Sports card collecting appeals to a wide variety of people from different age groups and backgrounds. These people collect for various reasons which range from the love of sports to monetary gain. The sports cards themselves have grown to represent most of the major sports including Nascar.
My first recollections of sports card collecting were in the early 50’s when baseball was a major part of my life. These were the good times when I looked on life as being simple with my greatest concerns being good grades in school and finding another pickup game of baseball to play in.
This was the era when a few extra pennies meant that I walked or rode my bicycle about a mile to the store below my house and purchased Topps baseball cards. It meant that they were separated into teams and put into a small toolbox that my father had made for me. I collected Yankee baseball and Mickey Mantle cards along with others until I graduated from high school and went off to college. This was the year that my cards were given to a younger boy in the neighborhood by my mother. To this day I still get a funny feeling when I walk into a store and see the new packs of sports and racing cards.
When these sports cards were first produced, they were used primarily as promotional items for products such as tobacco which was later replaced with bubble gum. By this time, the cards were taking over the focus more so than the products that they were advertising. Sports cards, to this day, are still used to draw attention to various products.
One sports collectable that some may not consider a sports card but has always been a fascination to me is the 1952 and 53 Dixie Cup lids. These were Dixie Cup ice cream lids with famous pictures under them and covered with a paper similar to wax paper for protection. The Dixie Cup company produce these picture lids from the early 30’s until the mid 50’s but the 2 afore mentioned years were the only ones that produced sports figure pictures.
After WWII major league players returned from the war and the paper stock was no loner need for the war effort, the first nation wide baseball card set was produced by the Bowman Gum Company of Philadelphia in 1948. Compared to the standards of today, these cards weren’t very much to look at and contained no color. The faces were black and white pictures of players. These contained not writing referring to the players name or position. The backs had writing but were kept very simple with some player information included. There was an advertisment at the bottom of the back. These were smaller than most of the cards produced at a later date. This was the first nationally issued set since the early 40’s.
These 48 Bowman cards were produced in two series and were printed in sheets of 36 cards. This was the size of the sheets that the factory could produce. This whole set contained a total of 48 cards and the twelve additonal cards were were substituted for 12 of the original cards printed on the first sheet. This resulted in short-prints of some of the cards from the original series.
Naturally, this first set since the war had an abundance of rookie and first time printed players. Included in these, were players such as Berra, Musial, Spahn, Sain, Henrich, and Rizzuto. Some of the popular and rookie players fell into the short-print group making their cards even more sought after.
Topps, probably the most know bubble gum and sportscard producer, came onto the scene in 1951 and along with Bowman were the only card producers until the early 80’s. Topps purchased Bowman in 1956 and was the only producer until this time. In the early 80’s Fleer and Donruss began producing sportscards. In 1989 Upper Deck, what I consider the supreme sports card maker, started production. These upper end cards went for a premium price and led the way for the later more expensive card lines.
Since the late 80’s and early 90’s the number of various sports card sets have increased considerably. Each of the 4 main card companies produced many sets in each sport category. Some produced under different labels such as Topps Stadium Club etc. Along with this increased production came a dilution of card values. Each producer also over produced the lines that they had.
Even though this lowering of values came along, it probably just did away with some of the inflation of prices due to hype and demand. Some felt that the newer cards didn’t carry their true value and were overpriced when they first came onto the scene anyway. Some of the new cards had inflated value that caused their prices to be as high as the true collectable older cards. There was no real reason for the new cards to carry the prices that people were asking.
No matter what the price, true or not, there a still a lot of people collect the sports cards for various reason. These people collect in different ways and concentrate on different areas of collecting.
One of the main areas of collecting is the individual player rookie cards. These cards may not necessarily be from the first year that a player plays in the major leagues but it is his first card produced within a set. Generally a player has a first card produced by several manufactures and may even be in some subsets. The number of each sets produced helps determine the value of the individual players card in that set. His card value is also affected by his statistics in his career, others expectations of him at the plate and how popular that he has become on his way to the major leagues. Some collectors lose money due to the fact that the player does not live up to his expectations. I have also seen other players card values change because of his life off of the playing field. In some cases, drug use by a player has greatly affected the value of his career and also his sports cards.
Another type of collecting is the area of special cards or insert cards added to the regular. This became popular in the mid to late 80’s and early 90’s. The insert cards can be special player cards from other sports. One of the first popular inserts that comes to mind was the Michael Jordan card in the Upper Deck packs. Signature cards are also a popular type of insert card. Most of these cards were produced in a limited number thus increasing their value due to lesser quantities. Sometimes redeemable cards are used that you can turn in for other products or cards. The practice of inserting older valuable cards into packs have been used.
Some individuals collect cards by buying and keeping unopened packs. This practice seemed to be more prevalent before the price inflation caused the values to drop. Unopened cases and boxes were kept as investments for the future. Some of these unopened cases were like gold. Some of their values were unbelievable.
Complete sets from certain years are very popular collectables. If Topps or one of the other manufacturers had a very good card for a certain year or the set contained a lot of good rookie cards the sets became more collectable and sought after. Some collectors only kept factory sets and others built sets from boxes and packs. Most ot those that built their own sets looked for the perfect card with the highest grade. Which of the sets, factory or hand built, has the greatest value is still debatable.
A card collector that collects for the enjoyment does it for many different reasons. Some collect cards of their favorite teams, players, regions, or sports. Whatever the reason for collecting, sports card collecting has in the past and still is a very popular and sometimes moneymaking hobbie.
Charles Oxford
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