bonds cards? This is currently being discussed at length on forums.collectors.com. The consensus seems to be that Bonds cards are going to drop even more than they already have. Some say that he is getting what he deserved because he blatantly cheated due to his jealously towards McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Others are saying that he will be hated more and more as time goes on. I feel that the combination of a mountain of bad press and the fact that he is a smug, impersonal guy has made the value of his cards drop dramatically. The fact that he is smug and impersonal probably weights even more than the press because McGwire had a lot of bad press but people are still collecting his cards because he was a likable guy.

One member of the forum stated that he was happy that he sold his 1986 Topps Traded Tiffany PSA GEM MT 10 for $2,800 “back in the day.” Current market value according to PSA’s Sports Market Report Price Guide is $750, which is 27% lower than what the member sold the card for on eBay. I agree with the other forum members that the card, whether a PSA 10 or BGS 9.5 is really probably worth about $350 or lower even. One member sites that a PSA 9 of this card sold for a mere $128.50 on eBay last night. BGS 9.5 Gem Mint versions of Bonds Topps Traded Tiffany are currently between $350 and $500 on Buy It Now eBay auctions.

My recommendation would be to take a gamble on any one of Barry Bonds rookie cards because if he walks on all the charges the value of his cards will increase and you could turn a profit. What do you guys think?

Leave me some comments and let me know when you think about this and what you may want to hear about in the future.

I would like to thank veteran member of forums.collectors.com JackWESQ for his great thread:

You Can Knock Another 10% to 20% Off The Value Of Bonds’ Cards…

Happy Collecting

Joe (joe@joeknowscards.com)