I Own A Sports Card Shop...
 

...and have been here for almost 15 years.

in that time i've seen some pretty low crap come around but not like this...

___***NEW***2005 Upper Deck Poker

(SRP $2.99) 12/24/5 orders due 3/10/05 release date 5/5/05 $41.75 a box, 6 boxes for $41.00 a box, 12 boxes for $38.75 a box

Key Selling Points: 1 Showdown Signature card per box, 1 Poker Paraphernalia card per box. 100 card set with 30 regular cards, 15 memorable moments cards, 10 Legends of the Table cards, 20 WSOP Bracelet Winner Cards, 10 The Nuts cards and 15 super showdown cards. Memorabilia cards 1 per box on avg. Signature cards 1 per box on avg. "Gold Parallel" 100 parallel cards each #d to 99 approx 1 per box. "Poker Paraphernalia Gold" #d to 50, with an autod parallel #d to 15. "Showdown Signatures Gold" #d to 15.



___***NEW***2005 Upper Deck Bass Fishing Cards

(SPR $2.99) 12/24/5 orders due 3/10/05 release date 4/28/05 $41.75 a box, 6 boxes for $41.00 a box, 12 boxes for $38.75 a box

Key Selling Points: Find shirt cards 2 per box and autos 1 per box, Look for your chance to win a BASS experience-- chances inserted 1 in every 4 packs. 50 regular cards with Bass Master Highlight cards, and BASS: Profile cards. Inserts or parallels fall at 1 per pack--- "Legends of the Lakes", "BASS Masters Champions", "Up Close and Classic Personal", "BASS Anglers of the Year". "Ultimate BASS Fishing Experience Promotional Card" 1:4 packs. "BASS Autos" inserted 1 in 24. "BASS Fishing Gear" memorabilia cards inserted 1 in 12 packs.

wtf is next with upper deck - they just plain suck - they'd pimp their moms...

for those of us not familiar......can you explain what the problem is?

(I like to learn new things lol)

upper deck is a sports card manufacturer... they turned up on the scene in 1988, their first product hit in 1989 with baseball (griffey)... in 1990 they hit with football, b-ball and hockey... a few years later they hit with soccer, then comic ball (the jordan cartoon movie) and then golf... golf only because of TW...

now they come up with poker and bass fishing???

next you'll have "2005 Upper Deck Exploited Teens" cards... you'll finally get to see your sister nekkid

Poker is a sport? Cool! Now all I need to do is convince Mrs. O'Rights that I need to start spring training (Wednesday nights) for poker season. :D

i used to collect baseball cards but become uninterested in it when there become so many different types of special cards. topps, donruss, fleer, score, bowman, and upper deck were all that mattered. now, if a card isn't graded, it doesn't command as much money? is that true? i've thought of trying to sell all my cards, they aren't all that great, but didn't want to have to take them to get graded, or even know how to do that if i wanted to.

That's pretty much the same story for me. I remember thinking $2 per pack was pricey when Leaf came back on the market in '90 (I turned 16 in July that year). For a while now, it seems like most cards are $2.99+ per pack. Add to that the fact that you seem to have to get cards graded to sell them and it just makes me not want to mess with any of it.

i don't deal in graded cards - it's self serving and inflationary... i sent a upper deck griffey rookie out to get graded 3 times and got 3 different grades - the best coming when i identified myself as a shop owner - they're selling a product too...

as for getting your money's worth, stick with the old stuff, 70 and older... it's already established and has nowhere to go but up...

so my advice is simply... collect for the future - invest in the past

I do cards still, but not like I used to due to prices of wax. I do E-Topps and graded singles now. IPO on the E-Topps is high, but some maintain (LeBron '04 B-Ball) IPO was 10 now goes for $25-30ish

I have a alright collection of cards, all hockey, mostly pre-1990s, I think I have a full set of 1990 o-pee-chee cards, and those are pretty much the only cards I collect.... anyways.. onto the topic at hand. It sucks that sports card have been degraded to such a low standards, I think it shoud just stick to the main ones, topps and upperdeck. And the highest grossing sports.... hockey, basebaal, football and basketball. Theres just too mucn nonsense out there.

I collected cards for years as a kid and have every Topps complete set from 1976-1992, in all I probably have over 100,000 cards (when I was young I used to just load my pockets with packs at the store).

Collecting added to my love and knowledge of the game. It led me to learn of the history and nuances of how great this sport is.

I worked hard and proudly to build full years sets. It was fun and trying to trade a Rich Folkers for an Al Downing was something childhood was about for me.

Now, it's all about money and what condition the cards are in and blah blah blah.... I feel sorry for the kids who don't have that avenue of nerdiness fun I had as a kid.

My sets now are probably worthless as there are gum stains and and worn edges on the older ones. I never collected thinking that someday they would be worth money though, I collected for the fun. It's a sad statement in society when we take the fun away from kids because of our greed.

I understand there is money to be made and it is all about bottom lines today, and perhaps it is just me but I truly miss the days of buying 15 card packs for 30 cents and those big packs that had like 50 for 99 cents.....

I'd like to see cards come down and be fun for kids again. The market today is so diluted and overpriced that when you do try to sell cards you get far less than Beckett book. Plus, places like HSN flood the market.

I collected baseball cards, in the early 70s, for the pure fun of it. We'd collect and trade with nary a thought toward the value of the cards some 30 years down the road. And back then, I think Topps was the only game in town. I remember being king shit for having a Willie Stargell card, back in...72(?). I don't even want to know what that card would be worth today, as it has long since joined the ranks of missing things from my childhood.

Only when you poker in the rear.

the problem, as i see it, is that card collecting isn't for or even geared to kids anymore. there is no gum in the packs or the cool puzzle pieces anymore. it's all about finding the rare jersey card or bat card or something else. i don't think it will ever be for the kids again. i'm glad i had it as a kid.

I agree. The trivia and did you know facts about the players on the back were cool also.

It's a lot like comic books also. I look at comics today and they seem more geared for the horny teen kids and collectors, don't see like the Bugs Bunny or the ones aimed at the younger kids. Hell because of comics I fell in love with reading early on as a kid.

I guess I'm just old.... comics and baseball cards were so much a part of my youth..... and now I see them and look at how greed has turned them into expensive "collectibles" for yuppies to invest in and not for kids to enjoy.

Hanxter - I am currently an avid collector of basketball cards. Believe it or not, but it's always been my dream to own my own store, and be able to sell things to my customers myself. When I started collecting about 5 years ago, I realized that owning a card shop is just what I've always dreamt about. I know it's not the most financially rewarding job ever, and it comes with it's own hazards just like any other privately-owned hobby shop, but if you could provide any information as how to actually start one up, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Oh yeah, if you could check your stock for autos, game-used, and rookie cards of Marko Jaric, Shaun Livingston, and Richard Jefferson, I might be interested in purchasing some stuff from you.

Sheesh; I've been trying to get a collecting forum started up here on the TFP for quite some time now, and all of my responses were minimal. I'm glad you at least got some responses to this thread. Things might be looking up.

1972 Topps 447 Willie Stargell Low: $4.00 High: $8.00 BWAHAHAHA! But do keep in mind that Beckett is lame, and your card could very well be worth either $5,000,000 or $0.05, and Beckett's $8.00 value won't mean anything. I have a Kevin Garnett Upper Deck Slam Signatures autograph with a Beckett value of $50, but it actually sells for $150 because it is rumored to be short printed to only 21 copies.