Mingle with the Singles

If you are paying any attention at all to the sports card industry, you know that it is on fire. For those of us in the hobby, we are in unprecedented times. Sports cards are in mainstream media with Grant Hill opening packs during basketball games, players looking for their own cards on social media, and huge sales being covered by national news outlets. My local media even covered the recent Kobe Bryant RC sale!

Everyone in my age range that collected when they were kids are coming back to see what the fuss is all about. I think overall, that is a great thing. There are some huge positives that can be taken away from the recent popularity.

• Cards that were once popular, but lost traction due to new innovations in the hobby, are coming back. Cards from the 1990’s are becoming very popular again. Rookies from the 80’s are increasing in demand as well.
• Card values via sales sites are exploding. Values for non-autographed inserts and base cards are selling at all-time highs.
• Low population graded cards from over-produced sets are huge right now!
• Values of unopened boxes from the Junk Wax Era are making for great finds at antique shops and flea markets.
• The hobby community has grown exponentially; which opens up the trade and purchase market for everybody.
• It has brought back collectors from my era, which is making more memories and conversations come to the forefront.
• New avenues for delivering and purchasing cards have opened up. Digital, artist renderings, and exclusives are now available to collectors.
• Social media, podcasts, and blogs are providing wonderful value for collectors today.
• The graded card market has become a tremendous money maker in the hobby.

As a collector, it truly is a great time to be in the hobby. Unfortunately, the boom has its down-side too.

• $20 Retail Blasters are being swept up by the cart load and collectors are unable to find these cost efficient options at Wal-Mart or Target. They are being sold on the secondary market for astronomical prices.
• Hobby Box prices have exploded, making the purchase of said boxes only economical for breakers and high end dealers. A box of Donruss Basketball was around $120 a couple of years ago. Now they are selling for $800+!! I used to be able to go to the card shop, spend a couple hundred dollars, and walk away with multiple hobby boxes. That won’t buy one hobby box currently.
• Scams and fraudulent sales are up. This comes with the territory. Any time there is an increase in popularity in a retail oriented product, the scammers take advantage. With many new collectors entering the hobby, there are plenty of nuances to the hobby that are unknown and make them easy marks to the unscrupulous.
• Technology has not caught up to the popularity. Humans are having a hard time beating bots to purchase cards from websites. It is a huge problem within the community that only exacerbates the problem with finding retail products in local stores.
• Grading cards has become very expensive and time consuming in the hobby.

With every hobby, popular culture item, collectible, etc; there is going to be good and bad. The key is to always find and focus on what makes those things good for you. I am guilty of getting down on not finding products in the wild or not being able to buy a box at the LCS that I was able to buy just two years ago. It is frustrating when a new product is going to be available online at MSRP but I get beat to it by a computer program that someone has purchased. I get it; it can be very easy to get lost in the bad.

But there are multiple areas within the market that are still available to hard core collectors that are looking to scratch their hobby itch. There are some forgotten brands from the 80’s and 90’s that provide access to great players, including hall of famers. Pinnacle and Pacific are brand’s that immediately come to mind. There are some cards from the 90’s that these companies produced that were way ahead of their time. Also, there are multiple releases from the 80’s that were either unlicensed or produced for retail locations that are very cheap.

Trading is at an all-time high. Social media and the popularity of the hobby have combined to give us the ability to network with collectors all over the globe. And every team and player has a collector out there that is looking. I know people who collect the Royals (@bigshep79) and Red Sox (@shanekatz73) and many other teams that will send me Braves in exchange for their collection items. It is a great way to network on Twitter.

Ungraded singles are easy to find and remain reasonably priced. While a graded 1988 Bo Jackson Football RC is really expensive, you can find an ungraded version very cheap. In my opinion, we are giving too much value to graded cards at the moment. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a premium that should be tied to mint condition cards. I just think there are a lot of good condition raw cards that are available for much cheaper than 9’s and 9.5’s that are on the market. In addition, second and third year cards for players are fun to look for.

To that end, I recently made a trip to the LCS for some cards and supplies. I decided to go hunting in the .25-$1.00 boxes to see what I could find. I wound up finding a few cards for a little more than $1.00 but I found tremendous stack of cards to add to my collection and spent a mere $50. You can do that on just about any budget. You can hunt with $25, $50, $75, whatever; and still find some great cards to add.

Let’s take a look at what $50 can score you at an LCS these days!

I know this one is an oddball but I had to pick up this 1976 “Welcome Back Kotter” card for .10 cents. First, it was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid and it was replaying on WGN. I loved it! Secondly, somebody mentioned The Sweathogs a few weeks ago when I posted my old picture of my curly hair as a baby.

I’ve taken some interest in Hockey recently because it is a little more available than the other sports. I was also a big hockey fan during the 90’s, thanks to video games! These “Great One’s” ranged from .25-.50 cents per card so I had to grab them!

Mario Lemieux was almost as good as Gretzky back in the day. He is an absolute Hockey Legend so these .25-.35 cent cards were also must haves!

Though Gretzy and Lemieux were in a league of their own, my favorite player in the 90’s was Eric Lindros. And Fleer Ultra was so good during this era!

How about some basketball? Remember when I mentioned second year cards? Here are several that ranged from .35-.75 cents per card! Who doesn’t love Vince Carter? And thanks to his final years with the Hawks, he counts as PC!

Is there a basketball collector on the planet that wouldn’t pick up 3 Larry Johnson Upper Deck RC’s for $1.00 with no shipping? Grand-Ma Ma is a Junk Wax Hobby Icon!

For some reason, I couldn’t get these photos to load properly; but I think you can get the idea here. These are 3 Alonzo Mourning RC’s for $1.00 per. A bona fide Hall of Famer for $3. Yes, please!

I have shown off this beauty on Twitter but it deserves another look. No photo can do this card justice. Albert Belle has had his issues in his personal life since playing but he was a huge get during the 90’s. I couldn’t pass this up for .35 cents!

Another Junk Wax Legend is Juan Gonzalez. And when I find 1990 Upper Deck RC’s of him and John Olerud, I usually pick them up. You especially don’t have to tempt me with a .35 cent price.

This sweet Mark McGwire Topps Gold was .50 cents. I am not passing up a Topps gold from the 90’s of a Superstar for less than $1.00. I’m just not going to do it!

I honestly don’t remember if this was .50 cents or $1.00 but I didn’t really even look at this price. I knew this was a card I didn’t have so I picked it up. The fact that the border is red (team color match) made it even more appealing to me. But the fact that it is “The Wizard” was enough.

I paid a total of $5 for these 4 legends! I didn’t own these and enjoy collecting all of these players. The Gary Carter was easy because of the Expos logo and uniform. I also can’t believe that I didn’t have this Andre Dawson already. And who doesn’t love Teke and Pops??

Though I already have this Frank Thomas Stadium Club (bird finger), I can’t own enough of them. The kid in me loves this card. I didn’t own this Thomas/Ventura Cornerstones Insert and it is beautiful in person. These were $1 and I had no problem with that price.

Again, this is another card I already owned but, why not? It was less than .50 cents and it’s a second year card of a Braves Legend! Add it to my stack!

More PC for this Braves Collection. I paid a couple of dollars for this lot but these are all great cards. The Graphx and Private Stock cards are very eye catching. The Jones RC was an easy choice and I couldn’t remember what condition my Justice 92 Bowman was in.

This was the big ticket item and it was still very well priced. This is the one that pushed me to the $5o total but I couldn’t pass it up. It is the Sterling Gold with the coating still in tact. It is a beautiful card and it is a 90’s Jordan, which has a huge market right now.

The hobby is on fire right now, there is no question about it. You can get in over your head quickly and you can spend some major dollars before you blink if you are chasing the hot stuff. I break occasionally and buy something that I have to have for my collection.

But there are some things that I just won’t do. I make it a practice not to pay secondary market prices for retail. I am not going to pay someone else a premium to go to Wal-Mart for me and buy the product. I am also not spending hundreds on flagship products like Donruss, Topp, Score, etc. It just doesn’t make sense.

I am also very careful about who I buy from on eBay right now. There is a seller rating for a reason. As we all know, “if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.” Study your seller if you are going to make a moderate to substantial sized purchase.

But what this blog post should show you most of all is that you can buy some really cool cards at very good prices if you open your mind and spend some time in the $1 or less bins. Can I flip these for huge gains right now? Absolutely not. But that is not “collecting”. These cards may one day have more value than they have today. But if they don’t, they will rest just fine in my collection. Or they may even turn into trade pieces when I need to obtain something else I am looking for. Who knows?

Whatever the case may be, take some time to mingle with the singles when you head to a card show or your LCS. I am personally not quite ready for a card show crowd but I see a lot of people on social media returning to those. The bottom line is, if you find yourself in front of some singles boxes, take your time and look at the cards. Remind yourself why you are in this hobby to begin with. It will be fun and worth it! I promise!

J-Dub