Sports Cards Collecting 101: From Rookie Gold to Garbage Pail Kids

Sports cards and other cards are out there to suit the needs of hobbyists. This is a great hobby if you are in the market for one. There are a variety of sports that have cards for their players. Some of the players are stars and worth a lot of money.

There are also several other types of cards out there in addition to sports cards. Most movies have cards associated with them, and it has been the way for at least the last 50 years. There are also Pokémon and Garbage Pail Kids. Does one of these categories suit your interests?

Sports and Other Cards

There are several kinds of sports cards. In fact, in the late 1970s, all the major professional sports got card deals. Probably the most noteworthy, and longest-duration, of these sports cards are those associated with the National Football League.  Those cards started in 1935 with the National Chicle set, but got widely popular in the 1970s.

Football, like other sports cards, is generally more valuable if they are older, in better condition, of stars, or rookies. Next is probably hockey. Perhaps no other sport benefited from the debut of a player than hockey did from the debut of Wayne Gretzky. The cards became popular in the late 1970s/early 1980s. There is a Canadian producer of cards called O-Pee-Chee, whose cards are about as valuable as American producers.

There are also basketball cards. For as wildly popular as the sport is, this type is the newest on the block for major professional sports. They entered mass production in the mid 1980s. They too benefited from the debut and crossover popularity of megastar Michael Jordan. His rookie cards can be some of the most valuable.

Other Types of Cards

There are other types of cards. For example, most blockbuster-type movies have cards associated with them. These promotional tools are often given away at fast food restaurants. It turns out collectors gather these cards into sets, and they have a value. There are likely some cards that are associated with your favorite movie.

People also collect Pokémon cards. There is a game associated with the cards; however, people collect them, and the same general rules apply to them as apply to sports cards. Nowadays, to get people moving around, there is a game called Pokémon Go! Players ‘capture’ Pokémon on their phones. That is neither here nor there; however, the rampant popularity of the game has driven up the value of the cards. In a funny story, people playing Pokémon Go! on their phones have been hit by cars while staring at their phones.

Finally, in the 1980s, people started collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards. Those cards were meant to mock the successful, and highly sought-after, Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. Some of the Garbage Pail Kids cards are quite rare and therefore valuable. Like other cards, there is a market for these cards, and rarity determines value.

Conclusion

It turns out there are lots of sports cards and other types of cards. This article has only scratched the surface. A safe assumption is that any sport, or anything else that can be promoted, has cards associated with it. Any time there are cards associated with something, there can be rare, valuable, and collectible cards. Therefore, people will try to make money off collecting them, and there will be a market. It is the case that there are so many different cards that there is a kind that suits your taste. It is probably time to start a hobby.