More popular:Baseball or Football card collecting

BLUEJAYWAY

I bring this up as I've read/heard many times that football has dethroned baseball as the #1 spectator sport. Does this popularity carry over to football card collecting over baseball card collecting? And if not,why not? A check of EBAY seems to contradict footballs #1 status at least in the card collecting market. Baseball card offers rule not only football,but the other sports as well. What also spurned on this observation was the constant football coverage since the Super Bowl ended. Mainly on ESPN. Daily news/stories/features, usually totaling a few hours a day. Baseball coverage, very little. Granted it is only spring training, but baseball is in season. Your thoughts?

PaulMaul

I think the reason is that a very significant portion of card collecting is nostalgia driven. So the dominance of baseball cards over football in the '50s-'70s translates to the same dominance now, since many collectors are attracted to the same issues they collected as kids.

LarkinCollector

I agree with the nostalgia factor, but also think career longevity/injury risk play into it a lot as well. Current football cards are a lot more of a gamble.

I keep hoping football's popularity will translate to the card market, but outside of vintage it hasn't even come close.

DanBessette

I agree with the nostalgia factor. Whatever the reason, I think there's no question baseball is king in collecting. Although I collect both sports, for the record.

ndleo

<< <i>I agree with the nostalgia factor, but also think career longevity/injury risk play into it a lot as well. Current football cards are a lot more of a gamble.

I keep hoping football's popularity will translate to the card market, but outside of vintage it hasn't even come close. >>



I disagree that modern football cards are any more of a gamble than baseball cards. There are more solid prospects in football products than in any other sport. Even defensive players can have value, which isn't true for the other sports.

The injury bug is a factor, but in reality there are very few "career ending" type injuries in football, especially when you consider the number of players on an NFL roster. Guys might miss a few games or even a season, but except for RBs, you don't see too many stars having to retire due to injury.

jjworm

I only watch the NFL. I haven't watched a baseball game in 20 years and really have no idea what players are in MLB these days or even the ever changing team names. With that said, I only collect baseball cards from the 1950's through the 1980's. High grade HOF RC's and unopened. Never bought a football card ever. I am 40 years old.

elsnorto

No doubt baseball is king in terms of the card hobby.

Baseball has a much richer history in terms of the hobby. Look at pre-war offerings for baseball vs. football, for example.

Baseball was this nations past-time for a long time, helped in part that the cost of entry to play the game is much lower than it is in modern football. The number of kids who played the game, aspiring to do so in the bigs, and watched MLB as a result is considerably higher than football. Much like soccer, where the cost to play is even lower, is king in most of the world. Baseball is also much more accessible through high school games, college games, an extensive minor league system, and the big show... in terms of playing, coaching, or just watching.

Even lower print runs and less product selection, historically speaking, haven't been able to create price parity between football vs. baseball greats.

No idea about the rate at which busts or injuries impact baseball or football. However, it seems higher competition for "the next big thing" inflate baseball prospect prices more than football, so the fall can be a lot nastier when they don't pan out. Mind you, that is my perception as someone who doesn't closely follow the modern market.

Snorto~

Rudedawg

I am the run-of-the-mill kid who grew up in the 80's/90's, collected mostly baseball cards, quit collecting from age 14-30 and now collect again. I don't buy a lot of modern (post 2000) stuff, but I would say that it is half and half whether I buy modern football or baseball. I like them both and know more football players than baseball. I watch a lot more football than baseball now as well. When I was a kid and collecting, it was ALL baseball watching on TV. I didn't have many football cards at that time.

If you tell the "lay person" that you "collect cards", they almost ALWAYS associate it as you "collect BASEBALL cards" from then on. Baseball started the entire hobby of collecting cards and I think it will always be baseball's hobby. Not to mention, the most iconic cards in the public eye (T206 Wagner, 52 Topps Mantle, 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, etc) are from baseball. Not many know the Nagurski Chicle Football card or the Michael Jordan Fleer RC as well.

Even though football is the #1 spectator sport by far, I think baseball will always be the #1 card collecting sport

shagrotn77

I collect both. I'd say there's still more baseball card collectors than football, but the gap is narrowing.

ThoseBackPages

i collect all three sports. i think Football is more popular nowadays.

Dboneesq

This is just a gut feeling, but I don't think it's even close. I think baseball is probably at least twice as popular.

One reason may be that the average fan (NOT the real fanatic like most board members) could probably name the starting lineup of their local baseball team, but would struggle to name more than half of the offensive OR defensive starters on their local football team. People like to collect cards of people they are familiar with.

perkdog

In my opinion Football card collecting has lost its steam, 5-6-7 years ago it was in FULL throttle and I thought it would overtake Baseball as the most popular, the hottest thing at the time was the NFL HOF Rookie set registry but nearly all the big time collectors have broken up their sets and moved on from it I think.

Baseball has always been king and always will be in my opinion, just so much more coverage of the sport way back when than the other big three ever had which I believe has alot to do with its consistency.

Dusto

For me, I'm a die-hard NFL fan and haven't watched more than 5 innings of a baseball game in probably 15 years and couldn't even name an entire starting line-up anymore. As a child of the 80's, the only football cards that are must haves for me in adulthood are the rookie cards of Payton, Montana, Elway, Marino, and Rice. However, the baseball cards I would covet span about 70 years and there are several hundred if not a thousand that would make me very happy to have in a collection.

sportscardtheory

Baseball. And it's not even close. Football collectors have to be the most fickle of any sport. If a card is 2 years or older, it's forgotten and the value tanks. Other than the top-5 to top-10 QBs in the league's rookie stuff, there is NOTHING worth buying in football.

steel75

VINTAGE is the key word here. Baseball has the edge because it has "more vintage" than football & basketball. I think vintage football & basketball for that matter will always hold it's value and I know a lot of my 70's Steelers have spiked up since I got them.

soundgard

Seems football is king with modern collectors.

WhiteTornado

<< <i>I bring this up as I've read/heard many times that football has dethroned baseball as the #1 spectator sport. Does this popularity carry over to football card collecting over baseball card collecting? And if not,why not? A check of EBAY seems to contradict footballs #1 status at least in the card collecting market. Baseball card offers rule not only football,but the other sports as well. What also spurned on this observation was the constant football coverage since the Super Bowl ended. Mainly on ESPN. Daily news/stories/features, usually totaling a few hours a day. Baseball coverage, very little. Granted it is only spring training, but baseball is in season. Your thoughts? >>



I think this is an apples-to-oranges comparison. If you are talking about the sports themselves, then football is significantly more popular than baseball. Has been for many years. If you are talking about card collecting, then it's opposite, baseball card collecting is significantly more popular than football card collecting. They are just different subjects to me and it's hard to mix the two, spectator sport versus card collecting.

I think baseball's original popularity and status as the #1 spectator sport in the U.S. gave it a huge head start in card collecting and for that matter, card production. Thus, there are just many more examples of vintage baseball cards to be had, and by extension, more interest in its original star players versus some of the original star players of football. There would be much more interest and monetary value placed on, for example, a baseball signed by Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb versus a football signed by Jim Thorpe or Red Grange.

You mention ESPN. To me, they are fairly agenda-driven these days. By that I mean, they cover the NFL 24-7-365 because they have a slice of the NFL broadcast package, which is very lucrative, and they know football is king (I'm just talking the sport here, not card collecting). They also cover baseball and show some of their games, but I would imagine that contract isn't nearly as lucrative as their NFL contract. Another example is their NBA coverage. If you knew nothing about American sports popularity and compared their NBA to their MLB coverage, you might think the NBA is just as popular as MLB these days. On the contrary, I don't think it's even close. MLB is a solid #2 to the NFL in terms of overall popularity with sports fans in general; the NBA is nowhere close to MLB. But think about it, ESPN has a huge NBA broadcast deal. I don't recall them having nearly as much NBA coverage in the years prior to them broadcasting their games. On the opposite end of the spectrum, look how they covered the Winter Olympics, a major event but one for which they did not have broadcast rights. I think they may have had one or two reporters in Sochi, that's it, out of their huge stable of people they could have sent. And they almost pretend the NHL does not exist.

Okay, I got a bit OT there, LOL. On a personal note, I collect mostly just football. I prefer 70s and 80s, but also pick up some modern stuff too. I have baseball cards from when I was a kid (a lot of Nolan Ryan and some of Rod Carew, to name a couple), but I don't really actively collect baseball. Most of what I pick up are Orioles cards from the local shop for my son.

BLUEJAYWAY

WHITE TORNADO:Good point on the coverage angle of football by ESPN (their having a broadcasting contract). You can learn much on this forum. Thanks to all for your input.