Do you collect sports cards?

Alldaycapper34

Alldaycapper34

EOG Senior Member
I went into a card shop yesterday with my daughter as a new set of Pokémon just came out. She collects them with friends in the neighborhood.

The cash register was 8 deep with customers. Guy asks about the new football cards that come out Friday. Shop owner says they’ll be around $1200/box. Are you freaking kidding me?

Long gone are the days of 3 packs for a buck.
 
mrbowling300

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
at the drug store when I was a kid, they had a machine, you would put a nickel in, and out would come about 5-7 cards. I collected the entire 1974 topps baseball series from that thing.
 
Heim

Heim

EOG Master
I saw where a auction house was selling new boxes of 84-84 Fleer NBA for $10k....

10k and no guarantee you get a Jordan rookie.

I stopped when my Heath Shuler (remember him?) collection of rookie cards went south.
 
TobyTyler

TobyTyler

EOG Dedicated
My brother in law makes some money on it but lot of leg work and digging on ebay auctions, and Facebook market place.

The graded vs ungraded cards is quite the game, costs $100 bucks to send in a card and hope for a 10. If you get back a 9 it's less than half value. If you get back an 8 you just lost money.

There is no clear "rookie card" sometimes it seems, confusing as hell with special inserts and versions of cards that sometimes more valuable and rare than the actual rookie card.

Brick and mortar not the place to buy Cards anymore as too much overhead in the pricing.

Also what's big now is gambling aspect where shops live stream breaking packs/cases, and they will take $50/head (or whatever) send PP or Venmo, and they pull a 1 thru 10 number to see if you get the pack. Then open it live on stream. They get lot of views will send link to one in NJ.

Some packs are absurdly priced, rarer Prizm Basketball packs from 2019 go for $35 /pack for 4 or 5 cards for example.

They even have special packs where it might be $100 for one card that's already graded.

There are still $3 packs of baseline baseball and basketball though.

Recently I bought up some Darius Garland pricy rookie cards as I feel like he's an underpriced 10 year star on up trending team.

I will buy occasional check Craigslist for unsuspecting person unloading a dead brother's collection. Fun to dig through with my kid and some beers.
 
choslamshe

choslamshe

EOG Master
Avid collector - have about 60k worth of unopened wax, primarily mid- to late- 80's hockey, just before true junk wax began. Have unopened boxes of 82-83, 84-85 opee chee, 85-86 opee chee and 86-87 topps. Lots of valuable rookies in there...

Funny to comb through Walmart/Target aisles and see the selection of blaster boxes for insane prices. With the number of products out there, it is impossible for an athlete to have a true and iconic rookie card. Card designs today are incredible but it's too much and expensive to keep up with all the releases, parallels, variations, etc. of cards. Luka Doncic has hundreds of rookie cards across products/sets. Impossible for a kid to pick up the hobby today.
 
TobyTyler

TobyTyler

EOG Dedicated
Cho I have a large box of hockey cards from collection I bought from what looks like a 3 year window will send pictures and you can tell me if anybody in particular I should be looking for. Prob all commons but want to make sure before I dump it.
 
John Kelly

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
choslamshe said:
Avid collector - have about 60k worth of unopened wax, primarily mid- to late- 80's hockey, just before true junk wax began. Have unopened boxes of 82-83, 84-85 opee chee, 85-86 opee chee and 86-87 topps. Lots of valuable rookies in there...

Funny to comb through Walmart/Target aisles and see the selection of blaster boxes for insane prices. With the number of products out there, it is impossible for an athlete to have a true and iconic rookie card. Card designs today are incredible but it's too much and expensive to keep up with all the releases, parallels, variations, etc. of cards. Luka Doncic has hundreds of rookie cards across products/sets. Impossible for a kid to pick up the hobby today.
Click to expand...

Cho, I have about 25 boxes of unopened Fleer 1992 baseball cards.

Worth anything?
 
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

EOG Dedicated
I have some cards from the 70's and 80's...mostly hockey and football. I put together an inventory during Covid, and even paid to have a few of the bigger names graded, but never pulled the trigger actually selling any of them.
 
John Kelly

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Woodrow Wilson said:
I have some cards from the 70's and 80's...mostly hockey and football. I put together an inventory during Covid, and even paid to have a few of the bigger names graded, but never pulled the trigger actually selling any of them.
Click to expand...

Sell before America collapses into a third-world country.

I'll be here all week.
 
P

Patrick McIrish

OCCams raZOR
Do you still get a slab of gum in the small packs?

Maybe you still do, been a long time since I made a purchase.

Just think how much money we threw away had we saved every card we ever bought?

Most of us old-timers probably threw away more than a few decent sized pay-outs.

I threw away or simply lost a ton of cards I had purchased through the years.
 
P

Patrick McIrish

OCCams raZOR
Woodrow Wilson said:
I have some cards from the 70's and 80's...mostly hockey and football. I put together an inventory during Covid, and even paid to have a few of the bigger names graded, but never pulled the trigger actually selling any of them.
Click to expand...


Did you have any big money cards?

Smart way to manage your time during COVID shut down.
 
TobyTyler

TobyTyler

EOG Dedicated
If you have an ungraded or graded card and want to check recent actual sale prices on eBay (not the BS asking prices), check this site, will give you recent sales / winning auction prices

130point.com

Search eBay Sales for Sports Cards, Memorabilia and More | 130 Point

Search past or current eBay sales across a variety of categories from Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop, Toys & Hobbies, Collectibles, Video Games & Consoles, Entertainment Memorabilia, Coins & Paper Money and Stamps.
130point.com 130point.com
 
choslamshe

choslamshe

EOG Master
John Kelly said:
Sell before America collapses into a third-world country.

I'll be here all week.
Click to expand...

early 90s signified the beginning of the junk wax era. I believe you can find a box of '92 going for around $30-40 USD. Card design with Fleer (in general and across all sports) was unique to the common cards.. About a dozen or so "coveted" cards in the set (Griffey, Thome, Ryan, etc.) but even those, if graded as PSA 10s are likely to only yield between $15-$30 each.

Curious as to how you ended up with so many?
 
choslamshe

choslamshe

EOG Master
Patrick McIrish said:
Do you still get a slab of gum in the small packs?

Maybe you still do, been a long time since I made a purchase.

Just think how much money we threw away had we saved every card we ever bought?

Most of us old-timers probably threw away more than a few decent sized pay-outs.

I threw away or simply lost a ton of cards I had purchased through the years.
Click to expand...
It's disgusting. I was born in 80. As a 6/7 year old, I have a flashbulb memory cutting out the players from the cards to play some stupid game that I did with my brothers. One of the cards I remember doing this to was a Mario Lemieux RC. No clue what the condition of the card was at the time, but we joke about it to this day.
 
Heim

Heim

EOG Master
You open Beckett and see the market value of a card, then try to sell it to a shop.

Not exactly a seller's market when they offer less than half, you never get close to that price privately either.
 
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C

Chi_Archie

EOG Veteran
I need a warm body that will take all these worthless 80's cards out of my basement.

I'll buy the kind soul lunch, as well
 
J

Jammer

EOG Dedicated
The1980's baseball was a pile of junk. They saturated the market with Fleer, Topps, and Donruss. The quality of the cards was terrible, and most were off center. You want a Cal Ripken or Don Mattingly rookie card you can go on Ebay and get them for around 3-4 dollars. You can't even give those cards away. My friend's mom used to work for Topps back in the day. She would come back with uncut sheets of cards, and all these wax boxes of Jaws, Charlies Angels, Star Wars, Happy Days and others.
 
F

fifty cint

EOG Dedicated
Jammer said:
The1980's baseball was a pile of junk. They saturated the market with Fleer, Topps, and Donruss. The quality of the cards was terrible, and most were off center. You want a Cal Ripken or Don Mattingly rookie card you can go on Ebay and get them for around 3-4 dollars. You can't even give those cards away. My friend's mom used to work for Topps back in the day. She would come back with uncut sheets of cards, and all these wax boxes of Jaws, Charlies Angels, Star Wars, Happy Days and others.
Click to expand...

OMG I remember those Charlies Angels and Star Wars cards. That was pretty funny
 
John Kelly

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
choslamshe said:
early 90s signified the beginning of the junk wax era. I believe you can find a box of '92 going for around $30-40 USD. Card design with Fleer (in general and across all sports) was unique to the common cards.. About a dozen or so "coveted" cards in the set (Griffey, Thome, Ryan, etc.) but even those, if graded as PSA 10s are likely to only yield between $15-$30 each.

Curious as to how you ended up with so many?
Click to expand...

A friend gifted them to me.

I'm not a collector unless you count losing tickets from the race and sports books.
 
FairWarning

FairWarning

Bells Beer Connoisseur
TobyTyler said:
My brother in law makes some money on it but lot of leg work and digging on ebay auctions, and Facebook market place.

The graded vs ungraded cards is quite the game, costs $100 bucks to send in a card and hope for a 10. If you get back a 9 it's less than half value. If you get back an 8 you just lost money.

There is no clear "rookie card" sometimes it seems, confusing as hell with special inserts and versions of cards that sometimes more valuable and rare than the actual rookie card.

Brick and mortar not the place to buy Cards anymore as too much overhead in the pricing.

Also what's big now is gambling aspect where shops live stream breaking packs/cases, and they will take $50/head (or whatever) send PP or Venmo, and they pull a 1 thru 10 number to see if you get the pack. Then open it live on stream. They get lot of views will send link to one in NJ.

Some packs are absurdly priced, rarer Prizm Basketball packs from 2019 go for $35 /pack for 4 or 5 cards for example.

They even have special packs where it might be $100 for one card that's already graded.

There are still $3 packs of baseline baseball and basketball though.

Recently I bought up some Darius Garland pricy rookie cards as I feel like he's an underpriced 10 year star on up trending team.

I will buy occasional check Craigslist for unsuspecting person unloading a dead brother's collection. Fun to dig through with my kid and some beers.
Click to expand...
It’s all gambling now. eBay has been a disaster also thanks to the flippers. They buy ungraded, then return them if they don’t think it will grade a 10. If you win something at a low price, they suddenly refund your money as it’s ‘lost’. Fuck these people.
 
Heim

Heim

EOG Master
I'm still trying to wrap my head around a NBA players highlight, you buy and own going for 6 figures.
 
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

EOG Dedicated
Patrick McIrish said:
Did you have any big money cards?

Smart way to manage your time during COVID shut down.
Click to expand...

I do have a several valuable football rookie cards. However, the highest grade I was able to receive was a Rice 9. Payton rookie graded a 5 and 2 Montana rookies I believe graded either 6 and 7 or 7 and 8. I do have several Montana 2nd year cards that graded very well. None of the 70's hockey cards I have would grade above 7 imho so I didn't submit any, but I do have most of the 75 and 76 topps hockey cards with many doubles, too.
 
Alldaycapper34

Alldaycapper34

EOG Senior Member
Heim said:
I saw where a auction house was selling new boxes of 84-84 Fleer NBA for $10k....

10k and no guarantee you get a Jordan rookie.

I stopped when my Heath Shuler (remember him?) collection of rookie cards went south.
Click to expand...

Was Shuler part of the Brady 6? I’m too tired to look it up. Just got back from Disney. Going as many times as I can before the world economy collapses.
 
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

EOG Dedicated
Patrick McIrish said:
Did you have any big money cards?

Smart way to manage your time during COVID shut down.
Click to expand...

www.ebay.com

SCD Baseball Card Price Guide Magazine Michael Jordan November 1990 Rare Insert | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SCD Baseball Card Price Guide Magazine Michael Jordan November 1990 Rare Insert at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

I have two of these magazines that still are like brand new that I bought at a card show in 1990.

I should be able to trade them for a few sacks of food or something useful when the SHTF.
 
mr merlin

mr merlin

EOG Master
I have boxes of late 80's and early 90's crap - pure crap, topps, fleer donruss, folders of the "good stuff", unopened complete sets. . i remember thinking those barry bonds rookie cards were pure gold(topps). people are trying to sell them for a dollar on E bay and i dont thing they sell.

I'd sell everything for $20.

Anyone remember the desert storm cards? I had the general norman swartzkoff baby.
 
Alldaycapper34

Alldaycapper34

EOG Senior Member
Here is a live stream of the breakers opening the product I mentioned. Patriots were $1700 I believe. You can pick the team in this break. Lowest was $49 I believe.

 
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