[Porky]

What do you memorabilia "geeks" (like me) think of card companies taking jerseys, helmets, shoes, jockstraps, etc., chopping them up, and putting tiny little piece on a trading card? Call me a purist, but I think it is appalling.

First, they are taking what could be a historic artifact, and chopping it up into bits. Personally, I think it is way cooler to have the whole jersey hanging on a wall or full helmet sitting on a shelf.

Second, it is pretty sad that this seems to be the only way card companies are staying relevant. In my opinion, they should just limit the sets to maybe 3 companies at most who make the cards, and limit the number to no more than 396 cards, just like the old days!
Maybe they could work on drawing more kids into collecting again by making cards more affordable....

[Rupert Patrick]

Porky, on 29 July 2010 - 09:24 PM, said:

What do you memorabilia "geeks" (like me) think of card companies taking jerseys, helmets, shoes, jockstraps, etc., chopping them up, and putting tiny little piece on a trading card? Call me a purist, but I think it is appalling.

First, they are taking what could be a historic artifact, and chopping it up into bits. Personally, I think it is way cooler to have the whole jersey hanging on a wall or full helmet sitting on a shelf.

Second, it is pretty sad that this seems to be the only way card companies are staying relevant. In my opinion, they should just limit the sets to maybe 3 companies at most who make the cards, and limit the number to no more than 396 cards, just like the old days!
Maybe they could work on drawing more kids into collecting again by making cards more affordable....

The success of Upper Deck Baseball cards in 1989, which were the first upscale set of sports cards, was a clear sign to me that the card manufacturers were no longer interested in marketing their cards to children. Before long all the companies went to those premium sets. I used to be a collector in the late 80's and early 90's, but the sets became too expensive to purchase, and before long the bottom dropped out of the market, and a lot of people lost money on their investments, myself included. I kept all the cards I bought, but I'll never recoup my investment in them. I haven't purchased a pack of Baseball or Football cards since.

[Reaser]

Mostly same story as Rupert, mid-90's is around when I stopped going to card shops and buying boxes, etc...next few years if I saw a pack of football cards in a checkout line at the grocery store I'de probably buy one or two but that stopped by 2000.

Was just a kid then, wasn't buying cards for money or anything, just like(d) having complete sets, collecting and mostly just liked looking at the photos and reading the stats. Still have them all.

And I also agree on the memorabilia, though I do have to admit, in one of the last packs of football cards I ever purchased, I got a Deion Sanders signed 'jersey card.' Him being my favorite player of all-time, I was pretty excited about it, even though what ruined football cards for me at the time was too many special cards and inserts, and too many sets being produced by too many companies, less and less cards in each pack until I was buying a pack of cards and only getting 5 cards in each pack, etc...

[JohnH19]

Reaser, on 30 July 2010 - 05:05 AM, said:

Mostly same story as Rupert, mid-90's is around when I stopped going to card shops and buying boxes, etc...next few years if I saw a pack of football cards in a checkout line at the grocery store I'de probably buy one or two but that stopped by 2000.

Was just a kid then, wasn't buying cards for money or anything, just like(d) having complete sets, collecting and mostly just liked looking at the photos and reading the stats. Still have them all.

And I also agree on the memorabilia, though I do have to admit, in one of the last packs of football cards I ever purchased, I got a Deion Sanders signed 'jersey card.' Him being my favorite player of all-time, I was pretty excited about it, even though what ruined football cards for me at the time was too many special cards and inserts, and too many sets being produced by too many companies, less and less cards in each pack until I was buying a pack of cards and only getting 5 cards in each pack, etc...

I'm a set collector but back around 1993-94 when it was costing me $50-$100 to make a set that Beckett had listed at $15 I knew it was time to get out. I would buy the occasional retro set or box like Topps Heritage or Archives but that's been it since then.

I dislike memorabilia cards in general but I loved pulling Bob Feller(!), Phil Rizzuto and Hoyt Wilhelm autographs out of packs. Those and three not so noteworthy hockey players from the 70's (Ken Hodge from my beloved Bruins, Tom (Hawkeye) Webster and Gary Edwards) are the only autos I've ever pulled. Jersey swatches and that sort of thing do nothing for me.

[JohnH19]

Deleted duplicate post.

[Moran]

I have a few of the modern memorabilia cards - all Donruss 2008 -two Knute Rockne "game worn" patch cards, a "triple threads" of Baugh, Strong, and Thorpe, and a Strong jersey patch card. Then I have a Dutch Clark autograph card and a YA Tittle autograph card - where the auto is an insert in the card, not a signed card. Most of these I bought at our local card shop, largely because I like to buy something from the guy and vintage football items are few and far between. When I got the Strong card I called his son and asked if he knew about these sales - he and I have talked about various business ventures using his father's image without permission - he doubted it was really his father's jersey because his father had only one that remained from his playing days and had given to the Hall of Fame. Donruss said the jersey came from a well documented source, so that was that. I don't mind the autograph cuts (although they packaged one as Heisman winner Steve Owens when it was really HOF coach Steve Owen, so that doesn't say much for their expertise) except when they cut into the autograph to make it fit the card. I do agree that cutting up old jerseys, etc, is a bad practice - but the market has its mysterious ways. After all, you can often pick up a signed 3x5 from a Hall of Fame player for a fraction of what these ready-made inserts sell for -

[JWL]

I have one memorabilia card. I got it in a 2002 Upper Deck Vintage pack. It is a game-used jersey card of 1970s A's pitcher Paul Lindblad. Do I know for sure that it was a piece of his jersey worn in an actual game? No.

Like others in this thread, I stopped seriously collecting cards circa 1994. The hobby wasn't fun anymore. The cards were too expensive and me and my friends couldn't sell or trade them to anybody but ourselves. We'd take some of our cards to card shops or shows looking to trade or sell them to dealers. It made sense, though. If a dealer pays $25, $50, whatever to get a table at a show, he's not going to want to buy someone else's cards. We tried anyway.
We didn't have enough cards ourselves to justify buying our own table.

Around this same time, we were told it was best to take a pack from the middle of the box. Maybe that was a myth, I don't know. So if I wanted a pack of 1993 Topps Stadium Club cards the guy behind the counter would hand me the box and I could pick out a pack. I would take out the top few packs and pull mine from the center of the box. It seemed everyone was doing this at the time so long as the box in question was close to full.

Then you'd get concerned about opening the pack. God forbid you open it funny and get a fingerprint on the first card or nick the corner.

I was further annoyed with the hobby when at a flea market I saw a man next to me pull out a magnifying glass to examine a card that he was maybe going to buy.

In short, collecting cards was no longer fun. It was fun when it was about looking at the players and reading the stats and bios and you could touch cards without worrying about nicks and fingerprints. The 1989 Pro Set football cards were all over the place (and have virtually no value today), but they were fun. Pictures on both sides and good literature on the back. Those cards gave you a lot of info.

[james]

I agree that cutting up a piece of history, be it a helmet or jersey sucks, I do have a few memorabilila cards that I bought in the last couple of years. I have an Otto Graham, Mel Hein, Lou Groza, Mean Joe Greene/Bob Lilly Dual, Bobby Layne, Terry Bradshaw, Y.A. Tittle. I also have a 1/10 2006 Donrussl Classics Sunday's Best Steve Smith auto/jersey card that my wife had gotten a redemption for in a box of 2006 Donruss Classics she bought. I do have some autograph cards, Otto Graham, Art Donovan x 2, Ollie Matson, Y.A. Tittle, Ron Mix, Dwight Stephenson, Paul Krause.

I started collecting cards in 1974, 7 years old. I like collecting old stuff, while my wife Christy likes the new stuff, especially the 2006 Donruss Classics Football. I'm slowly working on a 1954 Bowman Football set, and I do like buying a couple boxes of Topps Football every year and putting together a set. I like busting open packs and just building a set like in the old days. I'm so NOT into collecting the "Hot Rookie", etc. I would rather buy a memorabilia or auto card of a Hall of Fame player, or a card or two for the 1954 Bowman set, or Leo Nomellini cards. I don't like what the hobby has become, but my local card shop is great.

[Rupert Patrick]

JWL, on 31 July 2010 - 01:29 PM, said:

Around this same time, we were told it was best to take a pack from the middle of the box. Maybe that was a myth, I don't know. So if I wanted a pack of 1993 Topps Stadium Club cards the guy behind the counter would hand me the box and I could pick out a pack. I would take out the top few packs and pull mine from the center of the box. It seemed everyone was doing this at the time so long as the box in question was close to full.

When I was collecting cards I heard that too, to pick from the middle of the box if you could. I doubt Mythbusters will ever try to prove if it was true or not.

There was one guy I used to deal with, buying cards and memorabilia at his shop. His reputation (and business) were ruined when it was revealed he was selling old wax packs of Topps Baseball cards and was carefully opening the packs and taking out all the cards of value and replacing them with commons then carefully ironing the wax packs to re-seal them, so when in 1993 you paid, I don't know, 4 or 5 bucks for a wax pack of 1976 Topps Baseball cards you were getting a bunch of relatively worthless commons.

[JWL]

Rupert Patrick, on 31 July 2010 - 03:08 PM, said:

When I was collecting cards I heard that too, to pick from the middle of the box if you could. I doubt Mythbusters will ever try to prove if it was true or not.

There was one guy I used to deal with, buying cards and memorabilia at his shop. His reputation (and business) were ruined when it was revealed he was selling old wax packs of Topps Baseball cards and was carefully opening the packs and taking out all the cards of value and replacing them with commons then carefully ironing the wax packs to re-seal them, so when in 1993 you paid, I don't know, 4 or 5 bucks for a wax pack of 1976 Topps Baseball cards you were getting a bunch of relatively worthless commons.

Yep, I heard about guys doing that, too. What a disgrace.

[Porky]

Rupert Patrick, on 31 July 2010 - 03:08 PM, said:

When I was collecting cards I heard that too, to pick from the middle of the box if you could. I doubt Mythbusters will ever try to prove if it was true or not.

There was one guy I used to deal with, buying cards and memorabilia at his shop. His reputation (and business) were ruined when it was revealed he was selling old wax packs of Topps Baseball cards and was carefully opening the packs and taking out all the cards of value and replacing them with commons then carefully ironing the wax packs to re-seal them, so when in 1993 you paid, I don't know, 4 or 5 bucks for a wax pack of 1976 Topps Baseball cards you were getting a bunch of relatively worthless commons.

That's why i cringe when i notice people paying $500 for a box of packs for 1986 football, when the box doesn't look sealed. You have to wonder if someone took the time to pull out all of the Jerry Rices...

Speaking of 1989 Pro Set, I remember 89 being a great year for cards. I loved the 1988 Topps cards, but the 89 ones were butt ugly, IMO. It was cool to see really nice looking card ssuch as Score and pro Set come out. If they all stayed in the 3 company format, it would've been nicer, I think.
As for the memorabilia cards, it would be cool if you could send in a card that was inserted in the pack and get the FULL actual jersey or helmet. That would be badass!