If You Collect Scorecards or Programs, Show 'em Here!

[Belfast1933]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

Programs / scorecards are very affordable and lots of fun, especially when scored, that's why I have so many of them.

Great... how can I get started? What would you experienced collectors advise in terms of what to look for?

- era to explore first?
- cover art matters a lot, I'd assume?
- how do you evaluate condition and reasonable price/value?
- big name player in the score card and/or a specific historic game adds a lot, i'd assume?
- scorecards vs. programs vs. yearbooks... where to focus first?


I still love my cards... but this sounds like a nice, affordable tangent to explore

Thanks all (and if you're selling some cool items, PM me!) I love great cover illustrations

Jeff

[icollectDCsports]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Great... how can I get started? What would you experienced collectors advise in terms of what to look for?

- era to explore first?
- cover art matters a lot, I'd assume?
- how do you evaluate condition and reasonable price/value?
- big name player in the score card and/or a specific historic game adds a lot, i'd assume?
- scorecards vs. programs vs. yearbooks... where to focus first?


I still love my cards... but this sounds like a nice, affordable tangent to explore

Thanks all (and if you're selling some cool items, PM me!) I love great cover illustrations

Jeff

I think collecting score cards and the like is very personal to the collector. If you're not that familiar with them, my recommendation is that you think about what theme of collecting would appeal to you (team, era, player, event (WS, AS game, etc.)) and jump in. And you don't even need a theme other than what "sparks joy" for you. Also, keep in mind that prices for many of them on eBay can be all over the place for essentially the same item (unless they're WS or AS game programs).

[bigfanNY]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Great... how can I get started? What would you experienced collectors advise in terms of what to look for?

- era to explore first?
- cover art matters a lot, I'd assume?
- how do you evaluate condition and reasonable price/value?
- big name player in the score card and/or a specific historic game adds a lot, i'd assume?
- scorecards vs. programs vs. yearbooks... where to focus first?


I still love my cards... but this sounds like a nice, affordable tangent to explore

Thanks all (and if you're selling some cool items, PM me!) I love great cover illustrations

Jeff

Jeff Collect whatever appeals to you the most. Favorite era , player, Team.. 100% Best advice I ever got or gave is collect what you love. I will share some of my favorite covers.

[Belfast1933]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

Jeff Collect whatever appeals to you the most. Favorite era , player, Team.. 100% Best advice I ever got or gave is collect what you love. I will share some of my favorite covers.

Always good advice... i think I may start with pre-war scorecards and see how that journey goes!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Always good advice... i think I may start with pre-war scorecards and see how that journey goes!

agree go with what you enjoy

also go vintage and keep an eye out for interesting photos, advertising etc that might catch your eye

[5-Tool Player]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

agree go with what you enjoy

also go vintage and keep an eye out for interesting photos, advertising etc that might catch your eye

+!......keep that passion

[effe]

[effe]

[bigfanNY]

1938 Princeton vs Penn. Notice the eyes.. one of the few Programs that I display( because when I got it it was in the frame). And a couple basketball. There are jump shots and then there are Jump Shots.. the least attractive is from the First game the Philadelphia 76ers.

[Collectorsince62]

From Stan The Man's five home run doubleheader in 1954 - both scorecards, nicely scored. Plus an original wirephoto from between games. Mr. Musial signed both scorecards for me and hearing him talk about that day was like a religious experience. "I should have had six" he laughed (he pinned Mays against the center field wall in the 3rd inning of the second game). He said he never tried to hit home runs but he wanted one in his last at bat and popped out to first. An incredibly genuine and nice man. I treasure the conversation with him as much as the scorecards.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by Collectorsince62

From Stan The Man's five home run doubleheader in 1954 - both scorecards, nicely scored. Plus an original wirephoto from between games. Mr. Musial signed both scorecards for me and hearing him talk about that day was like a religious experience. "I should have had six" he laughed (he pinned Mays against the center field wall in the 3rd inning of the second game). He said he never tried to hit home runs but he wanted one in his last at bat and popped out to first. An incredibly genuine and nice man. I treasure the conversation with him as much as the scorecards.

Beautiful scorecards. Very cool!!

[5-Tool Player]

Originally Posted by Collectorsince62

From Stan The Man's five home run doubleheader in 1954 - both scorecards, nicely scored. Plus an original wirephoto from between games. Mr. Musial signed both scorecards for me and hearing him talk about that day was like a religious experience. "I should have had six" he laughed (he pinned Mays against the center field wall in the 3rd inning of the second game). He said he never tried to hit home runs but he wanted one in his last at bat and popped out to first. An incredibly genuine and nice man. I treasure the conversation with him as much as the scorecards.

Great scorecards and a better conversation/dialog with a HOFer

[jethrod3]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Great... how can I get started? What would you experienced collectors advise in terms of what to look for?
- era to explore first?
- cover art matters a lot, I'd assume?
- how do you evaluate condition and reasonable price/value?
- big name player in the score card and/or a specific historic game adds a lot, i'd assume?
- scorecards vs. programs vs. yearbooks... where to focus first?
I still love my cards... but this sounds like a nice, affordable tangent to explore
Thanks all (and if you're selling some cool items, PM me!) I love great cover illustrations

Those are also some good questions. I think it's like a few have already said: Everyone is gonna be different. For me, this is my "great wide open" of collecting. Generally I buy what strikes my fancy (sometimes I buy for the covers, sometimes for the historic event, sometimes for a player, and always from the games that I go to). But for me, condition and eye appeal don't figure prominently into my decision to buy, even though those factors might figure prominently for my card or even ticket purchases.

I prefer my scorecards to be scored, but I think there are some purists that prefer unscored minty scorecards, though admittedly it's difficult to then track them to specific games unless the dates are printed on the scorecards themselves. One such scorecard with a date listed is shown below. Not very pretty, but one of my faves, because it's from the game in which a future home run king hit his first home run!

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Great... how can I get started? What would you experienced collectors advise in terms of what to look for?

- era to explore first?
- cover art matters a lot, I'd assume?
- how do you evaluate condition and reasonable price/value?
- big name player in the score card and/or a specific historic game adds a lot, i'd assume?
- scorecards vs. programs vs. yearbooks... where to focus first?


I still love my cards... but this sounds like a nice, affordable tangent to explore

Thanks all (and if you're selling some cool items, PM me!) I love great cover illustrations

Jeff

Start on ebay where there are thousands of them available, very many of them for very cheap.

Buy what you like. There is no right and no wrong way to collect.

I prefer scored ones, I used to love figuring out the date using the box scores in my Sporting News collection (which I only collected to date my scorecards), now it's so easy for me to figure out the date from Retrosheet that I would like to sell my TSN collection (shameless plug).

I once bought 7 Reds scorecards from the early 1960s on ebay for $20 including postage and in the process of figuring out the dates found that I had bought Pete Rose's ML debut game.

That kind of stuff happens a lot still.