Importance put on cards from an athlete's "playing years"

Big80s

Good morning, friends!

Over the past year I've been increasingly sensitive towards collecting cards that were released during an athlete's playing years. Do any of you subscribe to this premium or is this more or less arbitrary. I personally think it's fun to know that a particular issue came out while the player/fighter was still active - but there are obviously some very cool issues that come out with cards celebrating an athlete's career. Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

bigdcards

This is probably arbitrary too, but I view cards made after retirement like a reprint.

Big80s

I appreciate your feedback. And while I don't view them as reprints necessarily, I do look at them as slightly less interesting, I guess.

Planemonkey

I'm growing fond of cards released after retirement, especially autographs. I don't think there is a wrong way to collect your favorite player or team.

It reminds me of being a kid when I just wanted to have the card and not so much the grade.

I think it also depends on how many cards were issued during their playing years. Someone like Nolan Ryan or Cal Ripken could keep a person busy for a long time with just cards issued during their career.

I have been thinking about collecting cards from Jim Hunter's teammates in sets where Hunter didn't have a card, but were during his playing years. Also getting one autographed card from each of his teammates.

There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's.

perkdog

I ever got into the Topps All-American set myself due to the fact that the cards were of players that long since retired. Another card I never liked that stood out for a slightly different reason was the 1957 Topps Richard "Nightrain" Lane card which is considered his rookie even though he played since 1952.

OAKESY25

This is probably arbitrary too, but I view cards made after retirement like a reprint.

Big80s

<< <i>There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's. >>



I love this!

scotgreb

It means a great deal to me but not everything. One of my major collecting focuses is on HOF baseball.

There are quite a few HOFers that do not even have a playing years card, making a "complete" HOF playing years run impossible.

Further, many HOFers have very limited options for playing year issues -- making them relatively expensive.

I struggle with those because I want a playing years card when possible -- but don't want to pay $1,000+ for a PSA 1 or 2.

Big80s

<< <i>

There are quite a few HOFers that do not even have a playing years card, making a "complete" HOF playing years run impossible. >>



Thanks for chiming in - this is a very interesting point. Can you give a few examples of HOF players who have no cards from their playing years? I'd be interested to know.

mikeschmidt

For me, it is simply because there are too many cards produced now.

For example, Mike Schmidt literally has thousands upon thousands of cards released over the last five years, especially when you include parallels, autographs, game-used, refractors, x-fractors, gold refractors, purple people eater fractors, etc.

Some of his post retirement cards are certainly cool, but there's way too many of them. As a result, I lost interest in all of them and focus only on his playing day cards.

M

orioles93

Im not a big fan of cards produced recently of older players but i still like the 1960 and 1961 fleer sets of older players.

MyDaughtersNameIsMattingly

<< <i>For me, it is simply because there are too many cards produced now.

For example, Mike Schmidt literally has thousands upon thousands of cards released over the last five years, especially when you include parallels, autographs, game-used, refractors, x-fractors, gold refractors, purple people eater fractors, etc.

Some of his post retirement cards are certainly cool, but there's way too many of them. As a result, I lost interest in all of them and focus only on his playing day cards.

M >>



Being a Mattingly guy, I'm in the same boat. Way too much post career stuff out there to chase it all. The only exceptions I make are certified on card autos that appeal to me, as well as anything to do with his '84 Topps RC. I recently picked up one of each.

Brock21

I have about 300 Lou Brock items and cards from his playing years.

If I chased all the cards that came out after it was over I'd go nuts.

I have bought some post career stuff if it is autographed or shows
his rookie card on it, but that's about it.

I do buy the other post career stuff on ebay or at flea markets/yard sales/shows if they
are cheap - 10 cents kind of cheap, but I do not really display it, it's not that interesting
to me.

There is just way too much more modern stuff.

DerekD

<< <i>

<< <i>

There are quite a few HOFers that do not even have a playing years card, making a "complete" HOF playing years run impossible. >>



Thanks for chiming in - this is a very interesting point. Can you give a few examples of HOF players who have no cards from their playing years? I'd be interested to know. >>




I think the only one not available is Spalding. There are a number that have very limited options, like most of the Negro League players.

And, it would be nice if PSA cleaned that set up and removed cards that don't fit. For example, Branch Rickey 1915 Cracker Jack card when his years are listed in the set are 1920-1959.

fkw

A contemporary card of a player makes a big difference in value usually, especially on the players who have very few known.... they can get very pricey when offered for sale.

If one of the 2-3 known Pete Hill cards ever came to auction, it would go for close to 6 figures....



There are quite a few players in the HOF that dont have any, and a few that dont have many contemporary cards. Like mentioned before, most of them are Negro Leaguers.

ie
Jesse Burkett.... the unique 1893 Just So card, and the almost as tough 1903 W600 card are the only cards from his playing days. Jesse does also have a 1909 T204 (2 types), and his very tough 1921 D383 from after his playing days.
Rube Foster....... has none
Josh Gibson .....has 1, a unique postcard form 1931
Frank Grant ..... has none
Pete Hill..... has 2-3 (total examples), the unique 1909 Cabanas Tobacco, and the unique? (maybe 2 known) 1910 Punch Tobacco
Judy Johnson... has none
Buck Leonard... has none
Alex Pompez.... has 1, a unique team pic postcard from 1922
Cum Posey... has none
Bullet Rogan... has none
Louis Santop... has none
Albert Spalding has a couple unique CDVs from his playing days
Turkey Stearnes... has none
Mule Suttles... has none
Ben Taylor... has none
Willie Wells... has none
Sol White... has none
Jud Wilson.... has a unique postcard from 1931
Joe Williams... has none
George Wright... has about 3 unique cabinet/CDVs from his playing days
Harry Wright... has only a couple unique CDVs from his playing days, but does have a 1887 N172 from later on.

bighurt2000

I mostly only collect Frank Thomas cards from his playing years like others have said way to many modern playing
cards produced after there playing years to keep me interested in collecting them. I do still pickup a few post playing
year cards of Frank Thomas 1/1''s cards and cards that have his jersey number 35/xxx but the prices have to be
somewhat reasonable.

James

Hank36

I started collecting Graig Nettles cards about thirty years ago--in other words, while he was still playing. It was very cool to open packs each year and to set aside the first Nettles I encountered; those same cards are atill the ones in my Nettles binder. I also recall sending mailing orders from Michigan to California, receiving sets of Mother's Cookies cards several weeks later--I was the nly person I knew with such cards.

Of course, after about 1989 or so, the cards sort of stopped; sure there were oddballs to be found such as Senior League cards and the occasional O-Pee-Chee, but not much for the next ten years or so.

Therefore, I can't say that I didn't enjoy it when companies started issuing sets of retired players such as Nettles, and I was again able to add to my collection. Jersey cards, bat cards, autograph cards--and then came Ebay, and suddenly finding OPC cards in Florida wasn't as prohibitive as it used to be. And many of them are very cool cards. Plus, Nettles was a Yankee, providing collectors with many more recent issues than, to use an example of another player I collect, Lou Whitaker, who has had very few post-retirement cards compared to the massive number of cards he appeared on in the 90's before he retired.

But when that gigantic Yankee Stadium set came out a couple of years ago, it included seventy-five Graig Nettles cards, and while I did pick up a few of them, the thought of seeking out all seventy-five simply didn't interest me. And frankly, with that decision, I haven't bought any Nettles cards since.

I'm sure that sooner or later I'll get on Ebay and get caught up with my Nettles collection, but one notion to which I keep returning is that no matter how "cool" some of the newer issues are, for some intangible reason they will never fascinate me the way the vintage stuff does. As low-tech as a Hostess card may seem in the 21st century, cards like that are still far more intrinsically fascinating to me than any refractor.

Big80s

I love hearing everyone's take on this. I can understand each person's reasoning.

And great list FKW - thank you for including that. I know I'm naive to think this, but it's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of a player having a Hall of Fame career and never having a card produced of them during their playing years. Pretty amazing.

Great contributions - keep them coming, guys!

scotgreb

Thanks for chiming in - this is a very interesting point. Can you give a few examples of HOF players who have no cards from their playing years? I'd be interested to know.

Let me qualify my comment first -- I was referring to all HOFers -- not just players -- and thanks to fkw for listing out several of them.

It's my belief that there are 38 (of 297) members of the HOF that do not have a playing years card -- not sure how many are players (easy enough to figure out) -- but the absenses are definitely skewed toward negro leaguers (most if not all are included in fkw's list).

Note that PSA has a registry set for each; a "complete" set whereby you may include any card of that HOFer -- named "Hall of Fame Players, Managers, Owners, Executives, Pioneers, Commissioners & Umpires" and the "HOF Complete" registry set that only accepts playing years issues. The former has 297 slots and the latter just 259 -- with the difference being 38.

I'm currently working on both -- consistent with my earlier comments.

For those of you looking for an interesting baseball registry set to pursue, I highly recommend both. The flexibility of allowing multiple cards for each player has alot of appeal to me -- I am constantly upgrading and downgrading my set into different cards of the same HOFer.

Scott

NVbaseball

If I was going to buy a Lou Gehrig card I would be much more interested in paying for his 1973 Topps card instead of 1933 Goudey

How can anyone not like this one:

Reljac

I'm with you guys. I will never understand the modern re-use of HoFers. Everyone I get is instintly listed on the bay. Earlier this year I sold a lot of some 150+ Mickey Mantly cards from 2001 to present.

It's great when they are used as autographs in products. A great way to add value and some desireable to sets. I just don't understand all the base cards of or SPs of Hall of Famers... do we really need Mickey Mantle in every Topps set? How about a ton of them like last year?