Why aren't there more football card collectors?

[OlderTheBetter]

I think collecting (and buying/selling) in any collectible market often goes where the best market value and interest lie. Demand breeds demand. Some folks will delude themselves into thinking that they're pure collectors but would prefer to buy more valuable cards if they could afford to do so. Football cards have generally been (relative to baseball) an easier buy than baseball for a long time now due to lesser demand. And honestly I'm not much interested in why that is the case. It is what it is.

Since 1990 I've been able to buy just about any card that I really wanted (1968-1972 Topps BB and FB), but I haven't bought many football cards. The return on investment is not as great for the players that I'm interested in. The card series are small and the challenge of completing a FB set was never really there for me. How many of you ever look at those sets that you collected and put in a binder on a shelf?

No it's not all about money, but at least I'm honest enought with myself to understand that some day I am going to sell it all and I want to get top dollar. No one in my family wants the cards. Children and grandchildren in my family could not care less about cards. Some of the Mantle cards that I bought in the early 90s have been graded and have now quadupled in value. I can't say that about any of the football cards I could have bought instead.

--Dave

[Butch7999]

What now, you're saying that unless someone can afford more expensive cards they're not "pure collectors"?

Originally Posted by OlderTheBetter

... Some folks will delude themselves into thinking that they're pure collectors but would prefer to buy more valuable cards if they could afford to do so....

[OlderTheBetter]

Originally Posted by Butch7999

What now, you're saying that unless someone can afford more expensive cards they're not "pure collectors"?

That's not really what I was trying to say. What I meant to say was that many collectors pretend to not care about the financial value of their collection when in fact it's a major factor.

And often they're not collecting modern issues because they know that these cards will never have much financial value... But they won't tell you that.

This kind of hypocrisy in the so-callled "hobby" was always there, but has become more obvious as older cards become much more expensive in comparison to modern cards. Modern issues are often scorned because they're not valuable and most likely never will be.

The original OP posed the question about why there aren't more football collectors and my opinion is that many collectors with real money to spend aren't collecting football as much as baseball because they perceive the ROI to be less. At least I am willing to admit that this has been the case for me.

These are just pictures of players on cardboard -- and it's getting harder to justify the cost.

If all vintage cards were relatively cheap this would not be the case and we'd
all probably be like those guys in the pre-1970 era, scooping up everything in sight.

--Dave

[Leon]

This is spot on, imo. Money is usually the answer to most questions of this nature. If the football cards were way more valuable there would be way more collectors. I go to a local show where there is always a guy with in ipad walking around. I try to get away from him quickly but every now and then he catches me and has to show me something I could give a rats ass about. One time he showed me a holy grail of his. The build up was great and I was expecting something fantastic and really valuable. So he pulled out his trusty ipad (I hate them) and showed me a Mickey Mouse card. I acted interested and asked the value of such a holy grail? He told me about a hundred bucks. I said wow, that is great. But to be honest had he said 10k I would have been more interested . Truth be told, money keeps people interested. Jeff Burdick would have hated today's collectors.

Originally Posted by OlderTheBetter

That's not really what I was trying to say. What I meant to say was that many collectors pretend to not care about the financial value of their collection when in fact it's a major factor.

And often they're not collecting modern issues because they know that these cards will never have much financial value... But they won't tell you that.

This kind of hypocrisy in the so-callled "hobby" was always there, but has become more obvious as older cards become much more expensive in comparison to modern cards. Modern issues are often scorned because they're not valuable and most likely never will be.

The original OP posed the question about why there aren't more football collectors and my opinion is that many collectors with real money to spend aren't collecting football as much as baseball because they perceive the ROI to be less. At least I am willing to admit that this has been the case for me.

These are just pictures of players on cardboard -- and it's getting harder to justify the cost.

If all vintage cards were relatively cheap this would not be the case and we'd
all probably be like those guys in the pre-1970 era, scooping up everything in sight.

--Dave

[mickey7mantle7]

I love baseball first. .

However...

I wouldn't mind having a Jim Brown or Payton RC before other cards in most cases.

I think Fantasy Football has changed the hobby as well.

[Kurri17]

I posted earlier in this thread, but have a couple more thoughts on the topic. So here goes.

Collecting usually starts as a kid, and often has something to do with connection to the teams and players they like. Today, if kids want to, they can see games, video, and discussion seven days a week. With all of that available, something is missing that draws kids to cards. They just don't need them. For many of us, game broadcasts, magazines, and cards were the only way to get that connection. Just a thought.

Secondly, and I may get pounded for this, but think about what you hear during broadcasts and sports talk shows. That would be money, arrests, suspension for PEDs and other reasons, and lots of other stuff that has little to do with actual football. Seems like it might be hard to get excited about the game and have that desire to do things which provide connection to the teams and players. Football media is for adults, and does nothing to make kids excited about football.

[sthoemke]

I think there just isn't many supercollectors for football stars, as compared to other sports.

[clamendo]

Originally Posted by OlderTheBetter

I think collecting (and buying/selling) in any collectible market often goes where the best market value and interest lie. Demand breeds demand. Some folks will delude themselves into thinking that they're pure collectors but would prefer to buy more valuable cards if they could afford to do so. Football cards have generally been (relative to baseball) an easier buy than baseball for a long time now due to lesser demand. And honestly I'm not much interested in why that is the case. It is what it is.

Since 1990 I've been able to buy just about any card that I really wanted (1968-1972 Topps BB and FB), but I haven't bought many football cards. The return on investment is not as great for the players that I'm interested in. The card series are small and the challenge of completing a FB set was never really there for me. How many of you ever look at those sets that you collected and put in a binder on a shelf?

No it's not all about money, but at least I'm honest enought with myself to understand that some day I am going to sell it all and I want to get top dollar. No one in my family wants the cards. Children and grandchildren in my family could not care less about cards. Some of the Mantle cards that I bought in the early 90s have been graded and have now quadupled in value. I can't say that about any of the football cards I could have bought instead.

--Dave

It’s good that you qualified your statements to 1968-1972 Topps. However, there plenty of 1960s regional sets in football where there is tremendous value and rarity. The supply is so limited that you would have little success obtaining a single example even against the smaller community of “cheapskate” football collectors.


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[OlderTheBetter]

Rarity doesn't equate to value. A rare set doesn't really help a collectible market much -- what does drive interest up is very high demand for items that are not rare. Football is not that.

There must be sufficient demand and there just aren't enough enough post-war football sets with high demand relative to the demand for baseball.

Of the top 25 or so sports cards ranked by price paid I don't think there is a single football card in the list.

The correct answer to the OP's question is that ALL sports cards across the board are going to see a decrease in the number of collectors. You have to get the younger generations more interested, but it's just not cool to be a young collector of pictures on cardboard. Not when you have video game systems, internet and other newer technologies that are much more popular and relevant to fill the time. Even comic books are getting much more interest than sports cards these days. Sports cards are for granddad.

You go to a card shop these days and you don't see kids often. At least I don't in the shops that I go to. What you do see is a lot of guys with white hair.


--Dave