Sports card collecting can make you feel like a real life general manager at times.
Thanks to everyone’s not-so favourite pandemic, I’ve found myself back into the volatile world of sports cards — specifically hockey.
Earlier this month, I finally acquired the “it” rookie card of the NHL season so far. I sent my Ja Morant NBA rookie card and an undisclosed amount of cash to someone in southern Ontario for the Alexis Lafreniere 2020-21 Upper Deck Young Guns card. No future considerations.
I need to make something clear: I am not a buy-and-sell kind of collector. Sure, I check on the values of my cards and I am aware of the markets when shopping, but I do not purchase or trade for cards with the intent of flipping them and making a profit. I’m a sports fan first and foremost with an interest in building a personal collection. I like cool, quirky cards.
The art and design of hockey cards have come a long way. Gone are the simple O-Pee-Chee sets which featured a player photo, a coloured border, some stats and a stick of gum.
Today, there are special inserts, limited numbered/parallels, patches, game-worn jersey pieces, on-card autographs, sticker autographs, autograph patches, autographed jersey pieces, graded, ungraded, re-issues, rookie redemption codes, acetates and even virtual cards via a phone or tablet app.
And a partridge in a pear tree.
I try to keep things simple so I don’t spend beyond my limited budget. I stick to any and all cards featuring members of the Edmonton Oilers, past and present, within reasonable value, cards of players from our region such as the Staals, Patrick Sharp and Mackenzie Blackwood and certain rookie cards of current stars. It’s a lot easier to justify purchasing a low-end Victory brand Sidney Crosby rookie as opposed to his Upper Deck one which is valued at anywhere between $2,000 to $20,000 depending on its condition and scarcity.
The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have provided a boost to the industry. Numbers have shot up across the board both on the primary and secondary market. The 1979 Wayne Gretzky rookie card in pristine condition — which is better than mint apparently — sold for a hockey record $1.29 million this past December. Twelve boxes of unopened packs of 1986-87 Fleer basketball cards and the chance to “pull” multiples of Michael Jordan’s rookie card moved for $370,000 at a recent Goldin auction — double the price of what it was a year ago. During the actual 1986-87 NBA season, one pack set you back 50 cents.
However, a Jordan rookie card can command a five-or six-figure return.
Even new releases carry a hefty price tag. Rookie cards of current stars from all major sports — Patrick Mahomes, Luka Doncic, Mike Trout, Fernando Tatis, Jr. —are skyrocketing in value.
A box of this year’s “The Cup” Upper Deck brand hockey cards can be yours for just $900 to $1,000. One box contains six speciality cards.
Yes, six.
The potential value of a signed or special edition card (also known as a “hit”) can easily earn that money back and turn a profit — figuratively speaking. You still have to hustle out there and sell, sell, sell.
Glen Harmer, a fellow collector in Thunder Bay, says the hoopla of the new card genre is not for him.
“That’s why I quit buying,” he said. “Invest in older cards. They hold their value.”
It’s a commerce game now and some innocence was likely lost decades ago. Our family friend, Wayne Rich, who grew up in the 1960s and 70s, recalls a time when there wasn’t an online auction or Facebook group to obtain new cards. Even at mere cents per pack, kids could only afford so much.
In order to get the cards he wanted, Wayne would pull off trades with friends or compete in a game where he and others would line their cards against a wall and then throw cards at them. First one to knock an opposing player’s card and won the pot. Imagine that happening today? Those bent corners would take a beating in the grading process.
In Thunder Bay, we’ve lost the personal connection of sports card dealing — even before the pandemic.
Overtime Sports and Collectibles closed last February after the untimely passing of owner John McCuaig. Sportscards Plus and Collectibles on Victoria Avenue also shut its doors in recent years. Part of the fun was gathering around and talking shop . . . at the shop.
Stay tuned for Saturday’s sports section where I trace back why I returned to this crazy hobby after nearly 30 years and why some kid from St-Eustache, Que., became a target of that obsession.
Reuben Villagracia is the sports editor at The Chronicle-Journal. Contact him at [email protected].
