Baseball Cards

[dfs]

Originally Posted by Benihana

Recently something interesting happened. Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, bought Topps. Topps then secured an exclusive license from MLB to be the only baseball card maker in the market. They are also attempting to have a digital presence.

We'll likely see the release of "sets" as a pdf.
Me thinks they are missing the point.

I have a brother-in-law who has colllected all the pre 1990 sets back to the 1930's. He does it all by e-bay. He's well off, but not made of money. He comes at it from a stamp collectors point of view where the value lies in the completion of the set more than the love for the intrinsic thing. I'm not confident that I understand.

Still, pdf sets will just be laughable.

[HotCorner]

Topps 2013 Series 1 releases today. One of the digital ties to the series is a game called
"Million Dollar Chase".

2013 Topps Series 1 Baseball and 2013 Topps Series 2 Baseball have code cards similar to the 2012 Topps Baseball Golden Giveaway and 2012 Topps Football Game Time Giveaway. 2013 Topps Baseball Million Dollar Chase code cards unlock players. Each day, collectors use these unlocked players to pick someone they think will get a hit that day. If that player gets a hit, you start a streak. The first person to break the 56-game hitting streak wins the million-dollar grand prize.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by George Anderson

Has Ebay ruined the market in that during preinternet days it was not as easy to find a particular card unless you went to a card shop or card show? If a certain card was harder to find I would assume the price would be higher.

Ebay was and is great. Before the internet, card shops had a general monopoly on things. You had two or three card shops in town? That means they can charge top dollar for their stuff because you don't have much of a choice. With ebay, you are now paying 20% on the dollar of what you would have paid at a card shop. It is fantastic for the collector. It has probably killed a lot of card shops though.

[RANDY IN INDY]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Ebay was and is great. Before the internet, card shops had a general monopoly on things. You had two or three card shops in town? That means they can charge top dollar for their stuff because you don't have much of a choice. With ebay, you are now paying 20% on the dollar of what you would have paid at a card shop. It is fantastic for the collector. It has probably killed a lot of card shops though.

Agree!

[New York Red]

Awww, my first ORG post.

I began collecting baseball cards around 1968 or 1969, when my brother and I would walk a couple miles to the nearest gas station every week with our allowance money (25 cents each) and buy packs of Topps bubble gum cards for 5 cents each. That's the only thing we ever spent our money on. I continued collecting for another 25 years or so, until the hobby priced itself out in the mid-90's. I've got probably 100,000 baseball cards in storage. Plenty of football and basketball cards also, but far, far more baseball cards.

I didn't get seriously interested in it again until I moved to upstate New York a few years ago on a job transfer. My girlfriend at the time loved hitting up yard sales and I quickly noticed that seemingly every other one had baseball, football, basketball and hockey cards. I rarely see them at yard sales in the central KY area, but they're everywhere in upstate NY. In most cases it was older parents whose kids had grown up and moved out, and they were just getting rid of stuff they had stored for years. A lot of times they were just cards from the 90's or 80's, but a few times I struck gold. I'm talking spending $2 on a big box of cards and later finding rookie cards of players like George Brett, Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn, Jerry Rice, Dan Marino, and many others. Even a couple Wayne Gretzky rookie cards. At times I was like a kid on Christmas morning. My girlfriend thought I'd lost my mind, haha.

It wasn't only yard sales either. The hobby is still thriving pretty well up there, so there were card stores galore, and hobby shops and toy stores had great deals on packs, as well as boxes. I got so many great deals at a hobby shop in the University Mall in Burlington, Vermont. Then I moved back to central KY a couple years ago and it's like the hobby doesn't even exist. There's one card store in Lexington, but it's a skeleton of it's former self. Very little to choose from, and what he does have is either worthless or way too expensive.

I hope the new deal Topps has will revive the hobby, but I'm not holding my breath. At least put out a few sets of inexpensive cards to draw kids back into it. When they took kids out of card collecting, they killed it, IMO.

[New York Red]

Ugh ... double post.

[New York Red]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Ebay was and is great. Before the internet, card shops had a general monopoly on things. You had two or three card shops in town? That means they can charge top dollar for their stuff because you don't have much of a choice. With ebay, you are now paying 20% on the dollar of what you would have paid at a card shop. It is fantastic for the collector. It has probably killed a lot of card shops though.

Hmmm ... I'm going to have to look into this. There are a couple online sites I use, but have never tried Ebay.

[NeilHamburger]

There are some really interesting "high end" products on the market now, if you really enjoy autographs and game used relics (jerseys, bats, etc). Now the cost is up there (100-500 dollars a box, usually consisting of one or two packs).


I actually pulled a Hank Aaron on card auto out of a box of Topps Triple Threads last July.

Out of a Topps Five Star box I just bought I got Mike Schmidt, Josh Hamilton and Ryne Sandberg auto's.

Outside the the base Topps sets, many of the product lines have become more for adults, but if you are into collecting high end stuff it's still fun.

[cumberlandreds]

Originally Posted by New York Red

Hmmm ... I'm going to have to look into this. There are a couple online sites I use, but have never tried Ebay.

You should try EBAY. If you are into completing sets you can find just about any card you would need to compete a set. If you aren't too picky about the condition of the card you can get them at really good prices. I was never too picky,myself, as long it didn't have holes or the picture was ripped away.

[goreds2]

Most of my Topps cards are from the 1970's. I would probably sale them minus my Reds. Rookies to note are Ozzie Smith, George Brett and Robin Yount. The 80's were for sure over flooded.

Here is a 31 second commerical from 1989.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDXTjOLOfU8

[Captain Hook]

I came across this and thought I'd share. Auction ends soon so I'm not sure how long you'll be able to view the item.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2001-Topps-S...item460c33acb5

As far as cards go I have a card collection that at one time was probably worth well over 10k and is now probably worth less the $500. They're still priceless to me though. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing cards make a comeback but I doubt it'll ever be like it was at its peek.

[Cyclone792]

Interesting timing on this thread.

Anyway, I was at Dave and Buster's earlier trying to find something to blow "ticket" money on in their little gift area. Since 95 percent of that stuff is rather worthless (there are a few worthwhile items, I'll give them that) I decided to grab this baseball card pack called World's Greatest Card Chase, just for kicks. Inside there was some kind of redemption card good for a game-used bat piece graded card, and on the back of that redemption card there's some PO Box listed where you're supposed to mail it in.

Anybody familiar with this? I've Googled it, but outside of the small bit of info on their site (www.worldsgreatestcardchase.com), there's not much to be found. I'm just kind of curious if it's legit.

EDIT: found an ebay listing selling the item I grabbed at D&B. Here it is: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tristar-Worl...-/280984071700

[dougdirt]

Mail it in Cyclone. Eventually, something will be sent back to you.