Got 'Em, Got 'Em, Need 'Em: A Fan's Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time
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Got 'Em, Got 'Em, Need 'Em: A Fan's Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time
294eBook
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Overview
For over a hundred years, kids of all ages have enjoyed the thrill of collecting sports cards. Whether it was souvenirs from their parents’ cigarette packs, pieces that came in bubble gum packages, or the modern dazzlers, the simple formula of pictures and text on cardboard have been a part of North American society for over a century.
Now, take a look back at one of the most popular hobbies in history with Got ’Em, Got ’Em, Need ’Em. Covering baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, and golf, this unique book offers a look at the greatest sports cards ever produced, including the players and personalities involved. Relive the days gone by with some of the industry’s most well-known experts as we count down the best from the business.
Plus, as a special bonus, take a look at the best innovations, the worst blunders, and a special tribute to the hobby’s boom era in the 1990s.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781554909711 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | ECW Press |
| Publication date: | 08/03/2022 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 294 |
| Sales rank: | 876,969 |
| File size: | 12 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Jon Waldman is a Winnipeg-based writer and lifetime card collector. He has worked for both hobby media and card companies. He has also written for a variety of magazines and newspapers over the years, such as The Hockey News and Winnipeg Men Magazine. He is also the editor of Slam! Wrestling: Stories from the Squared Circle (ECW, 2009).
Read an Excerpt
Got 'em Got 'em Need 'em
A Fan's Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time
By Stephen Laroche, Jon Waldman
ECW PRESS
Copyright © 2011 Stephen Laroche and Jon WaldmanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55490-980-3
CHAPTER 1
THE MODERN HISTORY OF SPORTS CARDS
DECADES FROM NOW, THE SPORT COLLECTING world won't be what it is today, much like how today's version of the hobby is miles different from the landscape of the 1980s.
You remember that time, don't you? It was the other BCE — the Before Cash Era.
Yes, as innocent and naïve as it may sound, there was a period where cards weren't kept in plastic sleeves or glass cases. Kids actually used to play with cards: flipping them, writing on them or worse — putting tape on them, pinning them to walls or placing them in bicycle spokes.
Then the boom hit and all of a sudden (or not so all of a sudden when you consider how long pricing guides have been around) cards were no longer pretty pictures and statistics — they were as tangible as stocks that could be bought, sold and traded on floors across the country. The New York Stock Exchange was in homes and school gyms across North America and beyond.
Like on the stock exchange, companies started popping up almost overnight. What was once a stronghold dominated almost solely by Topps (and its Canadian cousin O-Pee-Chee) suddenly was a boom market. Donruss, Fleer and Score were already mature when Upper Deck, Pro Set, Classic Games and countless others began to appear on store shelves. Adding to the now loaded market were a bevy of new food premiums like McDonald's, Denny's and Kraft, and unlicensed cards like the infamous Broders.
Many of the newcomers to the hobby weren't collecting for the pure enjoyment of reading a card-back bio or saving their favorite players in a special case — they were investors who believed that a fresh rookie card (RC) of a hot prospect was like an IPO, destined to take off in value and become a college fund feeder for their kids.
But, as we all know, the market was just too big. The collectors began realizing that they could no longer have one of everything and either specialized or moved on as prices for packs and boxes increased, while the investors decided that there was another "next big thing" market or simply lost interest and soon began leaving the hobby, looking elsewhere for their investments.
Soon the boom was over. Over the next few years, many companies either closed down (Pro Set and many fly-by-night companies aimed at the draft market such as Signature Rookies) or were bought out (Leaf/Donruss, which had been a hobby institution for years, was purchased by Pinnacle Brands, formerly known as Score).
But as with every boom and bust, there was an echo effect. Though it hasn't and likely will never reach its peak level of popularity again, the hobby continues to be a multi-million dollar industry. Companies realized they needed to change their strategy since the days of a collector putting together the entire assortment of cards from one product were done, and the high-dollar pursuit cards were here to stay.
Soon, the valued rookie cards were more short-printed than ever before. Chase cards had longer odds and more prominently had serial numbering blatantly advertising their limited availability. Perhaps most importantly, there was more player involvement than ever.
Back when the hobby took off, companies began issuing authenticated autographs in packs. Several series would feature a signature from a star player — the Reggie Jacksons and Patrick Roys of the card world — but by the mid-1990s, the autograph appearances would skyrocket. Some sets, such as hockey's Be A Player, would include one autograph per pack. This would quickly become the norm, and each company seemingly had a set like this.
The autograph, however, soon had a new friend — game-used memorabilia cards. They started in auto racing sets and moved quickly over to the "big four" sports as companies acquired game-used equipment from pro athletes and teams and would embed swatches in their cards. Soon, every collector could potentially have a piece of Ken Griffey Jr.'s jersey. Companies would also look to the past, cutting up Babe Ruth bats and Magic Johnson sweaters. Ever wanted a piece of turf from an NFL field or a ticket stub from the Super Bowl? Yup, you could get those from packs as well, or at least a portion thereof.
The highlight soon became some unique swatches coming out of packs. Thanks to the use not only of jerseys but their crests, or patches as they're commonly called, some truly attractive pieces started appearing. This would translate well to bat barrels or league emblems, which became the Cadillacs of cards.
Soon, it seemed as though anything imaginable could be plucked from a card pack. A signature of a long-deceased icon like Knute Rockne was available, or the very printing plates used to create cards were soon found inside foil wrappers.
As these cards became more popular, pricing for packs began to, shall we say, vary. The highest grade of product soon would demand $50 or more for a single package and steadily increased to suggested retail prices well into the three-digit figures. Names like Exquisite, Sterling and Ultimate would become recognized as the upper echelon of collectablility.
All was not good for the hobby in this brave new world though. Pinnacle Brands closed up shop in 1998 and would become part of the Playoff franchise. Later, Pacific, which rose to prominence in the 1990s despite being in existence since the '70s, would be taken over by the new Donruss/Playoff Inc., which would end up being purchased by sticker magnate Panini. Upper Deck (UD) would purchase longtime rival Fleer, gain control of the O-Pee-Chee brand name and even make a bid to take over its biggest competitor — Topps.
Meanwhile, UD would gain exclusivity with the NHL and its players' association, which in part led to Pacific's aforementioned demise and nearly forced Dr. Brian Price and his company, In The Game Inc., out of the hockey market. Price and other companies would still produce cards of hockey's past, present and future stars, albeit without logos. This would begin a new era, leading eventually to the NBA going exclusively with Panini, Major League Baseball only licensing Topps, and other such contracts, essentially looping back to the '60s and '70s.
All the while, the industry continued to shrink as dealers continued to close up shop. What was almost a card store on every corner in the boom era would shrink to a dozen or fewer stores in some cities, and long-running trade shows would either close up or measurably shrink in size. Additionally, magazines and price guides dedicated to trading cards would also soon fold or reformat, lessening the public presence of the hobby.
While this happened though, a newer phenomenon was taking shape online. Message boards where collectors could buy, sell and trade their wares were becoming all the rage, while several former brick and mortar stores found new (and less expensive) homes online. Auction sites like eBay were soon joined by traditional houses like Leland's in a virtual craze.
The rise of third-party grading also gave investors a bigger bang for their hobby buck. A new segment of the market was created by sending in a card to an authenticator who would assign a grade based on the card's condition. Powerful players like PSA, BGS and SGC were respected for their attention to detail and consistency, but there were also flyby-night outfits that were simply trying to cash in on a trend. Assigning value to high-grade versions of the hobby's greatest treasures appeals to many collectors, and it looks as if professional grading is a mainstay rather than a subsection of the hobby.
Through all of these transformations, one part of collecting has remained tried and true, as it will for decades to come — the industry's ability to adapt to its market. Whether it's two school kids swapping cards on the playground or the young-at-heart negotiating a trade over Facebook, the core of the industry remains the pursuit of enhancing a collection. Whether it's a player, team, set, insert, jersey or autograph, cards continue to be at the forefront of the memorabilia world. Other fads will come and go, but that humble piece of cardboard will always remain the simplest and most enjoyable souvenir in sport.
CHAPTER 2COMPOSITION OF A LIST
IT'S TOUGH TO PUT PEN TO PAPER (or fingers to keyboard) and come up with a balanced, thoughtful "top" list of any sort — but crossing sporting lines and regional preferences makes the job almost impossible.
That's why coming up with our list of the top 100 sports cards of all time was so difficult. Inevitably, we'll get some criticism (something we certainly welcome), but to give you a bit of an idea of how the list was created, we'd like to explain our selection process.
The first, and perhaps hardest, thing we had to do was remove any personal biases. Sure, some were easy to omit (after all, while Corey Koskie and Ken Wregget are important parts of our own collections, they don't rank anywhere near a top 100 card), but others endured major debates. Even up until our self-imposed deadline we were still iffy on some cards.
The one caveat that we near-instantly agreed upon was that no one-of-ones could make the list. We thought long and hard about a couple exceptions (notably the Lord Stanley of Preston autos and the infamous Allen & Ginter Fidel Castro card), but in the end our determination was that they couldn't be on the list because of their extremely limited nature.
Second, in most scenarios a card had to not only have appeal within its sport, but had to transcend its home turf and be a card that a larger community would want. So in the future if or when you see individual sports books from us, you might not see all of the cards in a particular pursuit listed the same way they are here, because a particular football card may be coveted by the general card collecting community more than its own.
Third, we started the list by ranking baseball highest (due to its decorated and colorful past that far out-ranks any other sport) and hockey, basketball and football equally. As puck hounds, this was a bit difficult, because, as Canadians, our natural inclination was to include more hockey than other sports; yet we couldn't ignore that football has just as big a collecting community across North America as our unofficial national game.
We found, though, that basketball really had fallen off the grid, especially when it came to older cards. We're not going to argue that players like Oscar Robertson weren't important in their sport, but the appeal outside of hoops is limited, and even inside, historic cards don't get the attention that they do in baseball or other sports.
Finally, you may notice that some all-time greats in sports aren't on the list, like Muhammad Ali. Here's an interesting case — Ali certainly would be on the top 100 sports stars of all-time list (possibly even at #1), but he has yet to have a definitive card. Heck, he doesn't have a properly defined rookie card at this point. So while we hoped to put him on the list, there wasn't a card that garnered enough attention to be on here.
We also consulted with numerous experts in the hobby, and to them we offer our sincere thanks.
As we mentioned earlier, we certainly welcome all feedback on our list, so don't hesitate to drop us a note via email.
We hope you enjoy this book and look forward to hearing from everyone who reads it.
Stephen Laroche (stephen_laroche@hotmail.com)
Jon Waldman (jonathanwaldman@hotmail.com)
CHAPTER 3THE LEXICON OF THE HOBBY
EVER WONDERED WHAT ALL THOSE hobby shop folk are talking about? Here are a few popular phrases from hobby lingo.
BUST/BREAK Opening a box or pack of cards. Though most collectors use traditional means to open said containers, some have resorted to other means, such as scissors or hunting knives. (Don't believe us? Check out box breaks on YouTube.)
GRADING An authoritative evaluation of the condition of a card. There are several companies that will grade cards, but over the years many have been found to give inaccurate grades or trim cards to give them a sharper look. If the grade's not from BGS (or their vintage subsidiary BVG), PSA or SGC, buyer beware!
HARD SIGNED An autographed card that has been directly signed by the player, rather than one that uses a sticker.
HIT Denotes a good card pulled from a pack. Usually, this refers to a rookie card, autographed card or memorabilia card, but can also apply to a card with a low print run.
HOT BOX Defined by a box that has good cards, the term originated in the '90s when a box of cards had more inserts than the stated odds. The term also applied to packs that a couple companies would do that only had insert cards. Today, a hot pack or box often refers to landing two or more elite players in one shot.
MEMORABILIA/GAME-USED CARD A card that has a swatch of game-used equipment embedded in it. This includes jerseys, bats, shoes, skates, hats, gloves and just about anything else that isn't a jock strap. At least, until some company decides to take that route ...
MINT The basic word for a card in the best possible condition. Cards can go (well) below this condition, but going above gets tricky, since graders will often come up with their own terms, such as gem or pristine.
REPRINT A reproduction of a card previously produced, often several years prior. These cards are sometimes done by companies as tributes to their earlier sets, but more often are counterfeit cards produced by collectors. Some will put "reprint" on the card, but many don't.
SP Short or special print, referring to a card that has a lower production run than others in its sets. This is now done intentionally, but back in the day, it was completely based on how the cards were laid out on a printed sheet.
TOP LOADER Also known as a "hard plastic," these are the standard protective holders for cards. Collectors will usually put a valuable card first in a penny sleeve (a flimsy plastic encasing) then in the top loader. Up a couple levels are screw-downs or magnetic holders (heavier plastic casings held together with screws or magnets).
UNLICENSED Cards that feature team logos or player images without fees paid for the right to use them to either or all of the corresponding leagues, its players association or the individual athlete. These cards are illegal and should never be purchased. A fair warning — these cards have seen a resurgence in recent years.
VINTAGE Refers to older cards. Most commonly today, this refers to any cards produced before the "boom" era, which saddens this book's two authors greatly.
WHITE WHALE The card that eludes a collector, harkening back to the tale of Captain Ahab from Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Some collectors will go through a number of channels to try to find that card that will "complete" their collection (though usually they'll just move on to the next pursuit).
CHAPTER 4THE GOD CARD
1909–11 T206 HONUS WAGNER
THIS IS IT ... THE GOD CARD. THE SINGLE item that every card collector wants, but knows they'll never possess. Even to get a glimpse of it in person is enough for most collectors.
It's the Honus Wagner T206 card — the one piece that, more than any other, breaks the collectibles barrier and hits the mainstream.
The story behind it is the stuff of legends. Ask any collector and they can relay the tale to you like a preteen reciting the lyrics to the latest Justin Bieber hit. According to legend, Wagner, who had the foresight to believe that kids should not be smoking, did not want his image to entice younger folk to purchase packs. While that theory is mere speculation, only a few of his cards made it into the market, making his the most desirable of all cigarette cards. Ironically, Wagner can be seen on his 1949 Leaf card with a big hunk of chewing tobacco in his cheek!
Of course, this is only one explanation behind the scarcity of Wagner's card. Another theory that has been retold countless times is ... let's just say less altruistic. As documented by Baseball Almanac, "The more cynical view is that Wagner's public disdain for tobacco consumption was merely a cover for his anger at not receiving compensation for the use of his image to promote cigarettes as a popular product. He was, after all, known to be a sharp business negotiator."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Got 'em Got 'em Need 'em by Stephen Laroche, Jon Waldman. Copyright © 2011 Stephen Laroche and Jon Waldman. Excerpted by permission of ECW PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Reading Group Guide
Decades from now, the sport collecting world won’t be what it is today, much like how today’s version of the hobby is miles different from the landscape of the 1980s. You remember that time, don’t you? It was the other BCE — the Before Cash Era. Yes, as innocent and naïve as it may sound, there was a period where cards weren’t kept in plastic sleeves or glass cases. Kids actually used to play with cards: flipping them, writing on them or worse — putting tape on them, pinning them to walls or placing them in bicycle spokes. Then the boom hit and all of a sudden (or not so all of a sudden when you consider how long pricing guides have been around) cards were no longer pretty pictures and statistics — they were as tangible as stocks that could be bought, sold and traded on floors across the country. The New York Stock Exchange was in homes and school gyms across North America and beyond. Like on the stock exchange, companies started popping up almost overnight. What was once a stronghold dominated almost solely by Topps (and its Canadian cousin O-Pee-Chee) suddenly was a boom market. Donruss, Fleer and Score were already mature when Upper Deck, Pro Set, Classic Games and countless others began to appear on store shelves. Adding to the now loaded market were a bevy of new food premiums like McDonald’s, Denny’s and Kraft, and unlicensed cards like the infamous Broders. Many of the newcomers to the hobby weren’t collecting for the pure enjoyment of reading a card-back bio or saving their favorite players in a special case — they were investors who believed that a fresh rookie card (RC) of a hot prospect was like an IPO, destined to take off in value and become a college fund feeder for their kids. But, as we all know, the market was just too big. The collectors began realizing that they could no longer have one of everything and either specialized or moved on as prices for packs and boxes increased, while the investors decided that there was another “next big thing” market or simply lost interest and soon began leaving the hobby, looking elsewhere for their investments. Soon the boom was over. Over the next few years, many companies either closed down (Pro Set and many fly-by-night companies aimed at the draft market such as Signature Rookies) or were bought out (Leaf/Donruss, which had been a hobby institution for years, was purchased by Pinnacle Brands, formerly known as Score). But as with every boom and bust, there was an echo effect. Though it hasn’t and likely will never reach its peak level of popularity again, the hobby continues to be a multi-million dollar industry. Companies realized they needed to change their strategy since the days of a collector putting together the entire assortment of cards from one product were done, and the highdollar pursuit cards were here to stay. Soon, the valued rookie cards were more short-printed than ever before. Chase cards had longer odds and more prominently had serial numbering blatantly advertising their limited availability. Perhaps most importantly, there was more player involvement than ever. Back when the hobby took off, companies began issuing authenticated autographs in packs. Several series would feature a signature from a star player — the Reggie Jacksons and Patrick Roys of the card world — but by the mid-1990s, the autograph appearances would skyrocket. Some sets, such as hockey’s Be A Player, would include one autograph per pack. This would quickly become the norm, and each company seemingly had a set like this. The autograph, however, soon had a new friend — gameused memorabilia cards. They started in auto racing sets and moved quickly over to the “big four” sports as companies acquired game-used equipment from pro athletes and teams and would embed swatches in their cards. Soon, every collector could potentially have a piece of Ken Griffey Jr.’s jersey. Companies would also look to the past, cutting up Babe Ruth bats and Magic Johnson sweaters. Ever wanted a piece of turf from an NFL field or a ticket stub from the Super Bowl? Yup, you could get those from packs as well, or at least a portion thereof. The highlight soon became some unique swatches coming out of packs. Thanks to the use not only of jerseys but their crests, or patches as they’re commonly called, some truly attractive pieces started appearing. This would translate well to bat barrels or league emblems, which became the Cadillacs of cards. Soon, it seemed as though anything imaginable could be plucked from a card pack. A signature of a long-deceased icon like Knute Rockne was available, or the very printing plates used to create cards were soon found inside foil wrappers. As these cards became more popular, pricing for packs began to, shall we say, vary. The highest grade of product soon would demand $50 or more for a single package and steadily increased to suggested retail prices well into the three-digit figures. Names like Exquisite, Sterling and Ultimate would become recognized as the upper echelon of collectablility. All was not good for the hobby in this brave new world though. Pinnacle Brands closed up shop in 1998 and would become part of the Playoff franchise. Later, Pacific, which rose to prominence in the 1990s despite being in existence since the ’70s, would be taken over by the new Donruss/Playoff Inc., which would end up being purchased by sticker magnate Panini. Upper Deck (UD) would purchase longtime rival Fleer, gain control of the O-Pee-Chee brand name and even make a bid to take over its biggest competitor — Topps. Meanwhile, UD would gain exclusivity with the NHL and its players’ association, which in part led to Pacific’s aforementioned demise and nearly forced Dr. Brian Price and his company, In The Game Inc., out of the hockey market. Price and other companies would still produce cards of hockey’s past, present and future stars, albeit without logos. This would begin a new era, leading eventually to the NBA going exclusively with Panini, Major League Baseball only licensing Topps, and other such contracts, essentially looping back to the ’60s and ’70s. All the while, the industry continued to shrink as dealers continued to close up shop. What was almost a card store on every corner in the boom era would shrink to a dozen or fewer stores in some cities, and long-running trade shows would either close up or measurably shrink in size. Additionally, magazines and price guides dedicated to trading cards would also soon fold or reformat, lessening the public presence of the hobby.