Sports Trading Cards
Eric Peden 12//09//23
So many people were gathering, trading, and selling cards from the late 1860’s to now, having fun and maybe making some money while doing it! Matthew Rouker says,”Sports trading cards are exciting to open and are fun hobbies.” Like Matthew said, many people have trading cards as one of their favorite hobbies. The first sports cards and most popular are the MLB baseball cards first used in 1860. The most expensive card ever sold was from the baseball category and it was 1952 Mickey Mantle which went for $12.6 million on August 28, 2022. There are four dominating sports that have trading cards listed from most popular to least popular: baseball, basketball, football, then soccer. The most popular brand of baseball card would be Topps selling $567 million dollars a year.
Basketball trading cards are the second most popular sports card and one of the most popular basketball cards is Prizm which are created at a 3 billion dollar facility. The most expensive basketball card would be the 1 of 1 2009-2010 Panini National Treasures Stephen Curry Rookie Logoman Autograph, which sold on July 6 2021 for $5.9 million.
The most popular type of American football trading card is National Treasures and the most expensive card in football is a 2017 National Treasures NFL Shield Patrick Mahomes Autographed Rookie card sold in July 2021 for $4,300,000 by PWCC Marketplace.
One of the most important parts of trading cards is the condition of the card which can be rated depending on certain characteristics. One of them is that the sides of the card have to be even so one isn’t wider or slimmer than the other. Another way to get a higher rated card is to have the corners sharp and not dented or bent. Cards are ranked on the PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) website ranging from 1-10 rating depending on the looks and rarity. If a card is autographed or has memorabilia or both then it is worth substantially more. Memorabilia can have a piece of a baseball bat, piece of a jersey, piece of a hat, piece of a basketball, piece of a baseball, piece of a shoe/cleat, and even a sock!
Hope you enjoy opening varieties of packs to see what luck you have and what you can get! Whether that is college, professional, basketball, football, baseball or even soccer!