Opinions wanted from those who collect multiple sports

[dashcol]

I started collecting the three major sports about halfway through 2019. Obviously this was before COVID and before the huge spike. I started because I was getting bored with baseball, so I sold it all to fund some basketball and football. I ended up missing baseball, mainly because of the community and the history in baseball collecting, so I recently started getting back into baseball. So right now I am doing all three.

With the current spikes in everything, I don’t think I can adequately collect all three. I just don’t have the money to into all three. So I have to give one up I think, or a will end up not enjoying any of them when I have to start choosing which one I go after.

I am having trouble deciding which one I want to give up, and that’s where you guys come in. Ultimately I know it is my decision, I am just looking for other thoughts on the topic to aid in my decision.

Here’s my thoughts.

Baseball

This was my first love in the hobby, and honestly, I always come back to it. So, I think this will stay, but I still want to break it down.

Pros
1) I love everything about the sport, and the history of baseball cards.
2) My favorite athletes are all baseball.
3) Cheapest boxes of all the top three sports.
4) Topps not Panini
5) Base rookie stars are $4-5 on release.
6) Boxes are still readily available.
7) Sneaker Bois seem to have not ventured to far into baseball.
8) More feasible for me to go to a baseball game than football or basketball.

Cons
1) Lowest ceiling (except vintage)
2) More players means more busts.
3) The impending lockout/strike


Basketball

Pros
1) Second favorite sport.
2) I watch more basketball than baseball.
3) Very high ceiling
4) 80s and 90s cards are better from basketball than baseball and football (my youth)

Cons
1) Most expensive by far
2) Sneaker Bois have completely infiltrated this hobby.
3) Hardest to find even at the LCS
4) Starting to become as mass produced as baseball is
5) Seems like most scammers are in basketball
6) A lot of buyers/sellers are overseas and I dislike buying and selling international


Football

Pros
1) Reasonable prices (for today’s prices), except Prizm
2) This is already the largest portion of my collection
3) Two of my favorite athletes are football (Rice and Moss)
4) Football is easier to keep up with in a season than baseball and basketball
5) Smallest group of collectors makes the competition smaller
6) Great QB rookie class right now, with some more in the wings.

Cons
1) Football is more injury plagued than baseball and basketball so to me that’s more risk
2) Only QBs really retain value
3) Least favorite sport of the three


I am pretty sure I know what two I am going to stick with, and then I will sell what I have of the third to put into the other two, but am curious what two guys would keep and why?

Again, just looking to see others thoughts on this.

Thanks!

[ThoseBackPages]

some from each sport maybe?

[Biohazarddfl]

I'd say dump basketball and just collect maybe one guy from basketball to stay close to it. Baseball and football are more fun to collect for the entire sport due to more players being relevant, but basketball you can just buy one player. Having trouble articulating it in writing, but hopefully you catch my drift.

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[soey10]

I actively collect baseball and basketball but I collect here and there for football mainly just picking up things I like or that appeal to me. I guess what I am saying is I will always collect baseball and basketball but I don’t put nearly the same money amount of money into football. I also never get rid of anything so I still have everything.


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[Stech36]

Originally Posted by Biohazarddfl

I'd say dump basketball and just collect maybe one guy from basketball to stay close to it. Baseball and football are more fun to collect for the entire sport due to more players being relevant, but basketball you can just buy one player. Having trouble articulating it in writing, but hopefully you catch my drift.

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I’m with this. I did 99% baseball until Zion pulled me into basketball and the great QB class pulled me in to football.

I find myself moving away from basketball and in to only football and baseball. I don’t understand basketball and the cost is prohibitively high. It’s more of a gamble, as the top guys sell great but no one else does. Baseball, everyone sells at least a bit. Football at least you have team collectors. Basketball is superstars and Rookies and that’s pretty much it. It also doesn’t make sense to me. Why are Zion prisms still decreasing in price when he’s proving he’s the real deal.

I also just don’t like the NBA. So maybe that’s part of why I want to move away from it.

[dashcol]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

some from each sport maybe?

Yeah, I thought about that. Maybe just collecting my favorites from one sport and then going harder on the other two.

For me that would mean:

Baseball - Trout and Mauer, but I also love vintage and choosing just one vintage is hard!
Basketball - Kobe, Jordan and Lamello
Football - Moss and Rice

The problem with this is though, there will always be that new guy to come out that I will feel like going after and next thing I know, I am collecting 20 guys again! It’s hard for me to not be an all or nothing guy in this hobby.

Originally Posted by Biohazarddfl

I'd say dump basketball and just collect maybe one guy from basketball to stay close to it. Baseball and football are more fun to collect for the entire sport due to more players being relevant, but basketball you can just buy one player. Having trouble articulating it in writing, but hopefully you catch my drift.

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What makes you say that there are less relevant players in basketball? I would actually think the less relevant players would be football. I can probably name more relevant basketball players from every team, but in football if I were to list only relevant players, some teams would only be the QB, and on some even that would be a stretch.

[dashcol]

Originally Posted by Stech36

I’m with this. I did 99% baseball until Zion pulled me into basketball and the great QB class pulled me in to football.

I find myself moving away from basketball and in to only football and baseball. I don’t understand basketball and the cost is prohibitively high. It’s more of a gamble, as the top guys sell great but no one else does. Baseball, everyone sells at least a bit. Football at least you have team collectors. Basketball is superstars and Rookies and that’s pretty much it. It also doesn’t make sense to me. Why are Zion prisms still decreasing in price when he’s proving he’s the real deal.

I also just don’t like the NBA. So maybe that’s part of why I want to move away from it.

Absolutely if you don’t like the NBA then you would be more willing to give it up. The Zions are because I think they were over inflated to begin with, so they are just correcting. Plus you have guys stealing the limelight right now like Lamello Ball, and Zion was so last year.

Football does have more team collectors than basketball, so that is a good point. I however am not a team collector, I am a rookie and player collector, so basketball almost seems to fit better with that. This is why I am so torn!

[Biohazarddfl]

Originally Posted by dashcol

Yeah, I thought about that. Maybe just collecting my favorites from one sport and then going harder on the other two.



For me that would mean:



Baseball - Trout and Mauer, but I also love vintage and choosing just one vintage is hard!

Basketball - Kobe, Jordan and Lamello

Football - Moss and Rice



The problem with this is though, there will always be that new guy to come out that I will feel like going after and next thing I know, I am collecting 20 guys again! It’s hard for me to not be an all or nothing guy in this hobby.







What makes you say that there are less relevant players in basketball? I would actually think the less relevant players would be football. I can probably name more relevant basketball players from every team, but in football if I were to list only relevant players, some teams would only be the QB, and on some even that would be a stretch.

I just mean on pure quantity due to roster size. I just enjoy opening packs of baseball and football more because there are big rookie classes that are relevant, but most would probably say the opposite and like consolidated rosters and checklists.

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[Gridiron Bob]

Baseball - go vintage and collect 100 year-old beaters. Still cheap and they are like museum pieces - more like natural history than art, but hey, dinosaur bones and broken blocks of civilization are still history no matter what shape they are found in, right?

Basketball - with the recent activity, many of us are priced out. You can still collect a bench player who gives 100% everytime he steps on the court - something like a Jeremy Lin type of player.

Football - backup QBs. Brady and Favre started out as backups.

[rats60]

I would dump football. Hold on to a Rice RC and auto and Moss RC and auto. If you have Brady or Mahomes keep your best one of those. Football is a distant third in collecting. Basketball should be where you are putting your money with the international appeal.

[Skeely]

[QUOTE=dashcol;17077086]Yeah, I thought about that. Maybe just collecting my favorites from one sport and then going harder on the other two.

For me that would mean:

Baseball - Trout and Mauer, but I also love vintage and choosing just one vintage is hard!
Basketball - Kobe, Jordan and Lamello
Football - Moss and Rice

The problem with this is though, there will always be that new guy to come out that I will feel like going after and next thing I know, I am collecting 20 guys again! It’s hard for me to not be an all or nothing guy in this hobby.



I dont know anybody who hasnt struggled with this at some point or other. However, there are so many players or pc's that you can choose that still have tons of things to chase. When i started my david ortiz pc four years ago i looked on ebay and was immediatly overwhelmed by the amount of cards from just that one player. I ended up cutting my ortiz pc down to just pre 04 ortiz cards. Then i sat down and came up with a list of cards that fit that criteria that were realistic to achieve as well as i few that i want but might never get. I came up wtih 311 cards/ variations of cards on that list and i have 268 of them last i checked. The thrill i get everytime i check off on more card of that list is 10x better than i will ever get from buying a card of a bunch of other players.

My advice is find what you want to do and actually sit down and make that list. If you want to do a player pc then locate those players cards that you want to get and hunt thsoe relentlessly even if they are hard to find. Same for a team pc. Heck if you want to go the route of a rookie card pc figure out the exact players u want to get and which one of there cards u want.

It seems like a lot of work but i promise u getting to check off one of those cards you have searched for off that list is extremely rewarding. Its probably the most rewarding thing in this hooby.


And then once you have conquered that list or everything on that list that u think will come available u can expand it or create a new list.

[MikawlBBC]

Originally Posted by dashcol

I started collecting the three major sports about halfway through 2019. Obviously this was before COVID and before the huge spike. I started because I was getting bored with baseball, so I sold it all to fund some basketball and football. I ended up missing baseball, mainly because of the community and the history in baseball collecting, so I recently started getting back into baseball. So right now I am doing all three.

With the current spikes in everything, I don’t think I can adequately collect all three. I just don’t have the money to into all three. So I have to give one up I think, or a will end up not enjoying any of them when I have to start choosing which one I go after.

I am having trouble deciding which one I want to give up, and that’s where you guys come in. Ultimately I know it is my decision, I am just looking for other thoughts on the topic to aid in my decision.

Here’s my thoughts.

Baseball

This was my first love in the hobby, and honestly, I always come back to it. So, I think this will stay, but I still want to break it down.

Pros
1) I love everything about the sport, and the history of baseball cards.
2) My favorite athletes are all baseball.
3) Cheapest boxes of all the top three sports.
4) Topps not Panini
5) Base rookie stars are $4-5 on release.
6) Boxes are still readily available.
7) Sneaker Bois seem to have not ventured to far into baseball.
8) More feasible for me to go to a baseball game than football or basketball.

Cons
1) Lowest ceiling (except vintage)
2) More players means more busts.
3) The impending lockout/strike


Basketball

Pros
1) Second favorite sport.
2) I watch more basketball than baseball.
3) Very high ceiling
4) 80s and 90s cards are better from basketball than baseball and football (my youth)

Cons
1) Most expensive by far
2) Sneaker Bois have completely infiltrated this hobby.
3) Hardest to find even at the LCS
4) Starting to become as mass produced as baseball is
5) Seems like most scammers are in basketball
6) A lot of buyers/sellers are overseas and I dislike buying and selling international


Football

Pros
1) Reasonable prices (for today’s prices), except Prizm
2) This is already the largest portion of my collection
3) Two of my favorite athletes are football (Rice and Moss)
4) Football is easier to keep up with in a season than baseball and basketball
5) Smallest group of collectors makes the competition smaller
6) Great QB rookie class right now, with some more in the wings.

Cons
1) Football is more injury plagued than baseball and basketball so to me that’s more risk
2) Only QBs really retain value
3) Least favorite sport of the three


I am pretty sure I know what two I am going to stick with, and then I will sell what I have of the third to put into the other two, but am curious what two guys would keep and why?

Again, just looking to see others thoughts on this.

Thanks!

Baseball - semi global
Basketball - global
Football - US centric

[dashcol]

Originally Posted by Biohazarddfl

I just mean on pure quantity due to roster size. I just enjoy opening packs of baseball and football more because there are big rookie classes that are relevant, but most would probably say the opposite and like consolidated rosters and checklists.

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Ok, that makes sense.

Originally Posted by Gridiron Bob

Baseball - go vintage and collect 100 year-old beaters. Still cheap and they are like museum pieces - more like natural history than art, but hey, dinosaur bones and broken blocks of civilization are still history no matter what shape they are found in, right?

Basketball - with the recent activity, many of us are priced out. You can still collect a bench player who gives 100% everytime he steps on the court - something like a Jeremy Lin type of player.

Football - backup QBs. Brady and Favre started out as backups.

I do have some T206 already, and even if I were to decide to drop baseball those would stay. Like you said it’s history, and to keep stuff like that is just awesome. There will always be a desire for them, especially the older they get. No one cares who the player is, ever true baseball collector should have a card from that set in their PC.

I see what you are saying about basketball, even though the prices are insane for sealed wax and the stars, mid tier guys are still only a couple buck even in Prizm or Select. I was buying guys like Culvert, Bridges, Washington etc for $3-4 while everyone else was high over Zion, Ja, Trae, Luka, etc. Definitely still room to collect, but I like to rip, and I like the stars just like everyone else!

I tried the backup QB thing last year, and instead of grabbing Hurts (which was my first choice), I went for Eason. Thought I was going to be good when Rivers retired, but no, they had to go and sign Wentz, and it sounds like they are putting everything on him. This is the same reason I don’t prospect, I have no patience to sit on them for 3-5 years!

Originally Posted by rats60

I would dump football. Hold on to a Rice RC and auto and Moss RC and auto. If you have Brady or Mahomes keep your best one of those. Football is a distant third in collecting. Basketball should be where you are putting your money with the international appeal.

If I decide to drop football, I would hold the Rice RC, if I had one! I bought a collection for cheap, only because I got told the Rice rookie was in there, but low and behold when I went through all 20,000 cards, it wasn’t there. So, that card still eludes me. The Moss RC would probably stay though as the one football to keep.

I do not own Brady, I don’t think. One of my least favorite athletes of all time, so I always sell, trade or throw away all Brady cards I get in. There may be one or two somewhere in a pile, but they will absolutely not stay! No Mahomes either, as I started football in 2019, and already couldn’t afford his rookies.

I agree most potential with basketball, but I really really do not like shipping international or receiving from international.

[Biohazarddfl]

Does football have more runway then, seeing as though it's not as international yet?

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[knownas2letters]

I collect all three as well as hockey and some other misc stuff like what could be found in Goodwin. I love watching football but for me it has been the easiest one to let go collecting heavily. Generally I don't go out of my way to collect it besides just adding some things to my Dolphins collection, or trying to pick up someone early. Football is probably the most exciting/manageable sport to play fantasy so I feel like I can get my connection through that avenue and just very lightly collect and buy a box or so here and there. The main thing for me is injuries devaluing your collection and the "no ring" thing. Guys like Ladanian Tomlinson sell for so little despite his absolute dominance in his prime. Baseball and Basketball players of that caliber seem to sell better most of the time.

[Rememberthepast]

Why do you collect; is it a hobby of pure enjoyment, do you flip for quick returns or hold long term (5 years plus), but with a plan to sell down the road? Do you truly focus on a few specific players in a particular sport or do you get caught up in the hype?

The obvious choice is staying with baseball because there are so many collecting options within baseball just in vintage to modern draft picks.

Your number two is a tough one, but that would depend on the questions above.

[dashcol]

[QUOTE=Skeely;17077121]

Originally Posted by dashcol

Yeah, I thought about that. Maybe just collecting my favorites from one sport and then going harder on the other two.

For me that would mean:

Baseball - Trout and Mauer, but I also love vintage and choosing just one vintage is hard!
Basketball - Kobe, Jordan and Lamello
Football - Moss and Rice

The problem with this is though, there will always be that new guy to come out that I will feel like going after and next thing I know, I am collecting 20 guys again! It’s hard for me to not be an all or nothing guy in this hobby.



I dont know anybody who hasnt struggled with this at some point or other. However, there are so many players or pc's that you can choose that still have tons of things to chase. When i started my david ortiz pc four years ago i looked on ebay and was immediatly overwhelmed by the amount of cards from just that one player. I ended up cutting my ortiz pc down to just pre 04 ortiz cards. Then i sat down and came up with a list of cards that fit that criteria that were realistic to achieve as well as i few that i want but might never get. I came up wtih 311 cards/ variations of cards on that list and i have 268 of them last i checked. The thrill i get everytime i check off on more card of that list is 10x better than i will ever get from buying a card of a bunch of other players.

My advice is find what you want to do and actually sit down and make that list. If you want to do a player pc then locate those players cards that you want to get and hunt thsoe relentlessly even if they are hard to find. Same for a team pc. Heck if you want to go the route of a rookie card pc figure out the exact players u want to get and which one of there cards u want.

It seems like a lot of work but i promise u getting to check off one of those cards you have searched for off that list is extremely rewarding. Its probably the most rewarding thing in this hooby.


And then once you have conquered that list or everything on that list that u think will come available u can expand it or create a new list.

I’m not concerned with what to collect when I chose the sports. It will be RCs, HOF relics, and vintage sets. The same as I collect now, except I would only have to keep up with two sports instead of three, and the collections would grow quicker spread between two instead of three. I’m not overwhelmed by the hobby, my wallet is overwhelmed by three sports.

Originally Posted by MikawlBBC

Baseball - semi global
Basketball - global
Football - US centric

Very good point.

[dashcol]

Originally Posted by Biohazarddfl

Does football have more runway then, seeing as though it's not as international yet?

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Basketball has Asia pretty much locked down.
Baseball has South America, Korea and Japan.
Hockey is king in Norther Europe, Russia, East Europe and Canada.
Soccer will NEVER EVER be unseated in Europe.


The NFL has tried for a few years now to break into Europe....how did those London Games go?

I just don’t see football really ever making much anywhere other than the US.

[dashcol]

Originally Posted by knownas2letters

I collect all three as well as hockey and some other misc stuff like what could be found in Goodwin. I love watching football but for me it has been the easiest one to let go collecting heavily. Generally I don't go out of my way to collect it besides just adding some things to my Dolphins collection, or trying to pick up someone early. Football is probably the most exciting/manageable sport to play fantasy so I feel like I can get my connection through that avenue and just very lightly collect and buy a box or so here and there. The main thing for me is injuries devaluing your collection and the "no ring" thing. Guys like Ladanian Tomlinson sell for so little despite his absolute dominance in his prime. Baseball and Basketball players of that caliber seem to sell better most of the time.

The injury thing is what pushes me from football. We all saw what happened with Luck when his concussions got the better of him. Now his $400 cards can be had for $20 over night. LT is another great point, one of the best to play in his generation, but his rookies are so cheap. In football it seems like once you are out of the limelight, unless you were a HOF caliper QB, you mean nothing to the game. Baseball and basketball seem to always respect and collect the greats regardless of rings and whether they are active or not still.

Originally Posted by Rememberthepast

Why do you collect; is it a hobby of pure enjoyment, do you flip for quick returns or hold long term (5 years plus), but with a plan to sell down the road? Do you truly focus on a few specific players in a particular sport or do you get caught up in the hype?

The obvious choice is staying with baseball because there are so many collecting options within baseball just in vintage to modern draft picks.

Your number two is a tough one, but that would depend on the questions above.

I collect to collect. I do not collect to make money, I work to make money. I’m not really in it to make a quick flip, or really care if my cards will be $5 tomorrow or $500.

With that said though, this is a self funding hobby for me. I do not buy anything from my bank account. If I want to buy something, then I sell something. So, I do care about the value in that means. Once a card is PC though, I don’t look at it’s value really until I go to upgrade it or replace it with something else.

I try to not get caught up in hype, but to be honest FOMO does get me sometimes, but I am usually good about not falling too hard for it.

I agree, baseball is probably the easy choice for me on the first one. The second is more difficult. Baseball will probably be the primary, but I really am having a hard time deciding which of the other two.

I just pulled out some of both basketball and football and laid them out in front of me to see which appealed to me the most. At first my Herbert Pink Mosaic, Eason RPA, and Peyton RC jumped out at me and I thought I couldn’t part with them, so I was set. Went to grab the couple basketball cards and get them prepped to find new homes, and my Spencer Haywood RC, Nate Archibald RC, Kobe SP RC, and Zion Luminance RC jumped out at me and I started to second guess myself.

It isn’t even which of those groups would sell better now or later, because they all would sell quickly as soon as I offered them up.

I hate making decisions!

[Uwfootball1]

Become a semi supercollector of the players you listed that you like and buy up their stuff in all sports just my 2 cents

[cardsin47]

OP - you mentioned money and enjoyment several times. That makes this easy:
Baseball and Basketball

[pewe]

Originally Posted by MikawlBBC

Baseball - semi global
Basketball - global
Football - US centric

When you say “basketball = global”... don’t you really mean “basketball = China”?

I mean, it has a declining US / Canada fan base and most aggressive growth is in China.

Really if you want “global” then you should focus on Fútbal!


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[pewe]

Originally Posted by dashcol

Basketball has Asia pretty much locked down.
Baseball has South America, Korea and Japan.
Hockey is king in Norther Europe, Russia, East Europe and Canada.
Soccer will NEVER EVER be unseated in Europe.


The NFL has tried for a few years now to break into Europe....how did those London Games go?

I just don’t see football really ever making much anywhere other than the US.

Re: Asia

Isn’t Basketball only really relevant in China?

Soccer is bigger across all of Asia

Baseball has parts of Asia, especially Korea and Japan

India, Pakistan, Etc. is Soccer and Cricket


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[pewe]

Originally Posted by dashcol

The injury thing is what pushes me from football. We all saw what happened with Luck when his concussions got the better of him. Now his $400 cards can be had for $20 over night. LT is another great point, one of the best to play in his generation, but his rookies are so cheap. In football it seems like once you are out of the limelight, unless you were a HOF caliper QB, you mean nothing to the game. Baseball and basketball seem to always respect and collect the greats regardless of rings and whether they are active or not still.

I think the key to long term value is to find players who transcend sport, and are a personality / media brand themself. Those remain relevant and collectible and valuable.

LT didn’t do this. But Walter Payton did. So it isn’t QB vs. the rest, it is just who builds the brand and image that sells and promotes long term.


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[Tim]

Originally Posted by cardsin47

OP - you mentioned money and enjoyment several times. That makes this easy:
Baseball and Basketball

Could not agree more.

OP - you ranked them in order in your first post already without realizing it.