The Last Iconic Baseball Card

The August 24th Sports Illustrated feature story on the decline of modern baseball cards and the death of the baseball card store business will prove interesting to both long-time collectors and those who recently became
card enthusiasts.

Please visit the link below. The Board awaits your comments

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...9241/index.htm

[slantycouch]

Interesting read. I can't say any of it is surprising... I think most of us card geeks know we're a dying breed. Not sure anything they do now (i.e. exclusive Topps contract) is going to change it.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by slantycouch

Interesting read. I can't say any of it is surprising... I think most of us card geeks know we're a dying breed. Not sure anything they do now (i.e. exclusive Topps contract) is going to change it.

Agreed.

It seems as if, with new technology for the kiddo's and the oversaturation of the market a few years ago, the new cards aren't as interesting as they used to be. Nowadays they can google their favorite players on their Iphones.....Of course I love the old cards but it would be nice to have the kiddos still enjoying the new ones. I remember collecting '72 Topps as a kid. Those were the days. regards

[ChiefBenderForever]

I agree nothing can be done to change the demise of current cards, the oversaturation and chase gimmicks has run it's course and very few cards from the last 19 years will hold their value. Jeters upperdeck foil, A-roid and a few others have a chance to retain or gain value but the rest you might as well use for firewood.

[Cat]

As a kid I liked cards because I could memorize the stats - both career stats and how they did the previous year. Now, kids can get that stuff each and every day off the internet.

One thing that has changed for the better towards the future of baseball cards is that every kid now has his own baseball card - if the parent wants to pay $15 for a stack of 10. Kids love those things. I think it makes them feel important in the baseball world. Does that mean that at some point in the future they will grow to love vintage cards. Who knows? My kid really likes my cards, but not as much as I do.

[chaddurbin]

kids don't collect cards anymore, and they don't watch tv as much. not sure how they'll bridge the gap to collecting old cards if they don't collect new cards first...but on the bright side YAY just less competition for me when i'm 80 and most of you have died and i can buy yum yums and ramlys and dog heads for pennies on the dollar.

[calvindog]

Quan is right. We're a dying breed; and what does this mean for the value of our collections in 40 years?

[barrysloate]

The very old vintage cards will still be valuable because they will be antiques. Even a generation who didn't collect baseball cards when they were kids will still find them fascinating and desirable.

[sbfinley]

Actually, if I recall correctly, I recently read an online article somewhere in which a recent poll suggested that the number of households that contained an adolescent that collected sports cards rose from something like 8% at the turn of the century to around 65% in 2008. While my 12 year old brother enjoys nothing more than video games, my 11 year old brother in-law has a quite decent collection of modern stuff. He also has several friends, that also have several well-to-do fathers, that all get together and wipe out a local card shop. It's amazing because the place is unbelievably marked up. If you also collect modern imagine paying $150 for a box of Topps Chrome.

Do I think collecting is dying? Not yet. Brick and mortar card shops along with local large scale shows might be drying up, but I think that is attributed to the rise of online sales and ebay. Yeah the mass produced cards of the late eighties and early nineties are a joke, but like it or not I think the card companies have something going with the ultra-high end/ultra-short printed sets they are currently producing. The basic sets are still there for those on a budget and quality sets like Allen & Ginter can be had at any Wal-Mart or Target.

As for vintage I think it will be just as popular in the future. I didn't even get into it until last summer when I was 24.

Oh yeah and ESPN... Albert Puljos's Topps Chrome Auto Rookie. Look it up. He doesn't play for the Yanks or the Sox so I understand your oversight.

[packs]

Collecting is obviously not dying because every year each company puts out 10-15 different sets of cards for the same sport. If collecting was drying up, why would Topps have so many different sets being released under its umbrella? And every year the products get more and more expensive and high end. In my opinion the companies are just now hitting their stride in terms of modern collecting and I see that evident in the eclectic choices of product collectors have now. There are the autograph sets, the memorabilia sets, the throw back sets, and the go-for-broke sets that feature either a big hit or a big miss.

In my opinion the last truly iconic baseball card was definitely the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey rookie. Still a great card.

[Orioles1954]

The last inonic card, especially for modern collectors is the 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols Auto RC. Only 1000 cards were produced (I think) and they routinely SELL for $2000-2500.

J-

[Dustanh1]

I don't think the Pujols is an iconic card. Yeah, it's an important card, but the Griffey UD transcended the hobby. The first card of the first UD set, Griffey with his big smile and his great decade that followed. The card is affordable enough and widely available to anyone who wants one, as opposed to the Pujols only having 500 copies (and not all 500 were redeemed), some fakes out there, and a very high pricetag. Plus I think with many people viewing Griffey as one of the few clean players during the steroid era, I just think that there is no way you can compare Pujols to Griffey. I don't think the Pujols Bowman Chrome could ever hold a candle to the Griffey.

[toppcat]

The '89 Griffey Upper Deck may well be the last of the real iconic cards, I have seen articles to that effect in a few different places saying as much. That was really just before all the new stuff got fragmented into niches and to be iconic a card really should be widely collected.

[packs]

I remember for a while the 92 Bowman Piazza was a slightly iconic card but it fell off quick. I'd say the 92 Bowman Mariano Rivera would have been an iconic card if the image wasn't so terrible.

[JLange]

Thanks for bringing this article to our attention. I started collecting as a boy in the 70s, and really don't have a lot of my early friends still into collecting right now. Still, I don't think the demise of baseball card collecting is upon us anytime soon. There are new fans of baseball every day. All it really takes is for your hometown team to do well (finally, in some cases) to re-awaken the collecting spirit amongst the fanbase. Souvenirs fly off the shelves, and savers turn into collectors. It only takes a few of those casual fans to turn into serious collectors to make any auction competitive. As for the "iconic" cards out there, if may very well be that the 1989 UD Ken Griffey Jr Rookie is the last highly recognizable, sought after card. But certainly not if you are a rookie card collector (plenty more to get since him), or a team collector, or specific player or set collector or type card collector. There are so many niche collections and ways to collect. This hobby is arguably down from its heyday in terms of numbers of collectors, but baseball is part of the culture and history of this country, and collecting is one of the many ways fans express themselves. You don't discover that when you are a kid collecting cards, you discover that when you are old enough to appreciate, pursue, preserve, and share your own niche collection with others.

[ScottFandango]

Good story about the UD card, but that is NOT the last Iconic Card.....

Its is clearly this card, which is pushing $5000 in PSA 9, and goes for about $3500 RAW......


reminds me of the 52 Mantle as far as not being able to get one for under $2000 anymore....

[Peter_Spaeth]

Great Pujols card, you can't even see his face?

[ScottFandango]

the 1984 Donruss Mattingly was /is more ICONIC in the sports card world....the reason there was a 89 UD griffey WAS because of Mattingly....


Mattingly created the buzz that was the 80's card world...the next triple crown player, the Next great Yankee...But his back didnt go along with the plan....

AS MATTINGLY"S BACK WENT, SO DID SPORTS CARDS.......

DIRECT CORRELATION.....

Basball card shows in the heyday were about finding a centered mattingly 84 Donruss...they never centered around the griffey Card....

[ScottFandango]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Great Pujols card, you can't even see his face?

no thats not what makes it great.....

what makes it great is that

1. its a "on-card" auto and not a sticker auto like many of his 2001 Auto's....

2. It is a recognized Rookie Card (RC)from the Most Popular Set, from a company that still has its MLBPA lisence....

3. It was a redemption so there are less than the serial numbering on the back...there are less than 500 which means supply will NEVER meet demand for this ICONIC card...

[Doug]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

The very old vintage cards will still be valuable because they will be antiques. Even a generation who didn't collect baseball cards when they were kids will still find them fascinating and desirable.

I sure hope so. It's scary enough when I can show someone my own age (28) a Ty Cobb card and have them ask "Who's that guy?". I can only imagine in another 20 years what it will be like when you have kids asking "What's a baseball card?".

[packs]

I hope the cards values do go down....way down. While I currently collect them both because I like them and because they're an investment, I'd rather just collect them because I like them. Let all the Cobbs of the world fall to $5.