Hi! My name is Dan, or aka Mr. Playing Cards!
There is no doubt that this is a sensitive question. Actually, I am of the opinion that most card collectors hold on to their collections without any thought of selling them in which case the question may well be academic.
Nevertheless, there are aspects to the question of value that I think merit discussion. The main factor that I consider when acquiring a deck of playing cards is the pleasure that I derive from it - I give no thought as to whether or not any given card or deck will appreciate in value and I am sure most collectors are probably of the same mind set.
I must admit, however, that there is always the vague hope in the back of ones mind that there will be a general appreciation in value over a period of time which should be a reasonable hope and again, one that we should all be entitled to believe in.
Unfortunately, as I will explain below, appreciation in value is not always a reality but since the question may be academic, we should not allow the market place to detract from the pleasures that we derive from our hobby.
I will not attempt to define what makes a deck of playing cards, Sports, Tarot or Non Sport cards valuable beyond stating the obvious, namely that rarity, condition graded or Raw plus historical subject matter are essential elements. It is the latter element, the subject matter, which presents the greatest difficulty when attempting to establish or decide whether or not a given collectible has the potential to be extremely valuable.
It is usually a matter of personal preference, or taste if you will, and since there is no accounting for taste, attempts to affix valuation on that basis will always be difficult. The field of Fine Arts provides many examples where personal preferences clash with otherwise standard “norms”. Works of “fine art” that almost hurt the eye can command prices in the millions of dollars.
I happen to think that at least half of what passes as “fine art” is really just a fine mess. On May 3, 2013 Christie’s, Manhattan, auctioned a “drip and splatter” painting, which is to say a painting executed by the random dripping and splattering of various colored paints upon a canvas. It sold for $58.4 million dollars. That’s FIFTY-EIGHT MILLION, FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!!
There remains one important issue that needs to be addressed, namely: Why is it that playing cards, as collectables, have never had the following or achieved even the status and respectability of other collectables such as Art, Sports cards , Pokémon , Non-Sport , Coins, Stamps, Comic books and , other items.
Even sports cards have a greater following, with some single specimens achieving values in the hundreds and even thousands and MILLIONS of dollars like the Wagner Card that sold in 2007 for 2.8M & today even MORE!
Even the less than mint specimens of that card can bring prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, With the possible exception of the 15th century Visconti-Sforza deck and very few others of the same period, there is nothing in the field of playing cards that could ever realize anything near such prices.
Almost certainly collectors value their collections largely on the basis of the particular personal appeal that the decks hold for them rather than on any considerations of possible appreciation in value.
Nevertheless, I do not see why the field should be denied a legitimate standing in the market place or why, for that matter, the values of certain rare playing card singles , or complete decks with rare jokers either fail to appreciate!
Finally, I would like to say that investing in historical playing cards is very rewarding and knowing the true value understanding the history for what they can offer manifests into a strong passion to buy more!
It is difficult investing into any type of collectible these days, however, to establish any sort of a price baseline from certain, let’s say, 18th century cards, old books, limited number editions runs or just modern raw pulls, all because unfortunately, the VALUE is now now determined using the INTERNET!
GOLDEN RULE! COLLECT & INVEST WHAT YOU LOVE - NEVER LOSE YOUR PASSION AS TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING!
