[kerryandbeth]

2 of the most expensive players (Rodgers & Brady) lost again today on the field and another well-respected player (CMC) changed teams.  

Baseball draws attention to every player since they either pitch or bat, whereas football has only 3-6 guys in spotlight on both sides of the ball, and no cards are made of the others who are professionals.

[dogger99]

Very true. That is what I liked about collecting my sets during the 70's and 80's. There were usually 12-18 cards (before going to the 396 card sets) of each team. Don Strock was primarily a backup with the Dolphins behind Griese and look at how many cards he has. You don't see that anymore. Usually just the QB, RB, WR, TE and defensive star (if there is one) for each team.

A long checklist is something I really liked about Topps Total when it was produced.

[rjcj2017]

Very true.  That is what I liked about collecting my sets during the 70's and 80's.  There were usually 12-18 cards (before going to the 396 card sets) of each team.  Don Strock was primarily a backup with the Dolphins behind Griese and look at how many cards  he has.  You don't see that anymore.  Usually just the QB, RB,  WR, TE and defensive star (if there is one) for each team.

A  long checklist is something I really liked about Topps Total when it was produced.

Agreed on Topps Total ... especially the cards with 3 players on them, one of my favorites is when Dan Campbell (now the Lions' coach) played for them and was in the 2006 set with two other players on the card.

Agreed, Kerry, the same 5-6 players per team set in every product get a little redundant.

[ZSDOne]

Football has always been the worst product to collect because the careers are relatively short and the exceptions tend to end up getting really expensive - and now, every new rookie is being priced as if they will be an exception.

Look at Mac Jones - last year he was the toast of the NFL and collector attention - now his career is uncertain

[rjcj2017]

Football has always been the worst product to collect because the careers are relatively short and the exceptions tend to end up getting really expensive - and now, every new rookie is being priced as if they will be an exception.

Look at Mac Jones - last year he was the toast of the NFL and collector attention - now his career is uncertain

I'm definitely not a Patriots fan today - if they would have beaten the Bears last night I would have won my office pool.

[ashlandmark]

Football is the hard to collect because the roster has over 50 players and only one of the 50 is collectable (the QB). (Some RB's I guess are but they have short careers, and maybe 2-3 WR's, and only if they went to LSU)

Basketball is more collectable because small rosters and big internationally. Same with soccer.

Baseball has history and is the biggest into stats.

Hockey seems regional and even not that big in ORiginal 6 places like Boston, NY and Chicago. It's basically Canada, and maybe Minnesota and Detroit where people collect hockey cards on par with other sports.

IMHO

[jaykayzee]

I pretty much stopped collecting football because I was sick of buying boxes and pulling only hits of "Free Agent" or 7th round guys. Products released halfway through the season still contain hits of players who didn't make it out of training camp.

[rjcj2017]

I pretty much stopped collecting football because I was sick of buying boxes and pulling only hits of "Free Agent" or 7th round guys. Products released halfway through the season still contain hits of players who didn't make it out of training camp.

Facts, and now they don't even include the jersey cards of third and fourth round picks in blaster boxes anymore ... for a higher price.

It's just not worth it.

[jaderock]

With all these reasons to not collect football, where does football ranking among the hobby? 1st, 2nd or 3rd?

[footbal]

I don't post often at all but I see this from a different angle. I only collect football. It's my favorite sport by far and I've been collecting sets and my Vikes since I was itty bitty. I love it and honestly my Vikings PC is borderline ridiculous at this point (Not Jaderock/Brunell ridiculous but not too far off lol). I'm not looking for just an investment, this is almost completely hobby for me. Believe me, I'm happy when I get a good pull but haven't bought any wax in a few years cuz it's easier to just buy straight up and sets seem to have gone by the wayside (unfortunately) but I just changed how I collect to continue to enjoy it. And I absolutely do a little bit of buy low sell high (If you knew what that actually means for me you'd think I'm more "high" than low lol) but nothing that would get emotions involved. I get it can be a bummer if you're looking to see your collection as worth instead of something cool to have and there's nothing at all wrong with that. People do it for different reasons and there's extremes on both sides. I think the simplest way for me to look at collecting is if you're having fun you're doing it right. There's so much room for disappointment if you do it any other way (Again, nothing wrong with that either)! Plus, if you can replace the things in life that bum you out with things you enjoy you're gonna enjoy this one time trip a bit more. Hope y'all are digging what you're doing cuz for me it even goes beyond just the cards I have. And that's pretty cool.
I should add too that one of the ways collecting has changed is, even though most of what comes out these days is like Kerryandbeth says-low number of guys on your team in products these days, there has also been some cool things that have come out over the years of some of those missed guys from way back. Ahmad Rashad was my favorite as a kid but didn't have anything cool (Pro Set auto's aren't that cool to me) until 1997. Gary Larsen (A Purple People Eater) and Anthony Carter finally had an auto in Topps Fan Favorites. Little things like that have really helped make my PC feel more complete.