What drives the hobby love for certain players? Ozzie Smith as an example...

[bk400]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I am interested in hearing theories for why certain players seem to get outsized interest in their cards relative to other players.

For example, if you look at the price and liquidity of Ozzie Smith's cards, there seems to be high demand relative to the scarcity.

On the other hand, Mike Schmidt or Ryne Sandberg don't get the same kind of hobby love. At least it doesn't seem that way when you look at how their paper trades. And arguably, Mike Schmidt and Ryne Sandberg played in bigger markets than Ozzie.

[Kutcher55]

I guess I don’t see Ozzie getting more hobby love than those guys. His RC goes for a bit of a premium in high grade but that’s because the card is almost impossible to find centered / untitled. Other than that, his cards don’t really sell for much.

Hard to compare to Schmidt or Sandberg since their careers are staggered at different times of vintage availability. Schmidt’s RC suffers from being ugly and shared with two other guys. Sandberg’s RC is basically junk wax and can be benchmarked against Boggs and Gwynn where it performs pretty well especially given that his career was the least impressive among the three.

Ozzie was beloved. He had that winning personality. He did that flip when he came out on the field, played in a baseball town, hit a famous home run. So he has all that going for him.

Just some random musings.

[frankhardy]

Just YouTube Ozzie Smith defensive highlights and you will see why.

I'm not sure of the analytic stat... I think it is something like "Defensive Runs Saved".... But Ozzie Smith by that statistic is the greatest defensive player in history.

He is still beloved in St Louis and a super nice guy.

[frankhardy]

Also, Baseball Reference "Defensive WAR", Ozzie Smith is the best of all time.

The list goes like this.

Number 1 Ozzie Smith.
Number 2 Mark Belanger.
Number 3 Brooks Robinson.
Number 4 is Cal Ripken Jr.
Number 5 is Joe Tinker.
Number 6 is Luis Aparicio.
Number 7 is Rabbit Moranville.
Number 8 is Pudge Rodriguez.
Number 9 is Omar Viquel.
Number 10 is Bobby Wallace.

By the way. Number 14 is Yadier Molina. As a Cardinals fan I just wanted to throw that in.

[pokerplyr80]

Ozzie was a lot of fun to watch. I'm not surprised at all to hear he's popular in the hobby. Probably the greatest defensive player of all time.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by bk400

Forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I am interested in hearing theories for why certain players seem to get outsized interest in their cards relative to other players.

For example, if you look at the price and liquidity of Ozzie Smith's cards, there seems to be high demand relative to the scarcity.

On the other hand, Mike Schmidt or Ryne Sandberg don't get the same kind of hobby love. At least it doesn't seem that way when you look at how their paper trades. And arguably, Mike Schmidt and Ryne Sandberg played in bigger markets than Ozzie.

You say Ozzie Smith "cards" but do you just mean RC? As in a single card. Otherwise I wouldn't say his cards get any special skew.

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[bk400]

Originally Posted by todeen

You say Ozzie Smith "cards" but do you just mean RC? As in a single card. Otherwise I wouldn't say his cards get any special skew.

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I look at Ozzie's second year cards -- 1980 in decent condition -- and those go for more than what I would have expected. Same as the 1991 Desert Shield cards. Or the 1982 cards (first one in a Cardinals uniform). But yes, it is seems most pronounced with his RC in, say, a PSA 8 grade, where there are something like 3,000 in circulation, but they go for $300+.

(For the record, I'm not trying to pick on Ozzie. He was my favorite player growing up. My dad took me to Shea Stadium when the Cardinals were in town one summer, and I leaned over the railing during warm-ups, and Mr. Smith signed a ball for me. Probably one of the most enduring of my baseball memories. I wonder if today's players realize how they can make or break a kid's day depending on whether they sign their autograph.)

[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by bk400

(For the record, I'm not trying to pick on Ozzie. He was my favorite player growing up. My dad took me to Shea Stadium when the Cardinals were in town one summer, and I leaned over the railing during warm-ups, and Mr. Smith signed a ball for me. Probably one of the most enduring of my baseball memories. I wonder if today's players realize how they can make or break a kid's day depending on whether they sign their autograph.)

That is so true. Also, the opposite is true I have found out. When baseball players sign autographs for fans and for kids especially, most kids just grab the item after it is signed and move on.

Our son is a 23-year-old mechanical engineer now and we are very proud of him. But when he was about 6 years old it was the first year at the new Busch Stadium. Scott Rolen was signing autographs and my son Andrew took his baseball down to the edge of the field where there were probably 30 kids waiting for autographs. Scott Rolen was signing autograph after autograph and moving on down the line almost mechanically just to be able to sign as many as he could as fast as he could.

When he got to Andrew, Andrew looked at him in the eyes and said "thank you" in a sweet little child's voice. I will never ever forget this. Scott Rolen stopped in his tracks and he looked like he was stunned. He looked at my son for a couple of seconds stopped and said, "Son you keep that up. That is very good manners." It was almost as if nobody ever told him a simple "thank you". I think that made an impression on Scott Rolen. When you watch his Hall of Fame speech, I'm not exactly sure what words he used but he talked much about integrity and character throughout his speech.

Wouldn't it have been very cool for him to have mentioned that? I doubt he remembers it but I guarantee you I'll never forget it.

[ALR-bishop]

Great story Shane

[bk400]

Heartwarming story indeed. The cynic in me wonders whether kids lining up for autographs nowadays are being paid by grown men dealing in memorabilia.

As an aside, I took my own kids to Shea before Covid, and they didn't let people with cheap seat tickets get close to the field, even during warm ups. It's just become a less innocent experience all around.

Finally, your story reminds me of a classmate who saw Marshawn Lynch at a store in San Francisco a few years back. My friend took his young son up to say hello. Lynch told them to "back the f**k off". I guess he's kind of the anti-Ozzie. Or maybe he was worried about having a gun pulled on him. Either way, times have changed -- in my ways, for the worse.

[JollyElm]

OP, we're begging you!!

Three easy steps:
1. Hit "Edit" in the original post
2. Hit "Go Advanced"
3. Correct the frickin' title of this thread by changing the "Why" to "What" (and perhaps add "the" before "hobby")!!!!!!!!

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by bk400

Heartwarming story indeed. The cynic in me wonders whether kids lining up for autographs nowadays are being paid by grown men dealing in memorabilia.

As an aside, I took my own kids to Shea before Covid, and they didn't let people with cheap seat tickets get close to the field, even during warm ups. It's just become a less innocent experience all around.

Finally, your story reminds me of a classmate who saw Marshawn Lynch at a store in San Francisco a few years back. My friend took his young son up to say hello. Lynch told them to "back the f**k off". I guess he's kind of the anti-Ozzie. Or maybe he was worried about having a gun pulled on him. Either way, times have changed -- in my ways, for the worse.

My reaction would have been "who is Marshawn Lynch?"

Ozzie was a pretty impressive player. 1980 Smith is another toughish centering card.

[todeen]

Lou Brock was the best autograph experience I ever had. Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson are another pair that were extremely friendly.

I missed the Lou Brock signing because I was at baseball practice. My mom went and stood in for my ticket number. She came and got me so I could go get a photo if he was still around. I showed up still in cleats I think. The owner liked me and let me in after hours. Brock was just in storytelling mode. He stopped, introduced himself to me, asked me personal questions, and then told me stories about his amateur career and how he got "on the radar" with the Scouts when they had come to see the pitcher that day. He made me feel like a million bucks.

Cardinals players represent a classy organization. They in turn end up becoming classy.

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