You’ve likely heard the story by now. With everyone confined to their homes with what is now approaching a year’s worth of lockdown measures, people are taking up new hobbies, and revisiting old ones in an effort to pass the time. This has resulted in an explosion in popularity in the sports card market. Cards that were once confined to dusty shoeboxes tucked away under beds, and in the back of closets are now being dug out hoping to find hidden gems sure to make their owners rich.
So how much are your sports cards really worth? If you saw the recent news of a PSA 10 graded 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie card being sold at auction for a record setting $1.29 million dollars you might see visions of early retirement dancing through your head. Unfortunately, this card would be the exception and not the rule in terms of baseline values for your collection of colourful cardboard.
Whether you’re new to the hobby of collecting hockey cards or your marriage is walking a fine line between divorce or downsizing your collection, there are a few things you need to be aware of before you make any decisions. Here are the top 5 things you should know about the hockey card industry to maximize the value of your collection.
5) With very few exceptions, if your collection consists primarily of hockey cards between the years 1990-2000, you’ll need to look elsewhere for a get rich quick scheme. Most cards printed in this era were so mass produced that their value is next to nothing because the marketplace is so flooded with them. For example, an Eric Lindros or Jaromir Jagr rookie (both widely sought after cards when they first came out) can be found on Ebay for about $2 plus shipping. Not exactly a great return on rookie cards for two of the games most recognizable players.
So why are the values of these Hall of Famers so low compared to say a Bowen Byram Young Guns card when he has yet to even play a game at the NHL level? Well, the sports card industry went through a bubble similar to the dot.com boom, and the US housing bubble. There were so many card companies in the 90’s putting out so many sets that the entire industry essentially collapsed with only a few companies surviving to this day. Upper Deck now has a near monopoly on the hockey card industry, making the Young Guns collection the “go to” rookie set for collectors. As a result, modern cards are coming out as exponentially more collectable than their early 90’s counterparts. So for players like Lindros, Jagr, Modano, Recchi, Sakic etc. who have had some of the most productive careers in the history of the sport, because of the era they debuted in, their rookie cards don’t hold much value.
4) If you’re new to the hobby and want to begin a collection that will one day be worth something, focus is key. Although most hockey card companies have been purchased by Upper Deck and fall under their distribution/licensing umbrella, there are still a wide variety of sets out there to choose from. If you take a scatter shot approach to collecting and grab up a little bit of everything, your collection will likely yield a whole lot of nothing. Base cards (non-rookie or insert cards in a set release) on their own hold next to no value. Not until you’ve accumulated a full set do you begin to see anything resembling a sought after item on your hands. Sticking to one or two releases (if you’re looking for a product that won’t break the bank but still has value then Upper Deck Series 1 & 2 and Future Watch are two sets whose worth holds up over time and are easy to find at local stores) is key to building a collection worth showing off over the long run.
3) If you’re looking to buy or sell cards, you don’t need to have every item graded in order for a card to have value. In fact, in most cases, you’ll likely lose money getting your collection graded vs. selling them as “raw”. Social media has gone into a frenzy with collectors showing off graded 9-10 rookie/auto cards which leaves many thinking that they need to get a slab for every item in their collection. The hockey card industry works in the same way the financial markets work. Everything is based on supply and demand. The reason that the Gretzky rookie mentioned above went for $1.29M is because out of every Wayne Gretzky rookie card ever produced, only 5,700 or so have been graded by PSA. Of those 5,700 only 2 have ever been graded a 10. Which means that of all the Gretzky cards in the world, the deep pocketed individual who purchased it has 1 of only 2 in existence. Scarcity = profits.
So when should you look at getting your cards graded? Well, for starters they had better be in exceptional condition to begin with. Sharp corners, good centering, no creases or chipping around the edges. Even the smallest ding in a card greatly affects it’s grade, and thus it’s value. With the sudden spike in interest in sports cards again, grading companies like Beckett, PSA and the like are overwhelmed with grading requests at the moment. Which means, not only are you going to have to pay the fee to get the card graded (which varies depending on how soon you want it back & how many cards you’re getting graded at once), and the postage (you’ll want to get a tracking number for it to make sure it doesn’t disappear in the mail), but you’ll also be waiting up to 6 months or more before you see the card again. So if Ray Bourque is your favourite player, and you happen to have his rookie card in so-so shape, is it really worth spending money to ship it, grade it, and not see it for months on end, only to have it come back with a PSA grade of 2? Probably not. Infact you’ve probably just spent more time and money on the process than you’ll be able to get for it when you try to sell it online or at your local card shop. Unless you’re confident you’ll be getting a high grade, or the card is extremely old/rare then in most instances you’re better off selling the card “as is” and letting someone else go through that hassle.
2) On the flip side of the coin, there are times where you ABSOLUTELY should be purchasing graded cards. In instances where you’ll be spending hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on a single card, the last thing you want to find out is that you bought a fake. And there are fakes out there, lots of them. Gretzky, Orr, Hull, and Lemieux are some of the most counterfeited items in the industry. Just like how street vendors will sell knock off Gucci bags and try to pass them off as the real thing, online merchants are no different. Some will put a lot of time and energy into trying to pass off a reproduction as the real thing, going as far as “weathering” cards (essentially taking a card and creating fake wear and tear on it to make the card seem older) in an attempt to dupe new collectors. Others will be sneaky about how they market a fake, hoping to take advantage of the inexperience of those new to the hobby. A common practice you should watch out for on Ebay is the use of acronyms in titles to get around the “false advertising” buyer protection rules on the site. Something along the lines of “1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky Rookie Card RP, No reserve!” is commonplace. New collectors see a Wayne Gretzky rookie card that looks as real as they come, and are excited by the fact that the item has no reserve (meaning there is no minimum price point that the item has to hit before the seller will release it). When they win the item they can’t believe their luck that they got a Gretzky rookie for $300, a steal of a price. Unfortunately, the letters “RP” in the title stand for “reprint”, a small detail that novices might not be familiar with. But because the vendor included RP in the title (a commonly accepted shorthand in the collecting world), they get around having to issue a refund. Cardboard Connection has a great guide on how to spot a counterfeit card on their site, but unless you’ve been collecting for a very long time, it’s still a huge risk to buy raw cards that have thousand dollar price tags on them. Having the peace of mind that your big purchase is the genuine article is not only good for you as a customer, but also ensures that when the day comes where you want to resell that item, that the next collector knows it’s real as well.
1) When it comes time to make your purchase with older cards, make sure you buy the right versions. The late 60’s through the 80’s were dominated by two main sets, Topps & O-Pee-Chee. The cards themselves are nearly identical year after year with the same layouts and player pictures. However the Topps versions came only in English, while O-Pee-Chee became the de facto “Canadian” version of the set and had both French & English on the cards. Because OPC ran their prints in Canada, they had smaller batches of cards released each year, making each card slightly more scarce than their American counterpart. OPC sets also tended to have larger base sets (often having 396 cards in a series) when compared to the same years as the Topps series (who would usually come around in the mid 200’s). These larger sets ultimately became more desirable for collectors as it gave them additional cards to chase every season. All these factors have resulted in OPC cards having more value than their Topps counterparts. When it comes to the lesser stars of the era, the difference can be as small as $1.00-2.00 per rookie card. But when you compare graded versions of some of the most sought after cards, the difference can be significant between the two sets. All that to say, is that if you’re looking to purchase the more desirable version of an older card, stick with O-Pee-Chee.
The great thing about sports cards is that no matter how complete or immaculately graded your collection is, the next year there’s a whole new set of stars to collect and rookies to chase after. Whether you’re in the hobby to turn a profit, to pass something along to your kids, or simply for the fun of it, this renaissance in collecting has certainly been a shot in the arm to a struggling industry.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter @dynessports