Take a look at Upper Deck Football Set #1, "Dan McGwire," from 1992. An ungraded 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card later sold for more than $100. Years later, the rest of the set was practically unimportant. There was a time when the Griffey might cost $140 and a factory set could be had for $150. In fact, a complete and intact copy of that set will never be worth less than $300. The price of sports cards has gone through the roof over the past few years. Even though there are still plenty of awesome players out there, it seems like every year there is a new record broken either in terms of price or number of cards produced. Here are some recent records: in March 2011, an uncirculated Bobby Abreu rookie card sold for $145,000; in February 2012, an ungraded 1994 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card sold for $220,000; in January 2013, an ungraded 1993 Barry Bonds rookie card sold for $280,000; and in November 2014, an ungraded 2001 Alex Rodriguez rookie card sold for $300,000. It is not easy being a major league baseball player these days. With big contracts and huge expectations, they need to perform every day if they want to keep their jobs. That means making the ball game every day, even if you aren't feeling well or aren't able to play defense. In addition, they need to produce millions of dollars in revenue for their teams.