The days that I come in to the card shop have been terrible for me winning anything off the bid board, but I finally scored. I have to say this is one of my nicer scores as I was able to get 3 vintage 1958 Topps football cards and a Hall of Famer autograph for $3.50.
I believe that I paid $2 for the vintage cards and $1.50 for the Derrick Brooks autograph. To an extent, I get why I didn’t get outbid on the vintage cards but $1.50 for the Derrick Brooks autograph? Come on people. I know the brand it is signed on is weak but I would’ve been happy if I got his autograph for $10 and I am a low end guy. Sure I value him more because some of my best friends have been Bucs fans and he is an NFC South guy, but $1.50 for a Hall of Famer who truly dominated the game? I have seen badly faded Terrell Davis and Steve McNair autographs from the ‘Signature Rookies’ go for $20.
I have 2 more tangents that I want to go on. 1 – why are team picture cards not as highly valued as single player cards? For the life of me I don’t get why they are only limited in their value to fans of the team. These are some of my favorite cards to collect. When I open packs those are the cards that I put to the side for my personal collection.
And the last tangent: I bought a pack of cards with this purchase. The pack of cards, 2015 Prestige Football, was $3.50, the same as my total for the cards I got on the bid board. With the exception of a Steve Smith acetate insert, I got crap. Even then, I would be lucky to get .75 cents for it – I just checked and a superstar wide receiver’s similar card from this set went unsold on Ebay at 50 cents. This is why I started this site. Collectors should be annoyed at this. Why should I pay so much for a pack when I could actually get the stuff I want out of the pack for the same price? It’s like people are not annoyed because they accept that is how this hobby works. Newsflash, we are in this hobby for fun. Crap like this is not fun, it is why drives people away from the hobby. The thrill of opening the packs and the chase is offset by the fact that your money is better spent buying the card you are chasing. Instead of screaming poor, cards makers needs to find a way to make the hobby work for everyone involved. They claim it is isn’t working for them, it certainly isn’t working for local card shops, and unless you have money to burn then it’s not working for the consumer.
Angry Card Collector . com 