Why aren't there more football card collectors?

[sthoemke]

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

[frankbmd]

With 53 men on the active roster of each team, an opening day inclusive set of 32 teams would contain 1664 cards. Without short prints and five cards in a pack, there would be one Brady or Rodgers card in every 333 packs.

With injuries each week, an update set might be possible every two weeks during the season with highly coveted MRI Refractor inserts of your fallen heroes.

Sounds like a gold mine to me. And if you have never seen a refracted MRI, you are in for a treat.

[PowderedH2O]

If you went by NFL promotion, pro football started in 1966. When the most championships are discussed, Tom Brady is #1 and no mention is made of Starr or Graham. No stars from the 1960s or before hold any significant lifetime records. Guys like Matt Stafford have stats that make Unitas and Staubach look like losers. So, no NFL publicity plus no records plus little film footage means guys like Steve Van Buren and Ollie Matson are unknown to modern football fans. Ask a current NFL fan who Deacon Jones or Bronko Nagurski is and 99% would have no idea. Most baseball fans could recognize Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb or many others. So, I bought my Deacon Jones 1963 rookie in Ex Mint for $18 and my Pete Rose in VGEX cost me a few hundred. The Jones is probably rarer. I don't understand it, but I accept it and I don't complain. And I bought a second year Lee Alcindor in Ex Mint for $20 recently, so maybe basketball is even worse...

[Duluth Eskimo]

Have Matt Stafford show those guys his championship ring.

[PowderedH2O]

Exactly. Kerry Collins has better stats than Unitas. Unit as played in an era when headslaps and roughing up receivers was considered normal. Can you imagine what Roger Staubach would do in today's game? Ask most football fans about Joe Perry and they will talk to you about Aerosmith. You can get nice Excellent condition Perry cards for less than $10. Crazy!

[Promethius88]

I was never much of a collector of football but in the last few months I have really changed my tune. I set up a small, local show each month and there are a couple guys collecting vintage football. I had a decent selection and since, I have started picking up more and more. Lots, singles, etc. Mostly commons and semi stars as I'm just helping fills spots in sets for these guys so sometimes there is a little push back with higher $$ cards. At least one is doing everything from 1948-1970 so I never fail to have plenty of stuff to empty his wallet for the day, lol. So, needless to say, I have really started to fall for some of the early stuff. 51-55 Bowman are beautiful cards with beautiful colors, 57 Topps I love for it's simplistic design and color as well. Then there's the 55 Topps All-American. In gathering inventory, I have nearly compiled a complete mid grade set of these...with many dupes, of course. I think the 3 "big" ones I would still need is the Grange, Thorpe and Four Horsemen, all readily available. So now my dilemma is do I finish the set and put it back or just single them out??
Getting back to the topic, I think/hope that there will be others out there like me that maybe didn't always have the appreciation for football that come on board. Some of these cards are true pieces of art that I never took time to enjoy in the past and feel like its a whole new world that I'm experiencing, lol!