Collecting sports cards today is nothing like it was in years past. The cards are on thick, sturdy cardboard, and you have the chance to pull out valuable pieces of memorabilia in most packs. In years past, the cards were all about pulling your favorite baseball player, bicycle spokes, and not much else. Cards were often thrown away during one of Mom’s spring cleaning. Doing this with today’s sports cards would be akin to burning money. What are all these changes that makes sports card collecting so different in today’s world?
The first thing that has changed is what makes them valuable. The older cards were virtually worthless back in the old days. Kids loved them, and they had vast sentimental value, but they were not considered investments to say the least. Over time, they were printed in very small print runs, and the ones that were printed were largely mistreated or disposed of entirely. Because of this, they are extremely valuable today.
In the eighties, the cards from the fifties, sixties, and partly the seventies exploded in value. Because of this, everybody started collecting cards. In response to this, new products had humongous print runs. People began taking better care of the product, and so nothing about it was rare. Because there was so much of it out there, product from the late eighties and early nineties are largely worthless to a great many sports card collectors. There are a few exceptions, but the majority of this product you can not give away.
In today’s market, the trading card companies are more aware of the print runs. Some of the products such as Bowman Sterling, among others, are extremely short printed and valuable. Also, the trading card companies began inserting things such as autographs, game used cards, and various other memorabilia pieces into the sports card packs. This has created a value system within the sports card industry. It gives today’s modern collectors a way to collect something that still has value. The availability of sports is very wide, stretching from professional football to professional wrestling and everything in between.
The older cards of the fifties and before are the most valuable cards still, but some modern day cards rival those cards in value. When you buy a pack in today’s collecting world, you have the chance to pull out a card that only one exists in the world. That is about as rare as you can get. If that player happens to be a superstar, then you have a gem that can sometimes sell for thousands of dollars.
The biggest thing to note about today’s collecting world is that the focus is different. Back in the early days of collecting, kids collected purely for the love of the game. Now, the vast majority collect looking to make a quick buck. It is a microcosm of our society, really. While the innocent days of collecting seem to be over, at least the knowledge of the factors that can create value have improved.
It remains to be seen whether this is enough to keep the hobby alive.
