New Here and Thank You

X

xzebra

Bench Warmer
Just wanted to introduce myself...New here and am excited to dig in.

Collected a lot when I was younger and have not done so since I was in my 20's. Wish I stayed with it for sure. My 11 yr old is really into the football cards and this is all new to be seeing how it has been so long. Lot's of things have changed so I have a few questions if anyone could assist.

1) Football cards have so many different variations. My wife bought a lot of Score because of the price, however I am finding they are not worth much typically. What is the best bang for the buck ROI to purchase?
2) I used to buy the Beckett's books to find the card value. What sites or apps can you find the value with now days?
3) Similar to 2...I realize grading makes a big impact on the overall value of the card. I am torn between PSA and SGC, not to mention BCCG. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Much appreciated to all in advanced!
 
xzebra said:
Just wanted to introduce myself...New here and am excited to dig in.

Collected a lot when I was younger and have not done so since I was in my 20's. Wish I stayed with it for sure. My 11 yr old is really into the football cards and this is all new to be seeing how it has been so long. Lot's of things have changed so I have a few questions if anyone could assist.

1) Football cards have so many different variations. My wife bought a lot of Score because of the price, however I am finding they are not worth much typically. What is the best bang for the buck ROI to purchase?
2) I used to buy the Beckett's books to find the card value. What sites or apps can you find the value with now days?
3) Similar to 2...I realize grading makes a big impact on the overall value of the card. I am torn between PSA and SGC, not to mention BCCG. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Much appreciated to all in advanced!
Click to expand...
Welcome to Sports Card Club! Glad you found us and hope you will enjoy the site and awesome community here!

I can weigh in on your second question. There is a “Whats it Worth” thread where you can post what cards you would like to know the value of. There are a few of us who have Beckett online price guide subscriptions and we can check and post those card values for you.

Hope that helps!

Mike
 
@xzebra

Hey friend, welcome! The best community anywhere online right here, glad to have you as a member!

Cheers!

Kevin
 
Welcome to one of the best trading sites out there! You will find a lot of top notch fellow traders.

Happy trading!
 
Welcome.
one of the best ways to find the current value of one of your cards (outside of what Mike said about Beckett online) is Ebay. Search for your card and use advanced search to find only SOLD listings, as people can list at any price they want and some do. There will be a few outliers so you need to look for the average mean.

Yes most return collectors get a bit shocked when they return to the hobby, especially if they left before or during the "Junk wax" years of mid 1980s to mid 1990s when there where dozens of card makers making at least several dozen sets of each sport (and non-sport subject) each all year long making millions of each individual card. Making all those cards basically worthless except for occasional super duper superstar rookies. That began the investing side of collecting and made buying dozens of copies of one individual card sort of normal. It almost killed the hobby. Eventually most of those card makers either went out of business, merged or were bought out. Now the emphasis seems to be on limiting the quantity of individual cards, but making dozens of variants and parallels, plus adding relics to the cards and autographed cards.
 
Welcome to the site. Score is the low end on football cards, but still a nice set to build if you are into that. The reason the Score cards are low valued, is because Score is one of those products that has millions of cards produced, so there are more of those rookies on the marketplace which affects the value. If you are just chasing rookies, then you probably want to look at higher priced products, but that will depend on what you can afford and want to spend. As for ROI, to me this is like buying a lottery ticket, sometimes you hit that pack with a $100 rookie, sometimes you hit for a $1 rookie, but just like in gambling the house usually wins more than they lose. LOL. Realize that going in, if you are buying high price products and decide how much you want to gamble. I would suggest looking at the checklists on products to see how big the rookie list is and how many big rookies are in it. Products with shorter rookie lists and better players will more likely have better odds of ROI. I used to do the chase, but realized it was just too much to buy every product and felt the ROI was not there with my luck. Now I mainly stick to hockey and just build the Upper Deck set each year. For me it is just about having fun building the set and chasing the big rookies in that set each year.

Another option are group breaks as they are often more affordable than buying boxes, sometimes you can get into those for better products at a reasonable price and get lucky with your team or the rookie team (if random teams). There are buy in breaks where you buy in with a team at either a set price or a price per team picked. There are breaks listed here and on other sites (Ebay, DA Cardworld, and lost of others). You might want to try those or watch those to see what interests you in higher end products.

I am sure others here who are currently doing football can add more insight into what are the better products.
 
Thank you all for all of you taking the time to respond and the welcoming.
Seems like a great bunch with wonderful help, which is exactly what I am looking for. I cannot thank you enough.

Now down the rabbit hole as to what NFL cards, years and brands I should buy. Lottos to figure out going forward.
I definitely cannot afford to spend $125 all the time like I did this weekend with no big cards ever ...LOL. This is beginning to be all to fun for my son and I, but I can't make the wife kick me out on the porch either LOL!
 
I only speak to this because I have a friend who is a serious football collector. I think football is collectible more by player (ie Walter Payton individual cards vs. a full set of 1977 Topps football) in terms of getting the most real value, and I think also of course all the older sets are the most valuable, ie.1970 and before.

I have no idea about recent cards, though I would venture to say if you started player collections of individuals (Brady, Mahomes, etc) you would probably be looking at a good return on your investment.

There are a ton of retired NFL players who are very reliable TTM autograph signers, so it might be fun to give that a try too, if you and your son are interested?

What does everyone else think??

Cheers!

Kevin
 
Hi there and welcome. I have a similar experience to you, but with baseball, getting back into the hobby about 4 years ago after being out of it for a long time. It's exciting to jump in, trying to figure everything out, what's what, what to buy, what to chase, etc. So, definitely enjoy it. Everything is so different now than it was 30 years ago, with all the parallels, inserts, and multitude of non-stop releases 12 months a year.

I think the biggest thing is deciding what kind of collector do you want to be. Do you want to be a set builder and go for all the cards in a particular set, or do you want to focus on a favorite team or favorite players, or focus on rookie cards of top players, or do you want to get into this for long-term investment, or for flipping cards for profit, or for some other reason? It's nice to have a niche. Maybe you will decide to collect all the cards of players who went to a certain college, for instance. And more than one thing can be your focus and you can certainly change it up at any time. That's part of what makes this fun.

It's also great fun to trade cards to get other collectors cards they need in exchange for cards you need. It really does work on boards like this, saving you buying boxes in hopes of finding a card you need (though that's fun too) or buying singles on sites like ebay. I know it's harder to find football traders than baseball but there's always someone looking for football.

To get to your questions:
1 - I can't speak specifically to football sets, but in general, the most prized cards are rookie cards, low serial numbered cards, and autos. Packs or boxes that are more expensive to buy will generally have the potential for a bigger hit, bigger the risk, bigger the reward. Cheaper packs/boxes will tend to have fewer chances for more valuable cards, though it is certainly possible.
2 - The online Beckett guide is the main source for book value. It requires a subscription. Sorry I only have access to baseball pricing or would give you the value of the cards you posted in what's it worth section.
3 - Getting cards graded is really a personal decision. Others can give you more info on the differences between PSA and SGC. It's just not my thing. Some people like it, some people don't. It's back to what kind of a collector do you want to be.

So again, welcome and enjoy.
 
Last edited:
LarryG said:
Hi there and welcome. I have a similar experience to you, but with baseball, getting back into the hobby about 4 years ago after being out of it for a long time. It's exciting to jump in, trying to figure everything out, what's what, what to buy, what to chase, etc. So, definitely enjoy it. Everything is so different now than it was 30 years ago, with all the parallels, inserts, and multitude of non-stop releases 12 months a year.

I think the biggest thing is deciding what kind of collector do you want to be. Do you want to be a set builder and go for all the cards in a particular set, or do you want to focus on a favorite team or favorite players, or focus on rookie cards of top players, or do you want to get into this for long-term investment, or for flipping cards for profit, or for some other reason? It's nice to have a niche. Maybe you will decide to collect all the cards of players who went to a certain college, for instance. And more than one thing can be your focus and you can certainly change it up at any time. That's part of what makes this fun.

It's also great fun to trade cards to get other collectors cards they need in exchange for cards you need. It really does work on boards like this, saving you buying boxes in hopes of finding a card you need (though that's fun too) or buying singles on sites like ebay. I know it's harder to find football traders than baseball but there's always someone looking for football.

To get to your questions:
1 - I can't speak specifically to football sets, but in general, the most prized cards are rookie cards, low serial numbered cards, and autos. Packs or boxes that are more expensive to buy will generally have the potential for a bigger hit, bigger the risk, bigger the reward. Cheaper packs/boxes will tend to have fewer chances for more valuable cards, though it is certainly possible.
2 - The online Beckett guide is the main source for book value. It requires a subscription. Sorry I only have access to baseball pricing or would give you the value of the cards you posted in what's it worth section.
3 - Getting cards graded is really a personal decision. Others can give you more info on the differences between PSA and SGC. It's just not my thing. Some people like it, some people don't. It's back to what kind of a collector do you want to be.

So again, welcome and enjoy.
Click to expand...
Thank you Larry! Really appreciate your assistance.
 
kclj520 said:
I only speak to this because I have a friend who is a serious football collector. I think football is collectible more by player (ie Walter Payton individual cards vs. a full set of 1977 Topps football) in terms of getting the most real value, and I think also of course all the older sets are the most valuable, ie.1970 and before.

I have no idea about recent cards, though I would venture to say if you started player collections of individuals (Brady, Mahomes, etc) you would probably be looking at a good return on your investment.

There are a ton of retired NFL players who are very reliable TTM autograph signers, so it might be fun to give that a try too, if you and your son are interested?

What does everyone else think??

Cheers!

Kevin
Click to expand...
Thank you....I know a lot has changed and it is crazy, but fun as well. Appreciate the feedback.
 

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