*NOTE: This post was originally posted in December 2017. I’ve added some edits throughout the post and at the bottom (as of 12/29/2020), but have left the original post mostly in tact for reference.

This card is YUGE. Very Rare! Investment! Get them while you can!

I’m kidding, obviously.

For a couple months now, there has been a mysterious 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe #74 card that has been listed on the feeBay for $250,000. That’s right, for the amount of an average home. In card groups on the Facebook, people have occasionally posted asking, “What’s up with this?”. I don’t have any specific insight, but I believe it’s a simple scam. Or brilliant capitalism. (no…it’s a scam).

There is nothing special or rare about this Jose Uribe. It is a regular issue common card from one of the most over-produced sets in the history of baseball. Current estimates say there are approximately 124 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe cards in existence for every man, woman and child on the face of this earth (that’s an exaggeration, but probably not too far off).

EDIT: But it’s an ERROR!! Yes, technically, it has an error – the birth year is one year off. But here’s the thing…to my knowledge, Fleer never corrected it. Therefore, the “error” is just a boo boo on the card. There’s no two versions – error and corrected, thus no scarcity to the error “version”. Thus, it’s not an error in the “No Name Frank Thomas” or “FF-Ripken” sense of the term.

No one is going to buy this $250k Jose Uribe. And I think the seller is well aware of this. What’s really interesting is, now that it’s been listed for a couple months, if you go into feeBay and check out the sold/completed listings (comps), you’ll notice that a TON of 1990 Fleer Uribe’s have indeed sold. All across the board, anywhere from $0.99 to $45 and more! Like, there is seriously a very surprising amount of these cards that have been sold. This card is not worth $45. It’s not worth $1. I wouldn’t pay a dime for it. Perhaps set collectors who aren’t concerned with pinching pennies would pay a couple shiny quarters for it to complete a set, but that’s about it.

What we have here folks, is (at best) a very interesting case study in capitalism. Create the demand, by whatever means necessary (post a single exorbitantly priced card to get a lot of attention), then post a ton of listings of the same card for lesser amounts. Perhaps some ignorant fella comes along, see’s this VERY RARE JOSE URIBE HOLY COW card, does a new search for Jose Uribe, and see’s other listings of the same card. HEY LOOK, THAT ONE’S ONLY $40!! Sucker…

Apparently, one even sold for $2,200. I’d be surprised if this is actually a legitimate sale/transaction, my guess is this would be a shilled out fake sale staged by the original scammer, but whatever the case, there it is, under sold listings.

So here’s a deep philosophical question. If a card is truly worth only what one is willing to pay, then will this little social experiment in hive-demand and market driven capitalism make this particular Jose Uribe more valuable? Apparently it already has…to the right person (or to the uninformed).

Now, who wants to buy my 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe cards? I’ll sell you about a hundred of them for $100k. That’s a heck of an investment deal.

Edits as of 12/29/2020

Is it worth more because of the ERROR?

As noted above, this card does have a technical error – they printed his birth year one year too early (1959, as opposed to 1960 which is correct). But, to my knowledge, Fleer never corrected it, so therefore there is only the one version – with the error. Since no corrected version, there is no scarcity to the error, so that won’t make it worth more. LOTs of cards, especially from this era, have errors like this that were never corrected.

Money Laundering

A popular theory has been around for some time that this card is being used for money laundering purposes. I mean, yeah, that could be the case. We don’t know this for certain, but why not?

Market Manipulation.

I.e., SCAM. I find it somewhat difficult to believe it was an original attempt at manipulating the market for this specific card. Why this card if one is going to do this? Perhaps because they knew there was an error on the card (although knowledgeable collectors and dealers would certainly know that doesn’t mean anything on this card). Perhaps because Jose Uribe tragically died in a car crash in 2006 (other athletes – some far more notable – have died and you don’t see this happening with their cards – besides, if this were the case, you’d see these prices for his other cards as well, but we really don’t see this).

Practical Joke

A third common theory – and personally the one I think is most likely – is that it was simply a practical joke originally, and then it spun out of control with people seeing the original $250k listing and posting their own to try to capitalize. In this case, it’s certainly market manipulation, but probably unintentional (at least at the start).

Whatever the case – money laundering, market manipulation, practical joke – why this specific card? I don’t have an answer to that, but the seeming randomness of it tends to lend credence to the practical joke theory in my mind. Other cards on occasion pop up for exorbitant prices, and this one in particular was SO random and nonsensical that the internet turned took it and ran.

And now, as of the end of the year 2020 (good riddance!), the 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe (error or otherwise!) has taken on a bit of recognition. While it’s pretty widely understood that it’s a “worthless” card, indeed, sales are continuing to occur on eBay for anywhere from $1 to $5 per card! There are even graded versions (Gem Mint!!) hitting eBay. There’s enough sales for me to believe that people are actually wanting and seeking out this card now – probably most of them knowing exactly what the card is (and is not) – and wanting it just because of the phenomenon. Instant cult classic.

So, again, the question is…how much is my 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe baseball card worth? And again, the answer is…what someone will pay for it.

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