Remember when your parents told you to grow up and stop playing with things that were meant for kids? Well they were wrong. Growing up, many sports fans collected trading cards that parents thought were one of the many childish things that kids wasted their money on. This thought was very widely spread and for the most part, a common belief in parents eyes. However, things have changed. The sports card market is booming and nothing seems to be stopping it, not even the Coronavirus Pandemic which has forced thousands of businesses to close their doors and pause operations. “According to our research, the total value of the U.S. sports memorabilia market amounts to $5.4 billion annually,” said David Yoken, founder of Collectible.com in this article from Forbes. The real question is, how did this thing that was seen as a child’s hobby become a multi-billion dollar industry? To answer that question is almost impossible but the best way to answer it is to go back and investigate the path this industry took to get to where it is now.
Sports cards have a very prestigious history and highlight some of the biggest stars for every major sport for approximately the past 120 years. Starting back in the late 1800's, baseball cards were first introduced by tobacco companies such as Goodwin & Co. and Allen & Ginter as a “stiffener” for their cigarette packs and a way to boost sales. These tobacco companies and many others then formed a monopoly called the American Tobacco Company who didn’t need to make baseball cards anymore due to the lack of competition. After the U.S. Government sued the company for monopolizing the industry, the American Tobacco Company splintered into many different smaller independent companies. This caused the new tobacco companies to begin producing baseball cards once again. The age from 1909-1915 is regarded by many as the “Golden Age of baseball cards.” This age includes the legendary T206 white borders cards which contain the most iconic and sought after card ever made, the T206 Honus Wagner.
In the 1920's, Baseball cards took a back seat to a major historical event, World War I and were not produced again until the 1930's when a chewing gum company out of Boston called the Goudey Company began what is now known as the silver age for sports cards. This era of sports cards contained picture cards of players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx. This silver age ended just as quickly as it began in the 1940's as the United States got involved in the second World War. Sports card production was unfortunately halted again until the late 1940's to early 50's, beginning what we know as modern day sports cards.
In the 1950's, Topps Chewing Gum started producing their own trading card sets. In 1952, they released what is known as the most influential sports card set of all-time - the 1952 Topps set. This set included the most valuable card of the post war era, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card. It is the holy grail of sports cards and stands alone as the most desired card among many collectors.” In 2018, this Mantle rookie card in mint condition sold for a record $2.88 million on auction.
Since the release of the Mickey Mantle rookie card, the most valuable card of each player continues to be their rookie card. Through the 50’s and 60’s there were numerous standout baseball rookie cards produced including Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Nolan
Ryan, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron, and many more; However, that was just one sport. Sports card companies such as Topps, Parkhurst, Fleer, and O-Pee-Chee began to venture off the baseball path and produce cards of different sports such as Basketball, Football, and Hockey. This expansion lead to some of the most influential sets in other sports such as the 1980 Topps basketball set containing the “scoring leaders” card which showcased Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, the 1986 Fleer Basketball set containing the infamous Michael Jordan rookie card, and the 1979 O-Pee-Chee hockey set which contains Wayne Gretzky’s rookie card.
After the release of the 1986 Fleer set, this childlike hobby of collecting trading cards became a phenomenon and the world was beginning to catch on. Card companies wanting to capitalize on the surge of card buying began producing their cards in larger and larger quantities until the hobby crashed in the mid-1990's. Due to this explosion of production, many cards from 1987 to 1993 are seemingly worthless. That's right, all the money you spent on cards in the late 80's to put your kids through college, are worth less than you pay for kindling wood today. These years are typically referred to as “junk wax” (wax is slang for a box of cards). Fortunately for sports card collectors, this began to change in the mid-90's when card manufacturers found a way to give exclusivity to their products. They began to stamp serial numbers on cards to show the true print run of said exclusive cards. Manufacturers started with print runs of 10,000 to show that the stamped cards were “rare” and over time, they began to lower that number to increase the rarity of each card. On top of serial numbers, companies began to include autographs on their cards as well as game-used memorabilia pieces such as jerseys, helmets, gloves, and hats to increase the collector value of their cards. Since the mid-90's, this recipe has stood the test of time and grows stronger with each new class of rookies that make their debut in their respective professional leagues.
Today, the value of a card is largely dependent on the play of the player depicted on the card as well as the amount of hype surrounding the player - whether they live up to it or not. One athlete that definitely lived up to his hype was LeBron James. James came into the NBA straight from high school as the #1 pick in the 2003 draft. He dominated the NBA throughout his entire career and is furthering his legacy by playing in his 16th season this year and ranking among the top players in the league. Until this past year, you could pick up a 2003/04 Topps Chrome LeBron James rookie card graded 10 out of 10 for around $2,000. Due to his move to the Lakers and league leading season at the age of 35, this LeBron James rookie card is now consistently selling for more than $6,000 on eBay.
Another massively hyped player coming out of high school in this time period was Kobe Bryant. Bryant was drafted with the 13th pick in the 1996 NBA draft and immediately began his rise to the Mount Rushmore of basketball players until he retired after the 2015/16 season. After he retired, the going rate for Kobe Bryant’s 1996 Topps Chrome rookie card graded 10 out of 10 was around $1,500-$2,000. Since then, this card has slowly increased in price. Then on January 26th, 2020 Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter accident. After his untimely death, the price of his cards tripled overnight and since January has leveled off at about $5,500.
Another player who has achieved Mount Rushmore in his respective sport is Tom Brady. Since his rookie season in the year 2000, Brady has continued to etch his name into the record books and while his name became synonymous with names such as “The GOAT” and “Tom Terrific”, his rookie cards were hitting numbers we haven’t seen since Mickey Mantle. With each super bowl victory, Brady’s most infamous rookie autograph card, the 2000 Playoff Contenders autographed rookie, continued to rise in value. Upon winning his record setting sixth super bowl, this card has reached over $35,000! Similarly to Brady, Mike Trout burst into the Major League of Baseball and quickly became the best baseball player in the world. Trout is on pace to eclipse career records that have not been touched in decades and his rookie cards are reflecting that trajectory. His 2009 Bowman autographed rookie card has reached $25,000 and continues to rise as he gets closer to breaking the career records of players like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
With players' cards fetching massive prices and continuing to rise almost daily, it is easy to see how this hobby has become an investing hotspot once again over the last 15-20 years. Unfortunately, with every investing opportunity, they are not always home runs. For example, for every LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, there are equally hyped players who never reached the level of play that the speculators and investors hoped like Vince Young, Greg Oden, and Johnny Manziel.
One of the most prominent was Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg was one of the most highly touted baseball prospects in the last 20 years. He was said to be the “next Nolan Ryan” before he was drafted first overall in the 2009 MLB entry draft. This sent sports card collectors and speculators into a frenzy in attempts to purchase as many Stephen Strasburg cards as they possibly could. However, Strasburg struggled with multiple injuries commonly associated with pitchers that required the potential career ending and infamous Tommy John Surgery. Strasburg has since become a dominant pitcher in the majors but due to those injuries in the core younger years of his prominence in the MLB, his card value diminished faster than his throwing arm. Many card investors who bought heavily into 2009 baseball products took awhile to heal their wounds from that mistaken investment opportunity. Since Strasburg, there have been many rookies who have come and gone and never reached their true potential but as we get closer to the present day, the amount of young stars continues to rise.
The National Hockey League had never seen a player as polarizing as the “Great One” Wayne Gretzky but in 2015, a player by the name of Connor McDavid eclipsed the level of hype of his colleague and former number one pick, Sidney Crosby and became known as the “Next One”. McDavid quickly became the fixation of many sports collectors and investors and his card prices reflected the demand. His autographed rookie card from Upper Deck’s The Cup Hockey product now fetches about $15,000.
While all of these mentioned players have surpassed the point in their respective careers where they are all good investments, there are a lot of current rookies and stars in which the jury is still out on. Zion Williamson, for example, is being touted as the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James in the NBA without having a professional game under his belt. During preseason, his first autographed cards were fetching about $700-1,000 per card until he suddenly tore his right meniscus. Many people thought that he was done and he would never live up to the hype after his injury while others saw this time as a great time to buy his cards since the price was trending down. Zion missed the first 4 months of the NBA season and finally made his debut on January 22nd, 2020 and finally lived up to the hype. He started slow with only a few points in the first three quarters but in the 4th quarter he electrified the crowd as he rattled off 17 straight points for his New Orleans Pelicans. This performance silenced all the doubters and confirmed the investment of the people who held onto his cards. Williamson’s rookie cards have been heavily sought after this season and continue to sell for mind-numbing amounts. His Panini Prizm silver rookie card graded 10 out of 10 is hitting $3,000 on eBay consistently and he has only played 19 games! A version of this $3,000 card that is labeled “One of One” meaning that there was only one of this specific card made was pulled this past December by a collector in Williamsville, NY. It recently sold for over $100,000!!!
As mentioned before, cards are a very “what have you done for me lately” industry. The newest, hot rookies are always the biggest and most desirable commodity but every so often there is an event that brings an older player back in the limelight and increases their sports card value. For example, ESPN’s The Last Dance has brought the 90s Chicago Bulls back to the forefront of all basketball fans' minds. This documentary has spiked the values of players on that team such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and even their coach Phil Jackson. Along with events like this documentary, recent play of athletes impacts the value of their cards. In the NBA, Jayson Tatum and Damien Lillard are perfect examples as their values have skyrocketed while they have raised their level of play to borderline MVP caliber level. While in the NFL we are looking at a change of the guard at the quarterback position as the era of the young Quarterback is here with Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson leading the way and taking the reins from Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
Based on the amounts that some of these cards are selling for, you can see why investors have turned to sports cards as another opportunity to make money. The market is soaring right now and it could be due to demand as products become more scarce and limited with each passing year. It could also be that all the kids that collected in the 80's and 90's are now established adults who finally have the money to go out and buy the biggest cards of their favorite players. No matter the reason, sports cards are here to stay so go and check your basements, storage areas, and attics for all of your old sports cards you collected as a kid and hope you find something better than the junk wax from the late 80's and early 90's!
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