By Mark Halpern
Most of you don’t know I have been a Sports Card and Collectible dealer for the past 33 years. When the first baseball cards came out, Cards were more of an incentive to buy certain things like Cigarettes, Alcohol, and even food products such as bread and cereal. The first real trading cards came out in the early ’50s, and they were fun to collect your favorite player; kids put cards in the spokes of the bikes, even flipping cards (a way of gambling your cards) were popular. Cards were not put into holders or sold in big shows like they are now. They were basically like a toy for kids. Now there were plenty of people who put cards away and protected them but, if the People who collect today ever watched a 1952 Mantle rookie thrown up against a wall or put in the spokes of a bike, they would rip their hair out.
Card collecting has changed so much in the last 70 years. Nowadays, it’s not about getting a primary rookie card. People are chasing the Autographed cards, Patch/Jersey cards, and Low numbered serial cards. Most people today do not buy packs, boxes, or cases even to get their favorite card. They are in it for the reselling to make a profit which most Card Dealers today will tell you is highly competitive and hard to do. The average price for a pack between 1950-1998 was roughly $3.00 at its highest point. With the addition of these chase cards, some packs can run you $500 even $1500 to get a few of these cards. Cards are not being made for what they were intended. Cards are now geared to the people who can shell out big money and even get lousy cards in a pack and do not make their money back.
I do online breaks. I belong to a few groups that give you an option of buying into cases either by random spot (get a radon team from a case) or by Pick Your Team and the top teams in most of these cases, from football to hockey can run you as high as $2500 (Chargers in a case of National Treasures) The owners of the groups DO NOT overprice to cheat people in any way. They price it according to what people will be paying, and cards sell to try and get that rare $1000 rookie auto or veteran piece. I have seen people blow $$$$$ to get Skunked (When you get nothing from a break), and it’s more of a GAMBLE than a hobby.
I still do it but not on the level I used to. I do more appraisals for people and explain what their collection is worth and what cards should be graded to give it a little more value. When buying Autograph memorabilia, I tell people to only buy stuff from JSA, PSA, Beckett, Tristar, Fanatics, and Steiner. They are the most reputable companies out there. Unfountunitaley tons of counterfeit autographs get sold to people, so Caveat Emptor.
In conclusion, sports are a game, and games are meant to be fun. Not having to spend your kid’s college tuition to buy a case of cards and hoping those cards make you rich. The companies need to bring back more affordable packs for kids to buy and collect, and that is how the old man sees it.
The Sports Insanity Network 