OT- trading cards

[Nazrmohamed]

I recently saw someones avatar and it was a picture of Nerlins Noel posing on what looked like a basketball card. It got me reminiscing for a bit about my youth and how we couldn't wait for the annual basketball cards to come out. Most people collected baseball cards but I was never into baseball and remember having tons of nba cards. I know the internet and multitude of other options sort of made collecting out of fashion but I was just curious if anyone out there still collects these things. Does anyone care anymore. And do they hold any value? I think some are still in the attic of my parents house in plastic.

[The Rebel]

There are still plenty of collectors out there, and some cards still hold plenty of value, but it is nothing like it was back in the early 90s when it seemed like everybody collected cards. I still have my collection from back then, 2 large moving boxes full of them in fact, but their value is minimal compared to what they were worth back then.

[Bolivar]

Early 90's, oh man. In my town in Finland with less than 100k people, there were several stores in downtown that sold and traded nothing but hockey cards. It would be a ridiculous business concept now.
(OT to your OT since this wasn't really about basketball cards )

[Rasheeed!!!]

I used to love buying cards as a kid. There were even stores that sold cards individually at various prices. I wouldn't even know where to buy cards these days.

[pewing33ny]

I remember when my brother got a Shaq Upper Deck SE electric court and it was valued in Beckett for $200. He went to every store trying to sell it and ended up getting offered something like $20-40 for it.

I did have a huge collection of Ewing cards, probably 100+.

[Nazrmohamed]

Early 90's, oh man. In my town in Finland with less than 100k people, there were several stores in downtown that sold and traded nothing but hockey cards. It would be a ridiculous business concept now.
(OT to your OT since this wasn't really about basketball cards )

Nah its cool man. We could really expand it to ANY cards. You just don't hear about people collecting cards anymore. It got me thinking Id love to start collecting cards with my son who is now just watching basketball with me. Its just such a distant concept these days.

[Chuck Everett]

A relic of a bygone era. I never got into them as a child unfortunately. Feel bad for people who collected hoping for a big payday. I am sure the cards eventually just got recycled.

[jwise44]

I recently saw someones avatar and it was a picture of Nerlins Noel posing on what looked like a basketball card. It got me reminiscing for a bit about my youth and how we couldn't wait for the annual basketball cards to come out. Most people collected baseball cards but I was never into baseball and remember having tons of nba cards. I know the internet and multitude of other options sort of made collecting out of fashion but I was just curious if anyone out there still collects these things. Does anyone care anymore. And do they hold any value? I think some are still in the attic of my parents house in plastic.

I collected until highschool which was 04. I sold a bunch then (except for cards I loved so all rockets Knicks Payton Jordan and kemp) and I made close to a grand

Probably could have gotten a lot more but I was a freshman looking for booze money for a party so took the first offer

[dorkestra]

Good memories of the one kid in our class bringing in his Beckett magazine, and all of us fighting over it to see whether we were as rich as we thought we might be.

[SlimD235]

I miss Becketts

[Winglish]

I still have some of my best cards like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, but most I gave to my son. He'll get them all someday. I still like to pull out the cards and think about Hammerin' Hank once in awhile.

I'll never forget the day I gave my then 8-year-old son my John Stockton cards. He had seen the statue outside the arena and the jersey hanging from the rafters. I told him because I loved him so much I was going to give him a gift that was very special to me. I told him I wanted him to keep the gift forever and never sell it or trade it. He promised. Man, that kid went wild when he saw I was giving him my John Stocktons! I gave him a bunch of others that day like my Magics and my Jordans and my Shaqs, but my son knew how much I loved John Stockton and thus he did too.

Fast forward to this year- Father's Day: My son told me he was giving me something that was very special to him to say thanks for all I've done for him. He made me promise to keep it. Then with a big smile he pulled out from behind his back an Odell Beckham Jr. rookie card. Odell is my son's favorite player and now I like him too!

[playaloc916]

A relic of a bygone era. I never got into them as a child unfortunately. Feel bad for people who collected hoping for a big payday. I am sure the cards eventually just got recycled.

So true. i collected a lot of cards back in the day, but rarely got any special insert cards. If I did, they weren't valued at much. When I was cleaning out my old place, I must have recycled a couple of long boxes of cards. What a waste of money.

I did build a pretty decent Latrell Sprewell collection. I never managed to find an autographed Sprewell that I was willing to pay for though (I think I saw some at about $50).

But as a casual collector, I found that eBay was really great. Just pay a little extra and get exactly the autographed card you want, instead of buying packs or boxes just to be disappointed.

[Goudelock]

I collect football cards, since all of the basketball cards are super-expensive. I also collect Yugioh cards. I used to go to a card shop in Oregon a few years ago, and you could buy a 25 pack box for 10 bucks. Much better deals than what you'd find at Walmart. BTW, does Topps still make basketball cards?

[Han Solo]

I used to deal big-time.. I sold vintage star wars 1977-85 figures too (toys from the 80s too).. I was into cards from 1987 - a few years back. I got out of it when the Jeremy Lin Knicks stuff was going on..

I kept some 1909 T206 Detroit Tigers for my kids.. That's all I kept. Probably sold them all over 2 years for around $30,000. There is NO money in opening packs. There is money in buying player's rookie cards (autographed, serial numbered) before they blow up and selling at the right time (kind of like stocks).

[jeffhardyfan52]

I still have tons of cards
A few big boxes full and maybe 6 binders

[pacers33granger]

The market got way too over-saturated. I remember when I was big into it as a kid and they first came out with jersey/shoe/etc. cards. After a few years you could buy packs that guaranteed jersey cards or autographs. And for awhile there were so many different sets. Some years in the early 90s you'd have a couple sets, and that was it, but later on there were like 40-50 sets. Scrubs from the early 2000s likely have at least 50 different cards with their name on it.

[Miasma]

I still actively collect, as it brings so much nostalgia back to me. I mainly collect 90's insert cards, as the current market has become all about 1/1's, autos, and jersey cards. I have a small collection of new cards of my PC players, but 90's design is unparalleled. I recently got my son into collecting, so it's something positive we can bond over. I have literally tens of thousands of cards, and I'm only five cards away from completing every Fleer and Fleer Ultra insert set made between 1987 and 1996. I'm still looking to complete a lot of other 90's insert sets I started when I was a kid. Here's my blowout profile if anyone is looking to sell or trade:

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/members/miasma.html

Here's my list

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/basketball-singles-buy-sell-trade/864495-expanded-insert-wants.html

[Tim Kempton]

The market got way too over-saturated. I remember when I was big into it as a kid and they first came out with jersey/shoe/etc. cards. After a few years you could buy packs that guaranteed jersey cards or autographs. And for awhile there were so many different sets. Some years in the early 90s you'd have a couple sets, and that was it, but later on there were like 40-50 sets. Scrubs from the early 2000s likely have at least 50 different cards with their name on it.

Good call. That's exactly what drove me out. I remember buying a box and pulling an Antoine Walker jersey card (odds were 1:288 at the time). BV was $60. A few years later, jerseys were 1:1. Pieces of the court and other game-used stuff were too easy to get. I lost the joy of collecting in the early 2000s, just before the LBJ/Wade draft.

[Tim Kempton]

I began collecting in 1993 but it became an obsession in 1994 all the way through to the early 2000s. I had over 50,000 basketball cards. That is not an exaggeration.

The 3 best cards I ever pulled were:

Michael Jordan All-Defensive 1st Team insert from '93-'94 Fleer Ultra. At that time the BV was $120. I was 9 years old and flipping out like crazy. I can still remember it vividly. Eventually had to sell it.

Tim Duncan Autographics from '98-'99 Skybox. BV was $300. Went to a local card store which usually had crap and bought a few packs on a whim. Pulled the card on the ride home and told my mom to drive back immediately because I had to put it in plastic. Sold it a while ago for $100 or $150 because i needed money.

Kobe Bryant '96-'97 EX-2000 RC. BV at the time was like $15 or $20 because he wasn't a star yet. Like an idiot, I traded it soon after I pulled it. The price ended up skyrocketing to over $100 at one point. No clue of its value now.

I also bought and traded for more great cards than I can count. I had a fairly huge collection of Duncan cards (between two and three hundred: common cards, inserts, good RCs [Topps Chrome, Topps Finest, etc.], the Autographics card i had at the time, and a '98-'99 Upper Deck game-used jersey card).

This topic really brings me back. I loved collecting. It was my one passion for nearly a decade.

[Fast Dont Fib]

We had multiple card shops in our town as a kid (early 90's). We would go hang out there after school every day. Haggle with the card shop owners over trades. Try and rip innocent kids off in trades that weren't up to date on Becket prices. Used to walk 45 minutes away to a Walmart to steal decks of cards because they kept that **** right out in an open area and when it was so busy cashiers couldn't notice. We'd leave with multiple decks down our pants walking awkwardly like we had to drop a deuce.

Cards were my drug as a kid. Too bad i probably traded them for actual drugs by the time i stopped.