Comments on: Numbers crunching: Memorabilia cards have made their mark on hobby

By: Poblano

Poblano — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:04:44 +0000

Michal I cram snap-tites into 8 pocket pages, especially for cards displayed lenghtwise. But Ultra pro should make specific pages for memos, I’ve come up with some concepts for design, again Ultra-Pro send me so royalties, tee hee. Otherwise 4 pockets with top loaders a bit of double sided tape, presto… it won’t bust your binder!

By: Poblano

Poblano — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:51:41 +0000

I pulled a babe ruth bat relic and my gal thought it was beyond silly. So did I. I was knocked outta the park with how much I got for it. I mean, how could taking a ledgendary bat then shreading it be of any value? I must admit though I kinda like having a couple of pages of jersey cards at the end of a great album of cards, I guess it’s the same thing. A rookie touches a jersey at the draft day then they cut it up… Anyway, I dig Jumbo’s and big multi-color jersey die-cuts are tops, but helmet and dirt. Just give me a sweet RC.

WHY DOESN’T ANYONE DO FANTASY FOOTBALL CARD SETS??? Think of the potential market Topps, then give me my cut for the idea.

By: chrisolds

chrisolds — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:55:32 +0000

I think in an era where we can get MLB authentication stickers showing the date that a jersey was pulled from a player’s back (though they don’t even all do that) we have become a bit spoiled.

Just 10-15 years ago, that kind off documentation didn’t exist for MLB stuff — so someone was at the mercy of what someone said (an item’s provenance) along with a letter of opinion for authenticity from an expert on authentication for said types of items.

The same goes for an autograph — unless you got it yourself.

Often times — in fact, most of the time — there is absolutely no way to link a jersey to a specific game, event or even season save for tagging (which would offer year of first issue). That’s likely one reason that Topps, for example, says just that on its Relic cards on their backs. While we all want to link an action photo to the jersey swatch on the card, it’s just not realistic. Why? The date of an item is likely not known — or photos from that exact day of that exact player are not available.

With newer memorabilia going forward? It’s easier, but those same limitations will still exist.

In my discussions with card companies, changes such as not using photos of the items *before* they are cut up is because of time, staffing and printing costs if the backs are not four-color. Could it be done? Sure, but doing it also doesn’t justify itself with X times of additional packs sold if they do — just like the whole sticker vs. on-card auto debate. We say we like it, but our buying habits don’t always say the same as our mouths do.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:16:02 +0000

Excellent article Chris!

By: Johnny Hodge

Johnny Hodge — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:56:48 +0000

thank you for article.
I think it would be cool if companies would focus on either Topps Marquee Titantic style relics (I love them- I have Hank Aaron, Mel Ott, Johnny Mize, where they are big jumbo pieces of memorabilia OR focus on multi-color patch cards. I also love any HISTORICAL RELIC cards such as GOODWIN MUSEUM set. We need more of those with more significant historical pieces. I also believe that the way to make the memorabilia cards more interesting and more valuable would be to give specific dates of when memorabilia was used and how. There has to be someway to offer a product where all memorabilia is from specific year/games (especially on current players). Schedule a day and have all jerseys sent in from that day. Have a game from the WORLD SERIES where jerseys are acquired. Just some food for thoughts. I LOVE COLLECTING!
Johnny Hodge

By: TADontAsk

TADontAsk — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:19:53 +0000

You have to say the same thing about all the cut autographs out there. It’s not the kind of product that card companies are going to be able to put out forever.

By: Michal

Michal — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:17:37 +0000

Charlie: You can check it in Beckett database – search by name, then by card type. My favorite memorabilia cards were (I am hockey only) 98-99 BAP Memorabilia Jersey/Training Jersey/AllStar Jersey sets and 1996-97 UD Game Jerseys. You will not meet them at e-bay for 99c each unlike 99% of today’s memorabilia cards.
I’d like to hear from someone with bigger memorabilia cards collection how do you store/browse your collection? For most of the cards are 9-pocket pages not suitable and toploaders or one touch – I cannot imagine 2000 one touch holders with Roy seriously sorted. :)

By: chrisolds

chrisolds — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:33:17 +0000

That’s part of the things to wonder about. At some point, the stuff for not-active guys HAS to dry up.

By: Charlie DiPietro

Charlie DiPietro — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:22:42 +0000

Do you have an estimate of how many Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Mel Ott bats and jerseys currently exist? Just thinking that some day there will be none available on the open market to cut up for cards.

I love memorabilia cards. I can’t affort $85,000 (?) for a Babe Ruth bat, but I can afford a Babe Ruth bat card.