Sports Cards

This week I thought I would talk to you a little bit about sports cards. There is actually a lot more to them then it might seem.

There are many different varieties of sports cards, as well as subsets. These include:

• Rookie Cards (RCs)
• Inserts- #'d parallels, special chase sets, etc.
• Autographs
• Game Used memorabilia cards- jerseys, shorts, shoes, facemasks, footballs, floor, basketballs, etc.
• Autographed Game Used cards
• Patch cards- both Game Used and Manufactured
• Printing Plates- the plates used to create each card; there are four unique to each card: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. These cards are numbered 1/1 because only one of each color exist for each card.

There are also several sports card manufacturers, including:

• Topps- includes Bowman
• Upper Deck- includes Fleer
• Panini- bought out Donruss and its brands

Brands and sets from all these companies range in price greatly. They all fall under this umbrella:

• High End- products that cost anywhere from $500 to $1000s of dollars; Upper Deck Exquisite is an example
• Mid-High End- products in the middle of this range; a Topps hobby case (12 boxes) might fall here
• Mid End- products within the $250- $500 range with some variation; Upper Deck SP Game Used tends to fall here
• Mid-Low End- products in the middle of this range; Upper Deck Radiance might fall here
• Low End- products under $100 usually; most Topps products fall here

These are by no means all the possible pricing combinations or levels- that list would be far to complicated to compile here. As a general rule, however, the more you pay the better your odds of hitting "the big one-" a Michael Jordan or Lebron James autograph, or a Mickey Mantle cut signature card- become.