The World Series
by the eBay Numbers

By Matthew Shepatin
October 27, 2010

Rangers & Giants

Texas Rangers (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images); San Francisco Giants (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

As the 106th World Series of baseball begins in San Francisco today, fans have been thrown one heck of a curveball—an unexpected World Series title matchup between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. Both baseball teams made it this far by beating opponents they weren't supposed to beat: the scrappy San Francisco Giants stunned a juggernaut Philadelphia Phillies team, while the upstart Texas Rangers embarrassed the defending champion New York Yankees, thereby sabotaging Mayor Bloomberg's parade plans.

The San Francisco Giants haven't won the Fall Classic since back when they called the Polo Grounds in New York City home—as in 1954. The Texas Rangers, in their 49-year history, have never played in a World Series, let alone raised a championship banner.

Okay, so forget about 2010 World Series expectations. And forget about past baseball playoff experience. We need a novel way of predicting the winner of this, the most unpredictable World Series showdown in years. So maybe we can look at it like this: Perhaps the team whose baseball memorabilia on eBay had the average price and greater number of listings and sales over the past 90 days will give its city a reason to celebrate.

The results are in, and it looks like the mayor of Arlington, Texas might want to give Mayor Bloomberg a call about how to put on a championship parade: The Texas Rangers boast an average price of $53.67 (vs. the San Francisco Giants' $31) along with total baseball team merchandise sales that were 59 percent higher than the Giants during this period and total listings that were 22 percent higher.

Curious about what else we could learn about the World Series using eBay data, we looked at memorabilia on eBay from five of the most memorable World Series in history to see if any lessons could be drawn. The results, ranked in order of average price of World Series memorabilia, are below. (Note that while it's too early to truly tell, World Series 2010 would rank last on this list, with an average price of $14.76 and 3852 total eBay listings in the past 90 days.)

Get Your Collection Going with Memorabilia from the Rangers, the Giants and World Series 2010

Roll over items for details

NEW Texas Rangers Recliner

(buy it now price, $999.99)

1982 Texas Rangers Team Signed Baseball

(buy it now price, $2,999.99)

Texas Rangers Metallic Glitter Stickers Decal

(buy it now price, $9.99)

Texas Rangers Authentic Home Cool Base Jersey

(buy it now price, $209.99)

2002 San Francisco Giants NLCS Champs Ring

(buy it now price, $5,999.99)

NEW Charlie Brown Peanuts Bobblehead SF Giants

(buy it now price, $225)

NEW SF Giants Floor Lamp

(buy it now price, $199.99)

NEW SF Giants Authentic Home Cool Jersey

(buy it now price, $169.99)

Texas Rangers World Series Game 5 Ticket

(buy it now price, $4,750)

NEW 2010 World Series Rawlings Official Baseball

(buy it now price, $159.95)

NEW Giants Texas Rangers Generic 2010 World Series Program

(buy it now price, $44.95)

The World Series <br>by the eBay Numbers</br>

1956 World Series: New York Yankees 4, Brooklyn Dodgers 3

Average Price: $58.99

Total Listings: 309

While this memorable 1956 World Series featured Don Larsen's perfect game, the 1956 Subway Series isn't generally considered the best of the six Fall Classics these storied rivals played from 1947 to 1957. And yet, the average price of memorabilia is an incredible $58.99, surpassing 1947's dramatic 7-game grudge match, which featured Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and rookie Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in a World Series (Average Price: $45.79, Total Listings: 215) and outperforming what was arguably the most memorable crosstown showdown of that era, the 1952 series, known for Mickey Mantle's heroics in Game 6 and 7. (Average Price: $22.57, Total Listings: 421)

2004 World Series: Boston Red Sox 4, St. Louis Cardinals 0

Average Price: $27.39

Total Listings: 3,419

You would expect collectables from the 2004 World Series, when the Red Sox exorcised the 86-year old "Curse of the Bambino," to be a hot commodity. The problem is that there's so much of the 2004 World Series memorabilia still available. (Of the five World Series rated here, the 2004 Fall Classic has by far the most listings with 3,419.) So how do goods from the good-time '04 championship compare to vintage Red Sox World Series baseball memorabilia? Interestingly, not nearly as well as the heart-breaking '46 series (Average Price: $64.41, Total Listings: 155) or even more tragic '86 series (Average Price: $29.18, Total Listings: 893). However, it did outpace the 1975's October epic with Fisk's famous HR (Average Price: $16.28, Total Listings: 816) and the Yaz-era '67 classic (Average Price: $25.77, Total Listings: 486).

1960 World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates 4, New York Yankees 3

Average Price: $27.33

Total Listings: 875

If a memorable "moment" in the World Series determined the worth of baseball collectibles for that entire series, than items from the 1960 Fall Classic would be most coveted. That’s because Game 7 saw Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a magical walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth to beat the mighty Bronx Bombers. Despite that all-time great World Series moment, baseball memorabilia collectors haven't struck gold on eBay, with prices from the 1960 MLB championship averaging an unexceptional $27.33. Hm. You think if Maz had been wearing pinstripes it might be a different story?

World Series history

Clockwise from top left: New York Yankees v Pittsburgh Pirates (Photo by Herb Scharfman/Sports Imagery/Getty Images); 1969 World Series: Baltimore Orioles v New York Mets (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images); World Series: Red Sox v Cardinals (Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

1969 World Series: New York Mets 4, Baltimore Orioles 1

Who can forget the Miracle Mets' five-game win over a heavily-favored Baltimore team, which had won 109 regular season games? Which makes the $20.97 average price for memorabilia from that series surprisingly low. A couple of reasons that baseball collectibles from this memorable World Series don't have the same value as the 1946 and 1956 series is the relative abundance of items, more living members (and thus more easily available autographed pieces) and while this was arguably the greatest World Series upset, it wasn't necessarily the tightest, most dramatic series.

Average Price: $20.97

Total Listings: 1,144

1991 World Series: Minnesota Twins 4, Atlanta Braves 3

Average Price: $19.49

Total Listings: 828

In 2003, ESPN's Page 2 voted this the greatest World Series ever. Which goes to show you that the "best" Fall Classics don't always make for the most valuable in terms of World Series memorabilia. Kirby Puckett's 11th-inning homer to win Game 6, provided one of the most awesome moments in World Series history, but it wasn't enough to raise the average price of 1991 series items on eBay above $19.50, as calculated over the past 90 days. The question remains: is the low value of the '91 classic due to the fact that baseball collectors prefer World Series that involve storied teams with a rich legacy of great players, like New York and Boston? Or perhaps not enough years have gone by for collectibles from this exciting 7-game epic to attain the vintage status they deserve. Only time will tell.