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Topnotchsy
Featured Contributor, The best players in history?
- Aug 7, 2008
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Note: I wrote this up a while back. At the time I was hoping to write a series of articles under the general heading of "card concepts we may never see again" and take a closer look at each one. The series never materialized, but a recent discussion reminded me I had never posted this in the forum. Some of the numbers are not 100% accurate because I have not updated them, (particularly Mathewson's pants cards which for some reason have softened a bit in price) and the release of National Treasures indicated there may still be hope, but anyways:
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Card Concepts we may never see again
The past couple of decades have brought an incredible amount of innovation. We’ve seen signed cards with pieces or jerseys, bats, caps, shoes, bases, stadium seats and walls, and even game-used dirt. We’ve seen cards of players who have not even played Minor League ball yet, and cards of players who have been dead for decades. (And plenty of cards of people who never played.) Over the years there have been many wonderful ideas and some awful ones. Many of the great ones (and some of the not-so great one’s…) have been replicated repeatedly. Most people believe the hobby is better off with set of retired players, certified autographs and game-used cards while most would be happy to see the last of sticker autographs. There are many ideas or cards that will likely never be replicated again, some good and some bad. In this article I’ll explore some cards that there is a chance we will never see again.
Rare/Expensive Game-Used items:
In the late 90’s an innovation reached the cardboard world that changed the hobby dramatically: game-used cards. Beginning (for baseball anyways) in 1997, Upper Deck began inserting pieces of game-worn jerseys into cards. The initial baseball release was a 3 player set that included the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn and Rey Ordonez (hmm which one does not belong….) The Company had struck gold and that simple 3 card set (and the prices they netted) spawned a whole new kind of baseball card. By 1999 we had a set that included bat cards of all the players who had hit 500 home runs. In 2001, Upper Deck released a product called “Gold Glove” which included game-used glove cards of many current stars as well as some Hall of Famers. In 2003 Donruss received a lot of press when it paid $264,210 for a Ruth jersey that it cut up to insert into cards. Throughout the years we have seen game-used pants cards of Christy Mathewson, glove cards of Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx and Leon Day, and the aforementioned Ruth cards with incredible provenance. Those days largely have passed, and the reason is simple: economics.
When the companies began releasing game-used cards, the fierce competition between companies had each company trying to outdo the other, by providing more game-used, nicer game-used and game-used from bigger names into their packs. The result was a proliferation of game-used at a level that obscured the fact that for many retired players, especially those from the first half of the century, there is simply not a ton of game-used items available, and the price to acquire those materials could be really steep. The result was that the prices for these cards cards settled and over time they were simply not high enough to justify the cost of the materials. We are used to it, but consider that you can get a card with a piece of a bat that Babe Ruth, used for under $100. I’ve mentioned this to a couple of people who were curious but not familiar with the hobby and the reaction each time was one of shock. And while game-used gloves provide only a fraction of the pieces that a bat or jersey does (and are likely much rarer since most players, especially years ago used the same glove for long periods of time) you can still get a glove card of 3x MVP and Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella for under $30 (2002 Fleer Greats.) At prices like those, the companies simply could not justify paying the price for such game-used materials and found that offering signed items or game-used items that were cheaper, were better options.
Still, if recent sales are any indication, there is some hope. Prices on Christy Mathewson Game-Worn Pants cards have risen over the years, and are now difficult to find for much less than $200 (and will run you over $200 for nicer versions.) The last Leon Day Glove card (from 2001 Gold Glove) sold for $300 and a Lefty Grove from the same set went for $175. If prices on these game-used pieces continue to increase, and other rare vintage game-used that have not gotten as much attention yet begins to, the companies may see the value in spending the extra money on more unique game-used items, which would be great, because while we’ve had cards with guitar picks and fossils, we still have never had a Cy Young jersey or Walter Johnson pants card to chase.
___________________________________________
Card Concepts we may never see again
The past couple of decades have brought an incredible amount of innovation. We’ve seen signed cards with pieces or jerseys, bats, caps, shoes, bases, stadium seats and walls, and even game-used dirt. We’ve seen cards of players who have not even played Minor League ball yet, and cards of players who have been dead for decades. (And plenty of cards of people who never played.) Over the years there have been many wonderful ideas and some awful ones. Many of the great ones (and some of the not-so great one’s…) have been replicated repeatedly. Most people believe the hobby is better off with set of retired players, certified autographs and game-used cards while most would be happy to see the last of sticker autographs. There are many ideas or cards that will likely never be replicated again, some good and some bad. In this article I’ll explore some cards that there is a chance we will never see again.
Rare/Expensive Game-Used items:
In the late 90’s an innovation reached the cardboard world that changed the hobby dramatically: game-used cards. Beginning (for baseball anyways) in 1997, Upper Deck began inserting pieces of game-worn jerseys into cards. The initial baseball release was a 3 player set that included the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn and Rey Ordonez (hmm which one does not belong….) The Company had struck gold and that simple 3 card set (and the prices they netted) spawned a whole new kind of baseball card. By 1999 we had a set that included bat cards of all the players who had hit 500 home runs. In 2001, Upper Deck released a product called “Gold Glove” which included game-used glove cards of many current stars as well as some Hall of Famers. In 2003 Donruss received a lot of press when it paid $264,210 for a Ruth jersey that it cut up to insert into cards. Throughout the years we have seen game-used pants cards of Christy Mathewson, glove cards of Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx and Leon Day, and the aforementioned Ruth cards with incredible provenance. Those days largely have passed, and the reason is simple: economics.
When the companies began releasing game-used cards, the fierce competition between companies had each company trying to outdo the other, by providing more game-used, nicer game-used and game-used from bigger names into their packs. The result was a proliferation of game-used at a level that obscured the fact that for many retired players, especially those from the first half of the century, there is simply not a ton of game-used items available, and the price to acquire those materials could be really steep. The result was that the prices for these cards cards settled and over time they were simply not high enough to justify the cost of the materials. We are used to it, but consider that you can get a card with a piece of a bat that Babe Ruth, used for under $100. I’ve mentioned this to a couple of people who were curious but not familiar with the hobby and the reaction each time was one of shock. And while game-used gloves provide only a fraction of the pieces that a bat or jersey does (and are likely much rarer since most players, especially years ago used the same glove for long periods of time) you can still get a glove card of 3x MVP and Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella for under $30 (2002 Fleer Greats.) At prices like those, the companies simply could not justify paying the price for such game-used materials and found that offering signed items or game-used items that were cheaper, were better options.
Still, if recent sales are any indication, there is some hope. Prices on Christy Mathewson Game-Worn Pants cards have risen over the years, and are now difficult to find for much less than $200 (and will run you over $200 for nicer versions.) The last Leon Day Glove card (from 2001 Gold Glove) sold for $300 and a Lefty Grove from the same set went for $175. If prices on these game-used pieces continue to increase, and other rare vintage game-used that have not gotten as much attention yet begins to, the companies may see the value in spending the extra money on more unique game-used items, which would be great, because while we’ve had cards with guitar picks and fossils, we still have never had a Cy Young jersey or Walter Johnson pants card to chase.
traded a griffey auto for it 3-4 years back
