What’s “The Hobby”? For me, my hobby is collecting sports memorabilia and cards. Everyone has their own hobbies, and I have various, but collecting sports cards and memorabilia is by far my favorite. There are lots of ways to start the sports card hobby and there are many levels. If you are starting out as a card collector there are generally two types of collectors, those who like to purchase single cards of players or teams other collectors will purchase what they call “wax”. “Wax Packs” are card packs or boxes filled with players from a select sport of that select year, generally depending on which collector you are, your collection of cards and items will vary. Personally, my favorite way of collecting is both – purchasing the boxes and packs of cards, because I like to have a sort of mystery as to what cards and players I will pull out of the boxes. In the past couple of years, the sports card hobby has had a booming increase in collectors and products.
The history of sports cards has evolved over the years, some of the first cars produced were in the pre-World War ll (before 1941). According to Vincent.com baseball was the dominant sport in the U.S. in the 20th century, so baseball cards made up all of the sports cards being produced. A huge maker of sports cards was the American Tobacco Company. The tobacco company would use the cards to separate and keep the tobacco clean. One of the most popular cards is the 1909 Honus Wagner which sold at auction for over a million dollars. The older cards are worth a good amount of money, but they are normally in very poor condition which can deteriorate the value of the card. After the war, there was a mass production of what they call the post-World War ll vintage era. After the war, from 1945-1979, the Leaf Candy Company, Bowman Gum Company, and Topps Gum Company all got into the card industry, which is why in all of the older packs you will find a stick of gum or other candies in your card packs. The 1950s was the “golden era”. According to Backyard Breaks, the Topps Card Company was the dominant industry in the mid-1950s. During this time, a lot of the people after the war started collecting cards, which is why a lot of your grandparents probably have some old cards that could be worth a lot of money as the cards from this era hold a high worth in the collecting market. During these times, baseball cards were still a huge population of the card era, but Bowman released the first official set of cards in 1948, which created a whole new area of collection and value to the hobby.
The next era of cards surfaced in the “Junk Wax Era” from 1980-1996. This era is when some of the most famous cards in the industry came to life in the collecting world. During this time, more card companies came to life such as Fleer, Donruss, Score, and Upper Deck. During this era, collectors started taking storing and card condition very seriously, because good card conditions increase the value of the cards, some of the most famous cards to come about during this time is the 1986 Michael Jordan Fleer rookie card which goes anywhere from $200,000 dollars to 10 times more depending on the condition of the cards. Another great card from this time is the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card which is also of great value.
One of my personal favorite eras is the “Modern Era” which is from 1997-2012, when the Lebron James rookie card was manufactured, and companies started releasing cards with autographs and relics. Relics are cards that consist of game-worn items implanted into the cards, such as jerseys, shorts, shoes, etc. During this time, a lot of the incoming rookies such as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Lebron James, and Stephen Curry were some of the biggest names in basketball. On the baseball side of the industry, some of the biggest names were Mike Trout, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, and even some of the Michael Jordan baseball cards were coming into the industry.
Collecting sports cards is one of my favorite hobbies, and is slowly growing over the years into one of the biggest hobbies in the world. If you are ever with your grandparents or even your parents, ask them if they have ever collected sports cards, and you could be surprised by the rare $200,000 Michael Jordan rookie card or even other awesome cards. I will encourage you to find a hobby and passion you enjoy and use it as a relaxer or stress reliever to your daily duties
