If you’ve been out of the Hobby for a while, prepare to be shocked. That Upper Deck Griffey card you pulled as a kid, the one you maybe remember being worth $30 or so, just topped the $5000 mark. The sale took place on eBay via an auction that concluded at October 26, 2025. The final hammer price? An eye-popping $5,300, making it official. The Hobby has entered its G5K (Griffey $5,000) era.
Completed sale of $5300 Griffey card | eBay.com (click image for source listing)
RELATED: 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr Rookie Quietly Approaching $5K
Before you go hunting through the shoeboxes in your closet, one very important qualifier needs to be added. This was not just any 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey card. On the contrary it was one deemed gem mint by third-party grading company PSA. While such a distinction is highly prized, it still may not be as rare as you might imagine. In fact, PSA has assigned the Griffey its coveted grade of 10 more than 4,000 times!
July 5, 2006; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Cincinnati Reds center fielder #3 Ken Griffey Jr. makes a leaping catch on the fly ball hit by Milwaukee Brewers pinch hitter #27 Brady Clark at Miller Park. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
Still, even if you slid your Griffey straight from the pack to a protective screw-down case, chances are it wouldn’t “gem.” In fact, for every PSA 10 Griffey, there are about eight that receive a grade of 9 (“Mint”) and ten that receive a grade of 8 (“Near Mint to Mint”). Such grading distinctions are typically not evident at a glance but require close inspection of each card under magnification.
Either way, now that G5K is here, the question is, “Will it last?” While there’s no way to know for sure, there are three metrics that may offer guidance. The first of these is recent sales, the Hobby’s equivalent of “comps.” As the Griffey only cracked the $5K barrier this evening, there are clearly no recent comps above $5K. The real question is whether there are ones that are at least in the ballpark. Here, the answer is no, not really. According to sales tracking site Card Ladder, the $5,300 price tag was more than $700 above a $4,535 sale the day before and more than $600 above any other recent sale.
Most recent sales of 1989 UD Griffey PSA 10 | CardLadder.com
RELATED: 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr Rookie Cards Now Worth More Than Gold
Still, that’s not to say that G5K was a one-time fluke. While past comps offer the most reliable value estimates, active auctions, at least in theory, can offer some indication as to what’s next. However, there are currently only two PSA 10 Griffey cards at auction at the moment, and both have several days left. One is sitting at $4,000 with only a single bid, and one is sitting at $4,500 with no bids. Griffey collectors will no doubt be watching these auctions as tests of G5K’s staying power.
A final indicator of where the card might be going comes from looking at the cheapest available inventory on the market. Clearly if there are Griffey cards with sticker prices under $5K, then the $5,300 sale should be seen as an outlier, at least for now. And sure enough, there are two PSA 10 Griffey rookies available below $5,000, though one of them is subject to steep tariffs, at least for U.S. buyers.
Current “Buy It Now” listings on eBay | eBay.com (click image for source page)
The other one, however, is not just below $5K, duty free, but also open to best offers. Of course, don’t be surprised if either of these two sellers ups the price tag once they learn of the evening’s $5,300 sale. Whatever the future of the Upper Deck Griffey, the $5,300 sale is significant. After all, it was barely a month ago that the card topped $4,000. At least under normal circumstances, a significant increase this rapid would require some triggering event like a 500th home run or Hall of Fame induction. Apart from the Mariners almost making the World Series, it’s hard to say what such an event might be. Then again, how do you watch a baseball icon make this awesome an entrance and not want his rookie card?
Oct 10, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Former Seattle Mariners player Ken Griffey Jr. arrives in a Chevrolet Camaro prior to game five of the ALDS round between the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners for the 2025 MLB playoffs at T-Mobile Park. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
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