Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Collectors trying to cash in their baseball cards are finding the market has collapsed, thanks to a glut caused by U.S. companies cashing in on the boom. Recent steroids scandals have also tainted baseball stars and their cards, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Advertisement Herbert Gin, owner of Cards and Comics in San Francisco, said he turns away 90 percent of the people who come in with cards for sale. "They say, 'C'mon, offer me something,'" Gin told the newspaper. "I tell them I can't offer anything. I hate to think how many marriages it has literally destroyed or how many bankruptcies it has caused." In 1991, sales of sports trading cards topped out at $1.1 billion in the United States. Scores of companies jumped in, many marketing their cards as instant collectibles. The result is that, while a 1950s era Mickey Mantle card can fetch a handsome price, many later cards are worthless.
