Does anyone out here still collect them? I use to when I was jr/high school I ran into my collection a few days ago was a lot of fun going through it. Not knowing nothing about the future I started collected one player and he turned out to be a dud that being Stephon Marbury.
Collecting cards was fun until the mid 90s when Capitalism sunk its teeth into the Hobby. I had a large collection back then, the only remnants of it now are an assortment of about 300 different Hakeem cards. I do have a Jordan Fleer Rookie and a couple of Landry and Brooks rare rookies that I bought for really cheap last season.
BAM! I remember when packs of Topps Finest were going for $10 a pack and I thought that was expensive and quit collecting. My uncle, who is an avid collector, said some premium packs go for 50 times more per pack, retail. Like I said, it's ridiculous.
I collected a lot with my father back in the 80s. Mostly baseball but a little football and basketball as well. One of my favorite pick ups was an entire set of basketball cards for $10 way back in the 80s. They were rip apart cards (3 per card) and the set included the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird rookie cards. I was tempted to rip them apart but my father wisely suggested not to.
thats freaking awesome, i dont know how you ended not wanting to rip that up these so many years! I have a collection my self, I bought a Whole set of lebron james Rookie Edition, cost about 20 bucks, probably worth more nnow.
I collected until around 1998. The cards were getting too expensive. My best card was a Jordan limited edition (maybe 10,000 total), but I gave it away to a friend. I wonder where all my Rockets cards are...
I stopped collecting early-to-mid 90's when I realized comics and card collecting had turned into something I just didn't want to be a part of. It was nuts how many special inserts and sets and versions of the same damn player there were out there. I gave up. (Anybody want a bunch of Robert Horry rookie cards? ) I do want to go back and get some comics and cards from the 80's that I've always wanted, though. Anything after that, I really don't care about.
The Topps Chrome set from 96-97 with the Kobe rookie refractor is when I realized the **** was getting crazy. Then Beckett tightened its grip on the industry but not only being the standard for card values, but also cornering the market on grading.
I started collecting two or one year ago. My personal collection doesn't include rookies/base, but autos/patches/printing plates. Here are some of my favorite cards: (There is only one in the world....) (One of the nicer rookie auto sets. The Chris Paul rookie auto /99 card goes over a thousand....) (I really like this design) Now from what I've gathered... the hobby is completely different from what it was in pre-2000. The hobby is more populated by more jersey cards, auto cards, 1/1s, which leads to the hobby being expensive. There is a product by Upper Deck, where the box is over 200 dollars, and you get only 2 cards!
I actually got rid of that card years ago along with most everything else in my collection. I was about 8 or 9 at the time and coming out of a dentist appointment with my father. There was a little card shop and the guy had the whole set wrapped up carefully in a paper towel. The cards were in mint or near mint condition despite that. I wanted to rip them up as soon as we got home but my father convinced me not to. I debated it for a minute though. What kid sees something to rip up and chooses not to? The problem with the whole sports card business nowadays is that there is no longer rarity. Since the 80s, so many people got into the collecting thing, eliminating that factor. By the way, did anybody see that story a few months ago about the old lady that found one of the oldest baseball cards ever? It was a team photo and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars apparently. I never heard any follow up on that story.
Here's the story about the old lady for anybody that never saw it: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/bi...ar-old-baseball-card-in-box-of?urn=mlb,132871 The card is 140 years old and one of the first ever made. Before she knew what she had, she put it on eBay for 10 bux! The same lady also won $250,000 on a slot machine. Talk about good luck!
Here's a story about the auction of that card... it apparently sold for $70k+ http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/bernie-gallegos-1869-baseball-card-sells-for-75285/ I wonder if it could have gone for more had it not been for the economy?
I sold this card a few years ago on eBay for $600 -- Apparently someone sold this same card (which was in gem mint condition) for $125,000 (LINK)
I pretty much gave up on sports cards but I still collect the topps baseball set every year. I agree that money has ruined the hobby. If the card companies brought back the hobby to what it was 20-25 years ago, a lot more people would be collecting now. Seriously, paying $10 bucks for a pack of cardboard is crazy. Bring the price down to 75 cents for a pack of 14 cards and put it in gas stations, people would buy it up.
I used to collect a lot and sell on ebay as side money for a while. I stopped a while back as I got older but have the urge to buy a pack once and a while. I still have a ton of basketball rookies and autograph cards sitting in a box. I'll bust them out sometime in the future and see if anyone is doing good enough to make some real coin. The most I ever sold a card for was 700 bucks. Lebron James Autograph Rookie card...best 15 bucks for a pack I spent lol.
