The hobby of collecting and grading baseball cards has grown tremendously in popularity over the past few decades. One of the most important aspects of the collecting world is determining the condition and quality of each individual card. Several companies have emerged to professionally grade trading cards on behalf of collectors, with one of the industry leaders being Professional Sports Authenticator, commonly known as PSA. Within the realm of PSA-graded cards, a special tier of high-grade specimens demand top dollar amounts at auction. These elite offerings are known as PSA Gem Mint 10 or PSA 10 cards, representing flawless examples worthy of the highest designation.
Among the most coveted and valuable PSA 10 cards are those featuring legendary baseball stars from the early 20th century, before widespread modern production. Iconic players like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and more hold a hallowed place in the hobby due to their rarity and significance in the game’s history. One player stands above the rest when it comes to the record prices achieved by PSA 10 cards bearing his likeness – Hall of Famer Dean Chance. Though not a household name in the same way as those previously mentioned legends, Chance’s impeccable on-field performance and the scarcity of his vintage cards have made his PSA 10s the true blue chip investments of the collection world.
Born in 1938, Dean Chance was a right-handed pitcher who played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball between 1961 and 1975, primarily for the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians. He won the American League Cy Young Award in 1964 after posting a 20-9 record with a 1.65 ERA for the Twins. Chance was selected to the AL All-Star team three times throughout his career and finished with a record of 139-119 with a 3.27 ERA over 1,929 innings pitched. While not putting up the gaudiest career stats, Chance established himself as one of the top hurlers of his era during his peak years in Minnesota.
Where Chance really made his mark was in the realm of vintage baseball cards. Only a handful of his early cards were produced due to the limited scope of the hobby in the 1960s compared to later decades. His most significant and highest valued issues come from his rookie season of 1961. That year, cards featuring Chance were included in the Topps, Post and Fleer sets in fairly scarce quantities. In pristine PSA 10 condition with perfect centering, corners, edges and surfaces, these early Chance rookies have shattered auction records to become the costliest baseball cards on the population report.
A perfect example is the 1961 Fleer #126 Dean Chance card, considered the key card from that pioneering but short-lived baseball issue. With a print run estimated at around 500,000 copies, very few survived six decades in absolute mint condition. In January 2022, one such PSA 10 copy achieved a new world record price of $396,000 in a Goldin Auctions sale, far surpassing any other graded baseball card at the time. Other high-dollar sales of Chance’s 1961 Fleer rookie include a different PSA 10 that sold for $312,000 in August 2021. For additional context, the most expensive Honus Wagner or Babe Ruth card has never crossed the $300,000 threshold in a PSA 10 holder.
Chance’s 1961 Topps and Post rookies in a PSA 10 holder have followed a similar trajectory. In July 2021, his Topps rookie hit $264,000 at auction. Then in December 2021, an example of his 1961 Post rookie card achieved $240,000 to set its own record. With so few high-grade copies known to exist of any Chance rookie, each new discovery that crosses the auction block in a PSA 10 case shatters the previous public record. The consistent record-breaking prices are a testament to the unmatched rarity and condition of these early Dean Chance issues in the eyes of serious vintage card collectors and investors.
While the 1961 rookies reign supreme, other pre-1970 Chance cards in pristine PSA 10 condition have also commanded impressive five and six figure values. His 1964 Topps card sold for $144,000 in January 2022. Even his common 1967 Topps card realized $72,000 as a PSA 10 specimen in August 2021. For dedicated Dean Chance collectors, finding any of his vintage cards in a PSA 10 holder represents the holy grail due to their incredible scarcity. The population reports on PSA’s website reflect this, with most of his 1960s issues having fewer than five copies graded as pristine gems out of the hundreds of thousands originally printed.
In summary, Dean Chance forged an impressive big league career on the mound despite some injury issues later on. While not achieving the fame of baseball’s all-time greats statistically, his small handful of early 1960s baseball cards have achieved unprecedented heights in the collecting world due to their condition and rarity when encapsulated in PSA’s coveted Gem Mint 10 holders. With each new record sale, Chance’s rookie cards continue separating themselves as the most valuable graded baseball cards in existence today based on public auction data. For dedicated vintage card collectors, finding high-grade examples of Dean Chance’s early playing days remains the ultimate prize to add to any collection.
