Mass-Produced Football Cards

[samosa4u]

Gentlemen, thank you for your posts.

First of all, I disagree that mass-production began in the late 1980s, because like John pointed out, there are a million 1976 Walter Payton rookies out there. I also disagree with the criteria that in order for any card to be considered mass-produced, its value has to be near to zero. America's population is huge and there will always be demand. Even the 1989 Score Barry Sanders RC brings in some money and if you lined these cards up side-by-side, you could probably circle the earth a couple of times. Now maybe I shouldn't have called the Brown and Unitas rookies mass-produced, but there are still so many of them out there, especially compared to hockey.

And I don't think that you football collectors should consider yourselves "lucky" because mid-grade HOF rookies can be purchased for a few hundred. Don't you want the value of your collection to grow? A mid-grade 1958 Topps Bobby Hull RC can fetch around $2,000 and anyone who purchased it for $1,000 is obviously going to be really happy about that. Now a 1951 Parkhurst Gordie Howe RC is probably at least $3,000. These mid-grade HOF football rookies won't go up by much in value because there are too many of them out there.

[jefferyepayne]

You guys make very good points. I guess in my mind I was equating the term "mass produced" with "over produced" and they are most definitely not the same thing.

Clearly cards in the states were produced at a much high rate than in Canada and ARE pretty available if you have the $$$.

The difficult to find football cards typically fall into these categories in the states:

1. Pre-war sets - not all pre-war cards are scarce but some most definitely are (examples: 1926 Spalding, 1926 Pottsville Maroons RPPCs, Mayo Dunlop)
2. Scarce regional sets - those with very limited distribution and/or where some cards were distributed through unpopular products (examples: bread labels, Eskimo Pie SPs, Royal Castle SPs)
3. Grade level scarcity - high grade cards from a particular set (1963 Fleer Buoniconti, 1957 Topps Bratkowski, 1935 Chicle Nags)

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Don't you want the value of your collection to grow?

I don't want cards I own to lose value, but I can honestly say I get zero joy from thinking about the money side of the hobby. If the cards were worth what they were in Burdick's day, I don't think we'd have card doctoring, shill bidding, etc. It would be worth the tradeoff to me. Good discussion.

[cfhofer]

John,

I agree with you. The internet completely changed the sports card industry. Other than a few oddball and limited issues, football card collecting has morphed into online shopping. Lost interest in football cards when that happened.

Times have definitely changed. I remember setting up at card shows as a young kid in the early nineties. I had my 1957 Unitas and Starr cards in Nrmt condition (inside those thick screw-down plastic holders) on the table. All the other dealers at some point came by to admire them. Couple even claimed to have never seen these RCs before in person. No one was willing to pay more than Beckett High for them though.

Not quite Burdick's days but still a fun time.

Mark

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by cfhofer

The internet completely changed the sports card industry.

That's correct. Twenty years ago, if you owned some nice cards, then all you could do was show it to the locals, and most of them probably didn't care much. Now with the Internet, you can share photos of your cards and discuss the history, the rarity, etc. with THOUSANDS of collectors around the world. You are promoting your stuff to way more people than before and this in turn creates more demand.

Originally Posted by cfhofer

... football card collecting has morphed into online shopping. Lost interest in football cards when that happened.

Funny post. Why would you lose interest? Football cards are still way cheaper than baseball and hockey. How do you think we Canadians feel when we have to spend a few thousand on a mid-grade vintage hockey rookie card? Add to that the weak CDN dollar, so we have to spend even MORE money! Baseball collectors have it even worse.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Why would you lose interest?

I think Mark was getting at what you mentioned originally - it's not as interesting to collect items that you can essentially shop for.

[cfhofer]

Sam: The joy of collecting for me is in the process of searching for than ultimately acquiring a rare piece of sports memorabilia. When that process is no different than when my wife buys designer jeans online, I lose interest. And you think hockey cards are expensive....look up how much a pair of Dolce Gabbana cost. I wish she was collecting Bobby Hull rookie cards off eBay instead.

You seem to be fixated on "value". You are right...vintage hockey cards have a higher value than football or basketball cards from similar eras. However, sports memorabilia is not part of my investment portfolio. They are purchased with expendable income. Their value only justifies my purchase point.

[samosa4u]

Oh sorry, when Mark wrote "online shopping," I was thinking of something completely different. Now I understand what you meant. Yes, buying football cards online is not any different than shopping for jeans, because there are so many of them out there. HOWEVER, if you have always collected football cards and football is in your blood, then you should continue doing it. For me it is a different story. I am Canadian and hockey is my first love. I picked up a beautiful decently centered Joe Namath RC and that just got me interested in vintage football cards. I would also like to learn more about the sport (rules, tactics, etc.)