Hi Chris...
First of all, great site. I've checked it out several times. Like you, I'm a football guy. 49 Years old. A passionate football fan. Just yesterday, I was bracing my wife for the fact that the first preseason game is just a little over a month away.
I collect only vintage football memorabilia...but own some baseball memorabilia. I have great respect for the game of baseball, especially it's history...but rarely watch a second of baseball before the playoffs start. For football, I go to training camp and preseason games and then consume every possible second of the sport from season's start until season's end.
What I love about this site is the wealth of knowledge, amazing collectors and collections. It's a great community and I check it for new posts at least once a day. I've made friends on here as well as a network of connections that have helped me with my collection.
There's nothing close to it for football out there. Why? I've thought about creating a site but I've got competing interests and priorities for my time. You're football collector vs baseball collector ratio is probably pretty close but I'd say closer to 1/20th.
I don't think there's any question, football is the most popular sport in this country, but that hasn't translated to collecting popularity or values. Many reasons for this. First, it's a matter of demographics. While football was played in the 1800's, it didn't gain any kind of national popularity until Red Grange came along in the early 20's...and that was specifically college football. The NFL didn't really start to take off until the invention of the TV and famously the 1958 Championship Game between the Colts and Giants. The NFL began to build momentum from that point on but didn't really begin to challenge baseball as the national past time until the 1970's. So baseball had essentially a century head start. That means there were generations of fans passing down the passion from grandfather to father to son. It also means the age of the average baseball fan is probably much older than the average football fan. Older fans tend to have more disposable income and also more of an interest in the past.
I keep hoping for the day football memorabilia popularity catches up to football popularity. Until it does, I'll enjoy the buyer's market.
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