Blue-chip vintage sports collectibles can be expected to maintain their value, as well as steadily increase in price, experts say. They’re part of history, and they’re unimpeachable. “You appreciate even more what Mantle, Ruth, and Cobb did,” in the context of the current doping scandal, says Colorado-based collector Marshall Fogel. “They did it right.”

“Most of my focus is the dead guys—Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Ted Williams,” Doug Allen, C.O.O. of Mastro Auctions in Burr Ridge, Illinois, says. “If it weren’t for Babe Ruth, I wouldn’t have a business.”

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens items were a very small part of the auction of sports memorabilia that Mastro held in December, which­ unwittingly coincided with the release of the Mitchell report. More prevalent were such items as a 1927 baseball signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig that sold for $34,155 and a complete 1952 set of Topps baseball cards (including Mickey Mantle’s rookie card) in mint condition that sold for $159,420.

That high price wasn’t a fluke; baseball cards are the backbone of collecting for both nostalgic and practical reasons. They are alternatives to shakier items. The most valuable card: the mint condition 1909 card—of the 50 surviving—featuring Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner, which was issued and then recalled. It sold for $2.8 million in September. Fogel owns the second-most valuable: a 1952 Mantle card graded at 10.

“I paid $100,000 for it, and I’ve been offered $1.3 million,” he says, “but I’m not selling.”

Fogel, whose collection includes such coveted items as the uniform that Joe DiMaggio was wearing when he hit his last home run in a World Series game in 1951 and bats from Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle when they were battling for the home run record in 1961, has a few simple rules for collecting. Knowing the important players is, obviously, key—Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Cobb, Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, and early-20th-century New York Giants ­pitcher Christy Mathewson, one of the first five players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Collect broadly and collect commercially recognizable play­ers and important memorabilia,” Fogel says. “There are tons of Mantle items, and most of them are not worth collecting.” (Although they’re not without their curiosity value, such as the tuxedo that Mantle wore to teammate Billy Martin’s wedding. New York collector and dealer John Brigandi bought it for $12,000 in 1997, later selling it for a small profit.)

However, Fogel occasionally takes a flier on players who he figures are headed to the Hall of Fame. That means he also has a Roger Clemens glove, a Barry Bonds bat, and Mark ­McGwire’s jersey from the 1998 season, in which he set the single-season home-run record with 70, aided by a steroid derivative. “I spent $25,000 on it, and I’m sure I’ve lost money,” Fogel says. This is particularly true because Bonds eclipsed the record three years later and, as Mastro Auctions’ Allen observes, all of ­McGwire’s merchandise has gone down 70 to 80 percent in price since he appeared before Congress and refused to discuss his past steroid use (view slideshow). In a worse position may be comic-book creator Todd McFarlane, who paid $3 million for McGwire’s 70th-home-run ball. “How would you like to be the person holding that?” says Brigandi.