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THE
INS AND OUTS OF COLLECTING SPORTS CARDS
Looking
for a wonderful and exciting hobby that has to do with sports, that you
can
begin at any age, that you can share with family and
friends? Then sports card collecting is for you.
The love of sport card collecting can be passed on
from generation to generation and can last a lifetime. There
are no rules when it comes to collecting sports cards. You
are in charge. You get to decide what kind of cards you want
to collect. Some collectors will focus on collecting cards
of a favorite team, a special player, or build a set.
The list of groups of cards to collect is endless.
There is no right way, or wrong way to this. Sports card collectors may
collect rookie cards, others insert cards, or cards from a specific
year. Many collector's concentrate on one
sport, collecting baseball, basketball, football or hockey cards. There
are as many ways to collect sports cards as there are collector's.
Finding
the sports cards you need for your collection may be difficult at
times. However, with the advent of on-line sports card sites such as AD Sports Cards Etc,
makes buying cards convenient and easy. At AD Sports Cards Etc. you can
buy your cards in factory sealed boxes, factory sealed sets, or single
cards. When a product is factory sealed you have more assurance that it
was not searched, or sorted through prior to selling. Please be aware
that many of the older sets were never sealed by the manufacturers, so
in that case you want to be sure you are buying from a reputable dealer
such as AD Sports Cards Etc.
We are often asked what is the difference between a
hobby box, a retail box, and a set.
- Hobby
Boxes generally
contain more packs per box than the Retail Box. The number of cards per
pack may/may not be the same in the two versions.
- Hobby
Boxes have a better
insert ratio for the special cards, such as Memorabilia Cards (cards
with pieces of game worn jerseys, game used bats, etc) and
Autographed Cards. For example, a Hobby Box may have 2 of them per box;
a Retail box may have one per box, or one per every 2 boxes, or even
none at all.
- Hobby
Boxes will have more different types of
insert cards.
- If
both the Hobby and
Retail boxes have the same type insert card, then the odds of getting
one in the Hobby box will be better. Many types of insert cards
are only available in the Hobby Box.
- Hobby
Boxes may have a Box Loader, a card that sits on top of the packs, and
is all by
itself. A retail box generally will not contain the Box Loader.
- Once
in a while
Hobby boxes may have all of the cards in a set with serial numbers (for
ex. 100/250). The retail version of this box would not contain the
serial numbering. Thus, the hobby cards are more valuable.
- Hobby
boxes are only
available from Hobby dealers, whereas Retail boxes are available from
retail stores such as Target, Wall Mart, K-Mart. Some Retail boxes
however may also be available from Hobby dealers.
- Within
each manufacturers
box, a collector can find a variety of different kinds of sports cards.
Each release may feature some, or all, of the following types of sports
cards; Base Set Cards, Subsets, Inserts, Memorabilia Cards, Rookies,
Error Cards, Star Cards, Semi-Stars and Common Cards.
- Sets,
unlike boxes, do not
contain packs of cards. Instead, they contain individual cards that
are the same base cards issued by a manufacturer in the boxes. In a set
you will get 1 of each different base card in the manufacturer's
specific product.
Each
year the sports card manufacturers try to come up with something a new
and different.
Like any other business competition is high. There is no guarantee as
to which card company will have the break-out product for the year.
Also there is no guarantee as to which rookie, or star player, will
have a hot streak. That is why it is best to start your collection with
cards YOU like. If you just recently started collecting cards and want
to add some older cards to your collection you will have to find a
dealer or another collector who has them available. Sports card
manufactures only make the sports cards for the current year and they
only manufacture a predetermined quantity. Once that quantity is
produced and distributed, the product is no longer available from the
card issuing company. The only way to purchase older cards is to find
an on line site, or store, that sells the older boxes and sets. At AD
Sports Cards Etc
you will find older boxes, sets and single cards along with the newest
releases.
To
maintain the value of your card collection, the cards need to be kept
protected from the elements. Once a sports card is damaged the value
decreases depending on the amount and type of damage. Just
as it is with collecting cards, there is no right, or
wrong, way to safely store your cards. If you want to be able to view
your cards frequently and/or show them to
others, then you might want to store the cards in 9 pocket card pages
that go in the card albums. For
your extra special cards you might want to display them in screw downs,
magnetic
one touch holders, or snap-tight holders. A lot depends on the value of
the cards. If you have a large quantity of cards that you want to put
away for a long
time you could store them in the inexpensive cardboard boxes designed
especially for sports cards. Or, you could store them in toploaders and
then put the top
loaders in a specialty cardboard box called a Shoe Box.
For added protection some collectors put the cards in card sleeves
before placing them in the selected the top loader. Usually sports card
supplies have to be purchased from a
hobby store, or an on line store like AD
Sports Cards Etc.
If
you want to protect your cards with the best product available then you
will want to use the Ultra Pro holders. Ultra Pro is the leading
manufacturer of archival
safe-storage protection for your sports cards, sports memorabilia,
sports collectibles. With Ultra Pro you can see,and feel, the
difference.
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