Author Topic: Any Sports card collectors?  (Read 22868 times)

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Any Sports card collectors?
« on: July 26, 2020, 03:08:42 PM »

Offline ChillyWilly

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Lockdown got me to bring out some of my old sports card collection. Last few weeks got back into cracking open cases of basketball cards.

Anyone else? Or am I having a mid life crisis?  :o
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Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2020, 03:13:22 PM »

Online Roy H.

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I haven’t cracked a case in ages, but I do occasionally buy off of ebay.  My favorite cards are a KG / Bill Russell dual auto, and a MJ / Bird / Magic triple auto.


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Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2020, 03:51:41 PM »

Offline GetLucky

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Lockdown got me to bring out some of my old sports card collection. Last few weeks got back into cracking open cases of basketball cards.

Anyone else? Or am I having a mid life crisis?  :o

I'm a huge basketball card collector. The hobby is actually thriving right now with a huge increase in demand recently. I'm glad I was able to lock up most of the Celtics cards I was looking for before the recent surge.

(Let me know if you want to sell or trade any of your cards. Also happy to give free appraisals! I can PM you my instagram handle if you'd like.)

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2020, 04:08:47 PM »

Online SHAQATTACK

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i bought a couple packs of gum/cardsI had about 10 basketball cards as kid , they were long cards ' much bigger than std cards. .
I remember " Happy Harriston ". and i may have had The Iceman card.    All gone now.
 I was NFL crazy as a kid had about 50 -80 football cards .  Sold them all 20 years ago on ebay except maybe 5-6 qb cards .  I have my original Joe Namath card i held in my hand as i watch him win the Superbowl with the Jets .  Was a great day and the card reminds me of of better times in the world.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2020, 07:36:49 PM by SHAQATTACK »

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2020, 04:22:48 PM »

Offline jambr380

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I lived for basketball cards in the early to mid-90s. I still have them all in a couple of cases and have brought them all whenever I have moved somewhere (luckily not as often these days). Inserts were everything to me and I still get chills now thinking about the chance of opening a pack with a rare (or even not really rare) insert in the middle of all the normie cards.

I am sure I don't have the library of more serious collectors out there - I was like 10-16 at the height of my collecting days and what kid really has any money - but those memories are priceless to me.

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2020, 08:19:20 PM »

Offline ChillyWilly

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I haven’t cracked a case in ages, but I do occasionally buy off of ebay.  My favorite cards are a KG / Bill Russell dual auto, and a MJ / Bird / Magic triple auto.

I'd like to see pics of those!
ok fine

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2020, 08:20:13 PM »

Offline ChillyWilly

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Lockdown got me to bring out some of my old sports card collection. Last few weeks got back into cracking open cases of basketball cards.

Anyone else? Or am I having a mid life crisis?  :o

I'm a huge basketball card collector. The hobby is actually thriving right now with a huge increase in demand recently. I'm glad I was able to lock up most of the Celtics cards I was looking for before the recent surge.

(Let me know if you want to sell or trade any of your cards. Also happy to give free appraisals! I can PM you my instagram handle if you'd like.)

I'm CardKraken on Instagram
ok fine

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2020, 08:24:23 PM »

Offline ChillyWilly

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I lived for basketball cards in the early to mid-90s. I still have them all in a couple of cases and have brought them all whenever I have moved somewhere (luckily not as often these days). Inserts were everything to me and I still get chills now thinking about the chance of opening a pack with a rare (or even not really rare) insert in the middle of all the normie cards.

I am sure I don't have the library of more serious collectors out there - I was like 10-16 at the height of my collecting days and what kid really has any money - but those memories are priceless to me.

I'm 43 so most of my cards were from the mass production years. Stopped collecting 2004 so I have about 2 tons of fireplace starer cardboard.

New stuff is so cool. Autos, jerseys, short prints just really cool stuff. Downside is slightly more expensive than when we were kids.

Been jumping into group Breaks I found
ok fine

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2020, 04:55:52 AM »

Offline freshinthehouse

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Ive got back into it a little, mostly finding digging through my old stuff and now shopping off ebay here and there.  Got what i hope was a good deal on Dave Cowens and Bob Cousy rookie cards recently, i'll know more once i get them graded.

One of the only cards i ever pulled of any value as a kid was Michael Jordan's Fleer Ultra Starring Role insert from around 96 or 97.  It graded as an 8 (was hoping 8.5 or 9) and it's by far my most valuable card.

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2020, 09:23:35 AM »

Offline mef730

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Trying to get back into it.

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Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #10 on: July 27, 2020, 12:06:34 PM »

Offline jambr380

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Funny enough - I'll have to check again - but I think I have this card which recently sold for $125,000. Lol. It definitely was the trio and I thought it was from Bird's and Magic's sophomore campaign.

https://www.beckett.com/news/1980-81-topps-larry-bird-magic-johnson-rookie-card-sells-for-record-125200/



My sister's bf at the time bought me the card for Christmas...for much less obviously. I never took it out of the plastic sleeve, but I can't imagine it's considered a 10 mint (9s are selling for under $4000). If so, who wants to go for a ride on my new boat?  ;D

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #11 on: July 27, 2020, 02:09:33 PM »

Offline Redz

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Funny enough - I'll have to check again - but I think I have this card which recently sold for $125,000. Lol. It definitely was the trio and I thought it was from Bird's and Magic's sophomore campaign.

https://www.beckett.com/news/1980-81-topps-larry-bird-magic-johnson-rookie-card-sells-for-record-125200/



My sister's bf at the time bought me the card for Christmas...for much less obviously. I never took it out of the plastic sleeve, but I can't imagine it's considered a 10 mint (9s are selling for under $4000). If so, who wants to go for a ride on my new boat?  ;D

The centering on those cards were notoriously awful too.  Very hard to find a good one.

I cheaped out and grabbed the Larry rookie one with Sikma and Marques Johnson on it.  Still, a nice card - and Larry is in the center spot.
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Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #12 on: July 27, 2020, 02:34:42 PM »

Online bdm860

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I still get chills now thinking about the chance of opening a pack with a rare (or even not really rare) insert in the middle of all the normie cards.

I never took it out of the plastic sleeve, but I can't imagine it's considered a 10 mint (9s are selling for under $4000).

Like many of you, I collected as a kid, up until early teens, and definitely have fond memories of it all, but to me these are the things that ruined the hobby for me: inserts and grading.

I remember sets going from no inserts to 1-2 inserts to like 20.  I even remember there were "insert only packs" that you might be lucky enough to pull from a box where every card would be an insert.  It was cool at first, but all the companies went way too crazy with the inserts.  On top of this, each company released multiple brands.  You had Topps and then Topps Stadium Club, Fleer and Fleer Ultra, etc., with each different brand from the same company being totally different cards and designs (unlike say Topps Tiffany or Topps Gold which are the same design just nicer/rarer), and each had a plethora of their own unique inserts.  I think a lot of collectors are some type of "completionist" you either want to get all the cards of a set, of a year, or of a player, and the multiple brands and inserts killed that fun for me.

If this site is to be trusted, there were 19 Michael Jordan cards released in '89-'90 (and I think only 4 of which were major releases), compared to 490 in '97-'98.  In '19-'20 there were 852 LeBron cards.  Who can really collect for all that?

Then grading became big and then essential, further ruining the fun.  There might be millions of Ken Griffey Jr rookie cards out there, but there's only a few thousand that are graded a perfect 10.  You can do everything right: open a pack in a disinfected bunker, wearing a hazmat suit and surgical gloves, while using sterilized tweezers to pull the card from a pack and move into a card holder case, then you send it to a grading service in an airtight, padded briefcase straight out of a spy movie via an armored car, and it comes back as an 8.5 (because the centering was off and the edges/corners weren't perfect even though that's how you pulled it from the pack!) making it practically worthless.  This really ruins the fun/excitement/experience.


Others will point to the overproduction of cards, too many companies, people treating it like an investment, etc.  (which definitely didn't help) but inserts and grading is what really ruined the fun for me.

A couple of documentaries I found interesting.  Jack of All Trades on Netflix, it's a documentary which uses the popularity of collecting cards in the 80's/90's and how they're mostly worthless today as the backdrop of a guy reconnecting with his dad.  Supposedly Upper Deck just started printing sheets of nothing but Ken Griffey Jr rookies once that card became hot, helping flood the market.

Then there's this documentary on YouTube from 1990.  Both fascinating and hilarious looking back at it now, with people arguing if there's a bubble or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ed4z19rYrU




Quote
If so, who wants to go for a ride on my new boat?  ;D

You know you've always been one of my favorite posters.  ;)
« Last Edit: July 27, 2020, 02:39:44 PM by bdm860 »

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Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #13 on: July 27, 2020, 03:40:27 PM »

Offline jambr380

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Feel like I am being singled out so I will just explain myself. While I now generally agree with your take as an adult; as a kid, inserts were incredible. The improvement from Fleer to Fleer Ultra was also incredible. I loved everything about it - I loved that feeling I got hoping for the coolest insert, the rarest insert. Shaq and Jordan cards were cool and I was happy to have them, but when you are young, it's all about that shiny special card.

Packs went from $.50 per in 90-91 for Fleer and NBA Hoops to $3-$4 (and beyond) almost overnight. Corporations absolutely took advantage of kids/people like me and I ate it up. It's around the time of the all-insert packs that the market got saturated and I finally got my license that I started to lose some interest, but that will never take away my amazing childhood memories.

Re: Any Sports card collectors?
« Reply #14 on: July 27, 2020, 04:27:54 PM »

Offline greg683x

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i remember pulling all my cards out of storage years ago and finding out they were practically worthless, it was heartbreaking.  it was such a fun hobby back in the day, its a shame my kid is probably never really going to experience the same excitement.

the one nice thing about the value of cards plummeting is I went on a buying binge several years ago and got a bunch of the cards I always wanted when I was younger but could never afford just for the heck of it
Greg