The 10 Most Expensive Baseball Cards Ever Pulled

Baseball cards have been hot collectibles for more than 100 years. But which of them have the most resale value? Insidermonkey has unveiled a list of the most expensive baseball cards. Remember, throw the gum away. It just hurts the resale value of your favorite players.

A lot of the things that make a baseball card valuable make sense -- better condition translates to the higher prices, for example, and cards depicting hall-of-famers yield more than cards immortalizing choke artists. But just as many factors make no sense at all. Relatively common cards can sell for more than rarities in the same series. Pristine selections can sell for multiples more than the same card with a barely perceptible blemish. A particular card might develop such an interesting story that aficionados can't help but put in a bid when it arrives on the auction block.

And collectors are willing to pay a lot for what they desire. One key obstacle to definitively listing the world's most expensive baseball cards is the fact that many private collectors make purchases without the particulars of the transaction ever being published -- and the prices they pay can be far more handsome than any of the figures made public. However, if you are less of a gambler and more of a rational scholar, you are probably interested in hard facts on business and economics. In that case, do not miss the list Insidermonkey compiled on the 10 Most Influential Papers In Economics.