[kenarm79]

Here's my two cents from an international perspective. Football might be number one in the USA, but despite the NFL's efforts with regular games outside of the US, there is little, if any interest for football elsewhere. Baseball might be big in Japan, but there is very little interest anywhere else. Basketball on the other hand is a global game. You only need to look at the NBA today which is almost unrecognisable from 20 years ago, with so many international players, some of which have had a real impact too. That's why the interest in the NBA has been growing steadily. "Linsanity" for instance was fuelled mainly by interest from Asia.

Of course card collecting may not be as traditional in other countries as in the US, but I've seen interest in the hobby grow on a regular basis in Europe and in Asia. Some of the main collectors of basketball cards are in Asia today. And with the US dollar losing ground against most of the asian currencies over the last years, their purchasing power has been increasing too. That's why I believe basketball cards have the biggest upside potential of all sportscards.

I agree to some degree. Linsanity grew because of the market he played in not because of Asia. If he played for the Bucks, no one would've payed too much attention to him. Espn wouldn't have had a strong interest in following him. It was media driven. He's in Houston now and no one seems to care.

Basketball has become a global sport. Asia loves basketball, maybe more than baseball. Europe has been involved with it for a long time, but it's not really the same. I lived in Germany for a few years and my cousin also played there (he still plays overseas). I agree, they may like it, but it is no where near the type of atmosphere as in the U.S. Football is like soccer to Americans, lol.

I'm with you, I think basketball is becoming very popular around the world.