Card collecting withstands changing times, technology

Content Published Originally by WMBFNews.com on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011.

The hobby did not have the toniest of beginnings. Stuffed inside tobacco tins beginning in the 1880s , so-called player cards had no real value to speak of.

Though the hobby has gained and lost in popularity over the years, not even the Depression or the Great Recession could completely erase it.

The quality of the cards themselves – not to mention that age-old thrill of unwrapping them – have kept card collecting one of the ways a parent can share the simpler thrills of childhood with their own children.

"As long as the companies continue to make innovative products people are going to continue jumping back into the hobby," said Matt Helms, owner of Gulf Coast Cards and Sports Memorabilia. "Parents who collected as kids are getting their children involved into collecting now."

Now, 13 decades later, player card collecting has encountered another cultural speed bump. The internet has altered the way the hobby is enjoyed, without completely erasing it from the landscape.

Technology revives the hobby

Like many other types of specialized markets, eBay revolutionized card collecting forever, making sought-after cards on the other side of the world as easy to obtain as a click of the mouse.

The internet is especially useful for people who collect a single player, or who have some other type of specialized collection.

"It makes collecting easier and convenient," Helms said, "but at the same time, it makes opening packs of cards not as exciting as it was before the digital age."

Baseball card enthusiast Roland Belcher organizes old school card collecting shows across the Southern U.S. and said while the internet is convenient, many people still prefer the face-to-face interaction they can get at a card show.

"The internet has given high end collectors more opportunities to access to rarer cards," Belcher said, "but just as many people love the interaction and meeting people that share the same love of collecting at the shows."

Finding cards online is not the only part of the hobby going down the digital path. You can also download a price guide six times a year on the website, beckett.com.

Chris Olds said Beckett charges a monthly membership for the online guide, but sales of the company's printed guide are still brisk.

Olds said you could compare people who still collect player cards to others who collect vinyl records. The appeal of the cardboard cards will never go completely by the wayside, no matter how digital the technology becomes.

What affects value

Although the number of collectors may be down, the people still collecting them are intense and passionate.

The quality of cards are better, the concepts are more unique and the autographed cards and memorabilia cards are more limited so this in turn drives card prices up.

"You can still go into a Target and get a retail pack of cards for $2. Or your card store, and get a hobby pack for $3," Olds said. "Some serious collectors will go as high as thousands of dollars per pack of five cards because they could pull that one card they have been hunting for for weeks or months."

Driving up the price, too, is an upswing in card quality, unique and autographed cards as well as limited-edition memorabilia cards.

Card makers understand that times are changing, and most have rolled with the punches and have evolved with the times.

Still, there will always be those few "classic" players who continue to be a major draw to collectors.

"The internet has changed the value of most of the market, but the classic players - the Mickey Mantles, Ted Williams and Hank Aarons - will always retain their value and be popular," Helms said. "Collectors will always be seeking them out."

What collectors don't like, however, is the slightest hint of cheating.

A prime example of this is when reports of steroid use by Major League Baseball players first began to surface. Before news hit the media, cards featuring Roger Clemens, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa had all been popular and highly sought after.

Since then, the demand (and value) of their cards took a nose dive.

"Collectors just didn't have any interest in chasing those players anymore after all the negative publicity surrounded them," said Olds, "and this caused the value of their cards to plummet."

New collecting trends

Despite the lagging economy, card sales seem to be strong enough to keep the hobby alive.

Football cards have now been added to the mix, and are usually a close second to baseball player cards.

At his Mississippi and Alabama stores, Helms said football cards now outsell baseball cards. Basketball player cards finish third.

Helms said the number of cards produced has fallen since the heyday of the 1980s, when he said cards were overproduced.

"Today's production is more limited and the odds of a great card being pulled are a lot more common," he said.

Come depression, recession or new technology, the sport of card collecting remains strong. Like any hobby, it might cost a little money, but what fun would it be if there weren't some type of investment involved?

Even if that investment is only time.