General Forum

Hi all,

Just getting back into the hobby and wanted to expand to Basketball and Football,

but there are so many brands and parallels auto's patches and rpa's etc.

It's intimidating for a newbie.

So any suggestions, considering access to these cards is limited in my area of Canada.

Want to start collecting a decent product with potential upside dollar wise.

Any ideas?

keep collecting

Not sure basketball cards are going to be good dollar wise, it’s a bit different than baseball. Usually the most expensive players are usually the highest drafted and they come out priced high. Plus they don’t go up too much and has a high chance of decreasing in value. Look at Ja and Zion. Rarely would a player from the 2nd round draft would increase too much.

Since the pandemic ended,  most of the inflated prices has been free falling, even older vintage stuff. 

If I would to make a suggestion on how to collect it would be by your favorite team or player. There are some who go after higher end like older Exquisite and modern National Treasures RPA but those would cost you hundreds to thousands for a card. 
 

Football is almost the same, usually quarterbacks go up in value the most. Every other position is iffy and defensive players not so much at all. 
 

I would also say to collect your favorite team or player. If you want to hopefully make some money, quarterbacks are the cards to get. A single good game can drive the price up significantly even from a later drafted player. 

Basketball? Collect the NBA Top 50. Then the top 75. Then think about who will make it into the top 100 - Giannis, Luka, Antman, Ja, Joker, Booker, Shai, Halliburton?...not Scottie Barnes, LaMelo, Cade, and so on. Collect those in 15 years when they are a nickel on the dollar if you must.

Here is a link to a great Canadian website, mostly hockey cards of course but they usually have some older Football, Basketball & Non-Sport card boxes (great for if your going to be building sets). It's called Grizzly Sports Cards and their prices are listed in CDN$ so no having to bring out the calculator to figure out exchange rates. I've ordered from them myself a few times, and they're pretty fair & ship quickly. Again it's mostly older stuff (except for hockey cards), but a lot cheaper than the new products.  

http://www.grizzlysportscards.com 

Whatever you do, don't go head over heels too much for the latest young QB. I laugh and wince at the same time thinking of all of those people who bought shiny, serial numbered and autographed Mac Jones cards. Most of them end up as bums.

Welcome to the database and it's forum. Start with your favorite team(s) or if there is a team close enough to you to be considered a "local" team. Since you are in Canada perhaps start with the CFL cards made by Upper Deck for the football and for basketball Toronto Raptor cards. Also collect what you like or what grabs your attention at first. Don't worry about what the card's "value" is or will potentially be. Collect what you LIKE. Eventually your "likes" will change, maybe they won't but if you go for what you like at the time you will enjoy things better than if you are just trying to go for the highest value or portental future value.

Excellent.

Thanks everyone.

Sounds like hockey and baseball will stay as my linchpins lol

I think as far as collecting I'm going to stick to the odd auto and 

my Dolphins and Lakers players. 

40 years of hockey knowledge doesn't help when buying the newest NBA box lol

Great site btw

LOL. Everyone freaks out over the Heisman winner and who is the QB at yucky Alabama. Rarely do either of those two ever amount to much in the NFL. Success in college does not translate to success in the Pros. 

Not sure is this will change anything or just reinforce your thoughts, but from a basketball perspective, I would say the first question you need to ask is "what do I actually want out of this?".

If it is to collect and have fun the answer is going to be very different than if it is to find something with "potential upside dollar wise" (ie invest.)

If it's the fun side, then this differs for everyone and only you know the answer to what you enjoy.

If it is potential dollar upside than, in my experience as a non-investor, if you want safety and the most likely — though not guaranteed — to increase in value the answer is simply Michael Jordan. it wont be cheap, especially if you are chasing anything beyond base but it will be pretty safe.

Kobe Bryant, pre-80s rookie cards for the main HOF players are also relatively safe.

If you want high risk then you go modern, but that is a crap shoot to me. Rookie cards of young stars are theoretically what you want, but the hype is so much and the price so high for early draft picks immediately that you are buying the peak almost instantly. If injury, suspension, just plain under-performing expectations (and in some cases it is almost impossible not to under-perform) strikes then returning value is extremely hard.

I would try to "buy the dip" on players we know are good but for some reason have dropped in popularity. As I'm not in the hobby for dollars and cents I don't follow prices closely but I imagine Doncic values took a hit last season when Dallas cratered, but it was hard to see missing the playoffs as the yearly expectation for them. Same with Anthony Davis a few years ago.

Someone mentioned not chasing second round picks — I'd almost go the opposite. Anyone outside the lottery/top 10 generally has little hype and low card values. Sure most of them will miss but if you could get say 50 players for less than 40c a card on average that's $20 per year's rookie class. If  you go back through the last few drafts and sort by win shares you get:

2020: Haliburton (pick 12), Maxey (21), Bane (30), Quickly (25)

2019: Morant (2), Gafford (38), Clarke (21), Claxton (31)

2018: Doncic (3), Gilgeous-Alexander (11), Young (5), Bridges (10)

2017: Tatum (3), Allen (22), Adebayo (14), Mitchell (13)

2016: Sabonis (11), Siakam (27), Poeltl (9), Zubac (32)

I have no idea what that proves and win share accumulation certainly doesn't equal hobby $$, but it is interesting that there isn't a single No 1 pick in those 20 players. Fifteen of them were pick 10 or later and nine were outside the top 20 picks.

You probably don't get "rich" doing this unless you hit a Jokic (41 in 2014) or Antetokounmpo (15, 2013) and you likely still loose money but I would feel better about it than say having paid the price for Williamson, SImmons or Ayton RCs at the peak of their hype.

Love the participation of this site. great insights.

I was always a collector for the love of it. 

But getting back into it I want to make some money and still collect  say Magic and Kobe for BB and Marino for football.

Those being my all time favs.

So what would be the Young Guns equivalent for Basketball and Football?

Is there a go to set that is basically the currency of the hobby the way Young Guns are for hockey?