Sports Card Collecting

[HD MM]

Does anyone still/used to collect Baseball or other sports cards?

In the rawest form, baseball cards are basically a paper stock. Each holds a monetary value. Some collect based on value, while others take pride in collecting sets of their favorite brand, year, player or team. I remember scouring the pages of Beckett Magazine to monitor the value of my collection like my Dad & Grandpa did the Stock section of the daily newspaper to monitor their stocks.

I just read an article in the paper that said that cards today arn't the nearly the hit they used to be. Apparently Topps and Upper Deck are the only remaining distributes left. I guess after the card boom in the '80's, the market became over-saturated with cards, thus decreasing their value. I can't speak for kids today as I am no longer one, but the hobby of card collecting just doesn't seem to be the hit and way of life that it was to me when growing up as a young sports fan. Anyone know why?

I remember growing up, buying packs of cards, establishing a collection and showcasing them in binders or sleeves. All of my friends would get together and study the stats on the backs of the cards and offer trades. Collecting cards was a way of life as a kid! Ah, I miss those days!

Apparently Upper Deck and Topps has an idea to "re-invent" card collecting. They have a site in which you buy and establish a "virtual" collection online. You can trade and collect all online, while never leaving the house. IMO, this just isn't right. It's just not the same. The physical act of collecting baseball cards has always been America's Hobby. I miss those days and hate to see it go by the wayside.

The forum is open to share your card collecting experiences and thoughts........

 

[hallrk]

I collect baseball cards. Mainly just the vintage cards from the 70's and prior. I do have every Topps set from 1970 to 1993 save for one card,1970 Nolan Ryan. Just building most of the 60's and prior sets. It's on hold for now but hopefully someday I'll get back to it. Collecting the new cards are just too expensive nowdays. It's not worth it for me to pay about $2 a pack or more. It's just not the same.

 

[Ramy]

I have over 125,000 baseball cards still. They are for sale if anyone wants them.

 

[SabresRule]

I have over 200,000 hockey cards, 1,000 baseball cards and over 500 football cards.

I don't care about cost or mint condition- I buy them because the pictures of the players on the cards look cool.

 

[jbcheshire]

I did collect mostly baseball back in the late 80's. The problem now is they are so expensive to buy and the market was over saturated to get cards that would be worth something in the long run since you didn't know what companies would be around...

I am thinking about getting started again now that my son is approaching 7.

 

[MikeI]

I started collecting in 1980 when I was 11. We used to play Monopoly with baseball cards. I lost 7 Rickey Henderson rookies in one day, but this was in 1983. I used to get autographs on cards from 1980 in Norfolk for the Tides until 1983. From '83 to 89 in Spring training in Arizona. I stopped in '89 for the most part with collecting and autographing for the most part. I was 20. Players don't sign for anyone over 15 unless you are a lady or a lady. I still have my old cards. Autographs in albums. I did go to the AAA All-star fest last year when I first moved to Albuquerque. I got Garvey, Cey, Russell, Marshall autographs. 1st time in 18 years I waited for an autograph. I did meet Aaron, Mays, McCovey, Feller and some other great ballplayers back in the 80's. I collect mostly Angels and Dodgers bobbleheads now. I just ignore what Barry on the Strike Zone channel has to say about them. I have several complete sets. Some by hand, some I bought at once. I have the 1st Upper Deck set, Donruss set. Like others, it got too expensive to collect cards for an adult. When i become a millionaire, I'll go back and buy all the Topps sets from the 50's to the present. One to look and one not opened. I go to Isotopes games now to watch and yell at Dallas for stinking with the Angels. My older brother used to collect in the 60's and 70's, but when he went to live with his dad when I was 5 and he was 14, my mom threw away all his cards except for about 5 new then 1975 topps cards. He used to tell me about the Drysdale, Koufax, Mantle cards he had once.

 

[Stargazer]

I used to collect cards back in the 90's. When I first started collecting it was not about insert cards, but about the player on the card in about the 1990-1991 timeframe. There were no really cool looking sets at that time. In 1993 I started collecting bigtime and had several thousand dollars worth of them spending everything I had building my collection growing up.

I started out buying packs and boxes and remember how fun it was to open up packs and get some really good cards. This is when inserts started to get really big. You would open up a pack of cards and get that expensive $20 insert card. I found someone that sold cards for half the price of what it said on the right side of Beckett and thought it was a great deal. I bought lots of them. Two to three years later it got so expensive with the numbered 1 of x cards and expensive packs that I had to decide whether I wanted to still collect cards or buy my first car. I decided to buy my first car. I kept the cards that I bought since and have not bought anymore of them but always thought it would be cool to start doing it again. The problem today is that they are very sensitive to card condition and would be afraid at what they would rate my cards at.

I think eventually they will have all cards made to where they cannot get damaged or in a protective case, this way there will be no uncertainty about condition of the cards.

I think one problem that happened with collecting is that it went from the highest priced modern cards going from just a few bucks to the $20-$50 insert cards then it ran away with itself from there. I think the funnest point of collecting is when the insert cards were worth so much more than the other ones and there were not so many different types of sets to choose from and not a whole lot of high dollar cards out there. It got to where there were a lot of expensive cards and it ended up not being so special to get a high dollar card anymore like it used to be.

Also there are more things to do today than what there used to be such as going on the internet, watching satellite tv for those that lived in the country and did not have any cable to watch, among other things, so card collecting has probably not been as popular as a result. This in addition to the additional expensive it takes to collect cards and the baseball strikes, too many different brands to choose from, they all added up and took its toll.

 

[skysurfer]

i collect cards (mostly hand-collated sets to save money since I don't want to spend $180 to make a complete set that I can buy for $20).

I collect the base brands (Topps and Upper Deck) and there are a few other complete sets I like (like the prospect laden Bowman sets of the UD Masterpieces set that features cool artwork on the fronts). I loved 2007 UD Masterpieces and I can't wait to buy a hand-collated set of 2008 UD Masterpieces when it gets released in a few weeks.

I also buy a USA Baseball boxed set every year that one is released - it costs less than the price of most boxes of cards out there, you get five or so autographs or auto/jersey combo cards, you get cards of potential up and coming major leaguers playing for Team USA and photographed in their Team USA jerseys, and part of the purchase price goes to support USA baseball.


I only build one current year set from boxes - Upper Deck base set. Their boxes offer pretty good bang for the value of the box price with 2-3 game-used jersey and one auto per box. It's also easier to sell off the duplicate cards that I get. Topps is very hard to sell off doubles so I buy those sets already made rather than open a few boxes to make that base set.

I don't go much for the high end product as I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a pack of cards or a box of cards.

I do buy certified auto cards here and there of players I like, for players that went to high school or college where I live, or for players that play or have played for my local minor league baseball team.

Having two players makes things nice - not as many products to want to collect. I haven't collected as many sets since the field got whittled down from 4-5 to only 2.

 

[satjay]

I am in my 30's and back when I was younger I purchased many baseball cards then in the late 80's and 90's went crazy with football cards. Pro set cards anyone....LOL

but with so many companies out there, its hard to keep track. I still go to the card shows here in the area, but now if I buy I may focus on older cards and maybe a set of Tops cards to pass on to my son! I try to focus on rookie cards with football these days when I do decide to buy