Why aren't there more football card collectors?

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Jeff, I was wondering where you were!! Good points. I hadn't really thought about your point of big time football being about 50 years behind baseball in terms of history. That may play a role in the lower prices and relative affordability of football cards. I guess that would be like buying baseball cards "back in the day" before the boom. That is encouraging as a football card collector...just don't tell anyone.

My only football collecting experience is '50s and '60s, but I know you and others on this board know prewar football. To your point about lack of availability, I believe it. I practically never see such items for sale...and I do look.

Someone else mentioned the double whammy of not many big prewar names and not many cards for those greats of yesteryear. To date, that has no impact on me personally as I really like the '50s issues, and I really like the AFL cards and sets from the '60s, but I can see how that might dissuade would-be prewar football collectors. Of course, when you factor in college football along with early professional football, there are many great and colorful players...more than most people know about. It just takes a little curiousity and effort to "discover" them. Baseball has done a much better job of putting legends of the game (even relatively minor ones) front and center.

Jeff, I think I read one of your recent posts somewhere where you succinctly pointed out that football sets, for the most part, are smaller and less expensive. What's not to like? I grew up liking football, too, and there are some wonderful football cards/sets out there.

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

Man, I go away on travel for a few days and a big time football thread starts up on Net54. Awesome stuff, guys!

All of what has been said is great and there's truth in a lot of these ideas.

I will add two more idea to the mix.

First, organized professional football is 50 years younger than organized professional baseball. I think to adequately compare football and baseball you need to compare the football hobby today with the baseball hobby of 1968 (50 years ago). Even though football has risen to the top of the popularity heap, we are 50 years behind in tradition, hobby artifacts, card sets, etc. I would argue this has something to do with the smaller number of football collectors too.

Second, because football items are so much cheaper than baseball items are and there are far less of them, football card / memorabilia collectors are hoarders. There just isn't a huge buy/sell market driving buzz and visibility of cards people haven't seen before. A very active hobby takes demand AND supply and for at least the pre-war items/sets, supply is very limited to the point where most collectors haven't even heard of, much less seen, many sets. POP on some sets are just crazy low.

jeff

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[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

My only football collecting experience is '50s and '60s, but I know you and others on this board know prewar football. To your point about lack of availability, I believe it. I practically never see such items for sale...and I do look.

Good point, Robert. Lots of the very rare stuff changes hands behind the scenes from collector to collector without seeing the light of the auction day. Many times rare cards and things that do come up for auction have already been offered directly to a few hardcore collectors who have passed on them at the price offered.

There is a reason why many pre-war cards have no priced in VCP yet exist and change hands.

jeff

[Exhibitman]

Those of us who grew up in the heyday of MNF are also a bit spoiled. Like boxing fans who grew up on Ali-Frazier-Foreman-Norton. It doesn’t get any better and whatever is next is a letdown.

[skil55voy]

All the points made so far are great. I think that part of the problem has to do with the media. The football "pundits" don't really talk about past players like the baseball reporters do. Baseball guys compare today's players to all of the past greats. Football guy compare today's players to each other. Without making this rather long I will site one example. Tom Brady is talked about for all his championships and that he sits in a great "system". His Super Bowl record is 5-3. Otto Graham was a "system" qb. In the 40's he won 5 championships with the upstart AAFC. When it folded the Browns and Rams were let into the NFL. Both teams made the championship game in 1950 which the Browns and Graham won. From 1946 through 1955, the Browns went to every championship with a record of 7-2. Of course the NFL does not recognize the AAFC statistics. And then there is Bart Starr..... Neither are talked about to the extent of Ted Williams, Koufax and other baseball players. And as we all know in the end, the "team" wins championships.