Collecting Basketball Cards - Is it worth it?

Manic Devourer

New member
Joined:
Mar 31, 2009
Posts:
328
Liked Posts:
0
Hey all,

I don't think I've purchased a packet of cards, or traded cards since I was 15 years old when I was crazy about getting my hands on any Jordan cards my little pudgy hands could get a hold of. But once I got distracted by girls, I never looked back at little pieces of cardboard that looked pretty.

I'm a 27 year old, who has been living away from home since I was 20 - so growing up living away from home at a young age, money was always tight, trying to study and work to pay my bills. Now that I've settled down, things are looking up in my career I have a little more time to spend a little more on myself that may not always been a necessity.

Blah blah, now that I've bored you enough. My girlie loves to shop (surprise surprise) and sell on eBay, and I personally never use it because I like to physically try, touch and see things before I buy things - but anyway, I was on her account having a paddle on the website to see what interesting things were for sale, and I stumbled on some Derrick Rose rookie cards, which leads me to my question, are basketball cards worth investing in???

Then I did a little research, and there are so many different basketball card brands, so many different versions of the same brands, some boxes come with 20 packs, and then other boxes comes with ONE FREAKING PACK with THREE CARDS!! What on earth?! How much things have changed in only a decade. All this cut jersey cards, with signatures etc, it made my head spin, but I was so intrigued by it all. Just seeing how much certain cards were selling for etc. It just boggled my mind!

So let me ask you all, is it worth investing in basketball cards? Or should I just stop this silly intrigue, and stop before I waste any money - because I've got my eye on a few box of cards in the 03-4 year (LeBron, Wade) and the 08-9 year (Yes, our beloved Rose's year), and it's not cheap, but if it's worth the investment maybe I should?

What is everyones opinion on basketball cards???

http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-08-UPPER-D...ICS%2BUFI%2BUA%2BIA%2BUCI&otn=15&po=LVI&ps=54

US $893.49?!?!? Wowzahs!

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-BOX-CASE-200...ICS%2BUFI%2BUA%2BIA%2BUCI&otn=15&po=LVI&ps=54

US $1,534.60!?! Box of 10!? Crazy!
 

dougthonus

New member
Joined:
Mar 13, 2009
Posts:
2,665
Liked Posts:
9
As an investment, it's a really terrible idea.

If it's something you enjoy, then it may be worth it. However, the bottom completely fell out of the card/comic industry. The problem is when we were kids we all had dreams of having these rare cards that would be worth thousands later like our dads or grandparents would have.

The problem is that when our elders were children there were no protective sleeves and things like that in use, so there were very few cards that survived in good condition, since we've been kids it's basically standard to put everything in protective sleeves. The result is that there will never be a lack of supply of rookie cards of any player (or comics) that were released after maybe the 70s or 80s or whenever sleeving everything became common practice.

The greats will still be worth more, but you'll never see that extraordinary value that you did with some of the really old stuff.
 

Shakes

Iconoclast
Joined:
Apr 22, 2009
Posts:
3,857
Liked Posts:
142
Doug is correct, as soon as people start to collect things because they're valuable, they're no longer valuable because there's an oversupply. You need to collect for the next collectable boom, not the last one. Problem is predicting what it will be. ;)
 

Newskoolbulls

New member
Joined:
Mar 28, 2009
Posts:
2,897
Liked Posts:
6
Location:
Bullspodcasters>Any other bulls board
I collect cards for the fun of it. I dont buy cases, boxes, or packs. If i want a particular player I go on Ebay and get the card I seek. I always try to get the lowest price. Right now I am collecting autgraph cards of players for our championship teams. Now as for rookies I like to buy rookie cards or rookie autos of late first round picks and 2nd rounders for pennies and than if they turn out good I sell them. Josh Howard, Tayshaun Prince, David West have made me good money.
 

Newskoolbulls

New member
Joined:
Mar 28, 2009
Posts:
2,897
Liked Posts:
6
Location:
Bullspodcasters>Any other bulls board
so basically your paying say over a thousand for that case so to make your money you better pull a Lebron mint to make your money back in one shot.
 

st. park

New member
Joined:
Mar 31, 2009
Posts:
49
Liked Posts:
0
I have fond memories of collecting baseball and basketball cards as a kid. But the card market is really insane right now. I recently picked up a Beckett magazine at Barnes for the hell of it, and I saw like 20 different brands (or sub-brands) with all of this grading shit and whatever. Just crazy stuff. It's definitely not a wise pursuit if you're looking at this as some form of investment, but you if you want to collect for fun, sure go for it.
 

Kush77

New member
Joined:
Mar 15, 2009
Posts:
2,096
Liked Posts:
150
Don't, it's a terrible investment. I collected cards hardcore in the 90's and it was the biggest waste of money ever. Everyone has the cards today, that's the difference.

When my friends and I were 15 in like 1993, we thought that in 20 years our Shaquille O'Neal rookie cars would be worth thousands. Because cards from 20-30 years prior to that (60's and 70's) were worth so much. The only problem is you can't go into any card store and find a Magic Johnson rookie card. But you can go into any store and find a Shaq rookie. Everyone has them. So all those Shaq rookies I collected are worth no more now than they were 16 years ago.

Card collecting was ruined in the 90's. To many sets, sub-sets, it was worthless. Now cards are 3/4 dollars a pack, some are a LOT more. It's just not worth it.

I still have about 200 Jordan cards and an album of about 450 Scottie Pippen cards. I sold a lot of mine in the late 90's and it was a great move because they aren't worth anymore now.
 

TheStig

New member
Joined:
Apr 5, 2009
Posts:
3,636
Liked Posts:
38
Kush77 wrote:
Don't, it's a terrible investment. I collected cards hardcore in the 90's and it was the biggest waste of money ever. Everyone has the cards today, that's the difference.

When my friends and I were 15 in like 1993, we thought that in 20 years our Shaquille O'Neal rookie cars would be worth thousands. Because cards from 20-30 years prior to that (60's and 70's) were worth so much. The only problem is you can't go into any card store and find a Magic Johnson rookie card. But you can go into any store and find a Shaq rookie. Everyone has them. So all those Shaq rookies I collected are worth no more now than they were 16 years ago.

Card collecting was ruined in the 90's. To many sets, sub-sets, it was worthless. Now cards are 3/4 dollars a pack, some are a LOT more. It's just not worth it.

I still have about 200 Jordan cards and an album of about 450 Scottie Pippen cards. I sold a lot of mine in the late 90's and it was a great move because they aren't worth anymore now.
I wonder if my old cards are worth anything, I didn't have much but I had some Jordans and a couple of the gold cards.
 

clonetrooper264

Retired Bandwagon Mod
Staff member
Donator
Joined:
Apr 11, 2009
Posts:
23,316
Liked Posts:
7,393
My favorite teams
  1. Chicago Cubs
  1. Chicago Bulls
  2. Golden State Warriors
  1. Chicago Bears
  1. Chicago Blackhawks
I used to collect basketball cards. Just for fun though. I don't think they are worth much anymore because of the mass production of them. Though if you want the DRose card just for the sake of having it then go for it :).
 

??? ??????

New member
Joined:
Apr 2, 2009
Posts:
2,435
Liked Posts:
4
Location:
Columbia, MO
I have boxes upon boxes of basketball cards. When I sell them, I can probably get a few thousand. I have tons of special inserts, autographs, jerseys, etc.

Last cards I bought were during the 2004-2005 season. I wanted a Ben Gordon rookie card and drew a few of them. But I can't imagine spending money on something like that.

If I'm buying sports stuff, it's going to be a pennant, banner, painting, picture, etc. that can be used as decoration.
 

??? ??????

New member
Joined:
Apr 2, 2009
Posts:
2,435
Liked Posts:
4
Location:
Columbia, MO
I don't know when, but I stopped enjoying collecting autographs as well. If I were to get an autograph, it would be to get something on say a t-shirt of a player for added effect, and be something I still wear.

I got George Karl's autograph when he spoke at our school. (That principal was clutch, pulling in George freaking Karl for a career day speech to a Catholic school of ~240 students).

I went to a Bucks vs. Knicks game too, and Penny Hardaway was the only one classy enough to talk to the fans and sign autographs.

The combined roster for that game excluding Penny? For the Knicks: Stephon Marbury, Allan Houston, Tim Thomas, Kurt Thomas, Nazr Mohammad, Vin Baker, Michael Sweetney, Moochie Norris, Othella Harrington, and Shandon Anderson. For the Bucks, Keith Van Horn, Brian Skinner, Michael Redd, Damon Jones, Joe Smith, Toni Kukoc, Desmond Mason, Brevin Knight, Dan Gadzuric.

Jerks.
 
Joined:
May 2, 2009
Posts:
1,347
Liked Posts:
81
While I don't see the dollar value in them old cards from back in the day when the NBA was still the NBA, flipping through old albums can be a wonderful trip down memory lane.

You see players like Vern Fleming and Derrick Chievous and LaSalle Thompson you had forgotten about and it's especially cool seeing the old logos and the players wearing the old uniforms.

Speaking of which...

What is your favorite old school logo you wish would make a comeback?

The Hawks Pac-Man logo is way better than anything they've had since.

Maybe the old Phoenix Suns logo needs to come back?

Gotta love the Bulls though - we don't have to change our logo. We're above changing our logo just to sell shirts.
 

??? ??????

New member
Joined:
Apr 2, 2009
Posts:
2,435
Liked Posts:
4
Location:
Columbia, MO
The old school Bucks logo is awesome.
 

Rose1

New member
Joined:
Mar 30, 2009
Posts:
360
Liked Posts:
0
I have a authentic Ray Allen Bucks jersey with the Buck on the front.
 

chelseaadams

New member
Joined:
Oct 26, 2016
Posts:
1
Liked Posts:
0
I think it can pay off. I mean you collect cards which costs you a few bucks (ok maybe more) but with time (and luck) they can be really valuable. if you like take care of them.

even childhood toys can worth hundreds of bucks today if they are in good condition.

you never know, maybe you have thousands of dollars in your attic without knowing about it

also, check out collectorism.com there you can trade your cards folks
 

Crystallas

Three if by air
Staff member
Donator
Joined:
Jun 25, 2010
Posts:
19,890
Liked Posts:
9,618
Location:
Next to the beef gristle mill
My favorite teams
  1. Chicago Bulls
necrobump from a spammer? IDK, we'll see. But I love the topic of collecting cards for various reasons. The problem is that cards used to be more limited, then all of a sudden people started to buy and horde warehouse-fulls of old stock items, card makers started releasing 5-6 sets instead of making one perfect set every year, and all the games that went with trading cards simply turned into collecting. So it's basically become buying pictures with no use other than looking at them and putting them in a box somewhere.

Cards were the place you would get your stat history from for the longest time. You could make your own tabletop venues and play the cards with house rules. Now we have video games and the internet.
 

RC_Skinny22

Sharpshooter
Donator
Joined:
Apr 26, 2009
Posts:
3,331
Liked Posts:
923
Location:
Germany
There's a game for android and apple called "Panini Dunk". You can virtually collect NBA cards there. You can also trade some with others. It's actually pretty cool.
 

Top