{"id":4209,"date":"2019-05-07T22:57:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T02:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dubmentality.com\/?p=4209"},"modified":"2019-05-08T00:01:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T04:01:55","slug":"are-my-childhood-sports-cards-worth-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/?p=4209","title":{"rendered":"Are My Childhood Sports Cards Worth Anything?"},"content":{"rendered":"



For those of us who have been in and around the hobby for many years, it isn\u2019t news to us that sports cards have seen a resurgence. There are a lot of people who are starting to figure this out though; thanks to some high profile publicity over the last several months. This is not where I am going to offer a drawn out opinion on what is going on with Gary Vee promoting the hobby, because I think the situation is fluid and there is no clear cut take that I am comfortable with. I think that ultimately, exposure is good but the right kind of exposure is the key. Exposure will make the people come to the hobby; providing the right kind of exposure once they get here is up to us, the long-time collectors.<\/p>\n

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There are definitely some sports cards on the market today that are super valuable and could potentially change your life if you are lucky enough to find them. But you have to understand that if you are in the hobby for that reason, it is a big gamble and you are almost guaranteed to burn out quickly. I have been collecting all my life, and if I didn\u2019t love it and it hadn\u2019t been so meaningful to my life, I would\u2019ve left a long time ago. I\u2019m not here to get rich, but if I pull something valuable along the way, I\u2019m not going to be upset about it. This is the way I view this hobby; I\u2019m here to enjoy the cards and collect my favorite players and sets. Whatever else happens can be considered \u201chaving my cake and eating it too\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"We can talk more about modern cards of value at some point but for those returning to the hobby after a hiatus; I think the subject of \u201cJunk Wax\u201d is where we need to start. If you ever check the responses or mentions when Gary Vee posts about sports cards, many of them are along the lines of, \u201cAre the cards from when I was a kid worth anything?\u201d As collectors, we get this question quite regularly in our day to day lives. I am pretty sure that the entire world collected sports cards in the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s, so when people find out that some of us still do it in 2019, the question presents itself in some form or fashion. A lot of people still have a box of cards from when they were a kid or a binder that has been sitting in a closet at their parents for 30 years. And trust me, most of us LOVE looking through those cards with you to see if you have something cool. So with the pumping up of the industry happening all around us, these questions deserve some examination.<\/p>\n

\"\"First, let me offer an explanation of one of the terms that will be used here regularly. Most collectors know this already but as this might reach somebody new, the term \u201cJunk Wax\u201d refers to the cards we collected during the big boom of the industry from around 1986-1995. The time frame varies from collector to collector but it is referred to as \u201cJunk\u201d because it was so massively overproduced. There are still cases and cases of 1987 Topps sitting in a warehouse somewhere. I prefer to view \u201cJunk Wax\u201d as more of an endearing term that represents cards from my youth. It is sort of like \u201cDad Bod\u201d being somewhat derogatory but also embraced by society, both men and women alike, as a positive or cool thing.<\/p>\n

Also, as it pertains to \u201cvalue\u201d; we all know that is a designation of relativity. A $5 bill is not the same to someone else as it may be to me. And a $100 bill is not the same for many of us either. So value, in the context of my collecting habits can be broken down as monetary value, social value, and nostalgic value.<\/p>\n