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The Score Randall Cunningham Prediction
Did The Score Company predict Randall Cunningham would play for the Vikings (1997-99) way back in 1990? The Consummate Card Collector staff sure believes they did! Check out this 1990 Score Series I wax pack. A Vikings quarterback, wearing Cunningham's distinctive four-bar facemask and ever-present towel in his waistband, gets ready to let one fly agaisnt the Bears. Our guess is that Score patterned this image from a Cunningham photo, but changed the team from the Eagles to the Vikings, and the quarterback's number to the then-vacant number seven.
Guess who showed up seven years later, wearing the four-bar facemask, ever-present waistband towel and the number seven instead of twelve? |
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The Topps Football Book Blunder
Topps designers committed an unfathomable error while creating the cover of their 1986 literary masterpiece, "Topps Football Cards, The Complete Picture Collection." Actually, the cover designers committed four errors. Even worse is the fact that proofreaders failed to catch the mistakes, thus amusing sharp-eyed card collectors to this very day.
But what are the heinous errors in question?
Well, three of the cards pictured on the front cover were not created by The Topps Company at all -- they were created by rival cardmaker Philadelphia! Yes, former arch-rival Philadelphia was responsible for producing the 1964 Frank Gifford, 1965 Sonny Jurgensen and 1967 Dick Butkus cards proudly featured on the cover of this invaluable Topps reference.
A Joe Montana Topps card that is nowhere to be found inside the book is also featured on the cover -- a red-bordered insert card that was purchased in 1985 football rack packs.
The Consummate Card Collector's Pessimistic College Paper
One must travel back to November, 1991 to fully appreciate the wisdom imparted by Anthony in this college assignment. The early '90s were the peak of the card investing "fad" that had speculators buying cases of new cards at numbers never before seen in our hobby. Years later, we can see the aftermath that resulted from the overprinting and overspeculating of sportscards during the late '80s and early '90s.
Anthony's paper is presented here exactly as written in 1991, and also includes the professor's comments. THE CHANGING OF A HOBBY
For years, collecting sports cards has been an inexpensive hobby for millions of people throughout North America to enjoy. Until recently, casual card trading sessions and affordable prices were trademarks of the collecting scene. Today, the hobby retains little resemblance of the way it was a mere ten years ago. Inflated prices, hoarding of cards, and a lack of trust now plagues a pastime that was for many years a simple, enjoyable way to collect sports star favorites from yesteryear.
Many of us can look back upon our own childhoods and recall walking to the corner store. We'd plunk down our quarter on the store counter and receive our pack of cards. This practice is quickly disappearing, though. Sports card dealers -- people who make a living by reselling these packs -- now buy out the complete stock of cards from the retail stores (at retail prices). Having cornered the market by exhausting the supply at the retail level, dealers are then free to resell the same cards for immediate profit by raising the prices. The amount of the price increase is dependant upon the demand for that specific issue. Every year, several different card types are produced by different companies. If the consumer demand is very strong for card type "A", the dealer may sell this brand for up to three or four times the original retail price. Conversely, if card brand "B" is not as sought after by consumers, dealers may sell this issue at only 25-50% above original retail. Regardless, the purchaser of these cards will pay the difference, with the money going into the pockets of the dealers.
Ironically, dealers are not the only ones with a profit in mind. Many collectors -- adults and children alike -- now amass impressive portfolios of cards for investment purposes, much like one would with real estate or precious metals. Most children no longer carry cards in their back pockets or play games with them. Nor do they trade with friends on the basis of personal value. Gone are the days when one would trade a Babe Ruth card for a Homer Higgsby, just because Higgsby plays for the collector's favorite team. Instead, today's collector, price guide and magnifying glass in hand, negotiates strictly on the basis of monetary value. Most of the "businessmen" have little or no attachment to their cards, but the intention of making a profit.
Sports card collecting now ranks among the top five largest hobbies in America. Naturally, the increase in collectors also leads to an increase in demand for the cards. The supply of cards from previous years cannot increase, except through the illegal process of counterfeiting -- a federal crime. The basic law of supply and demand helps to explain recent price increases in the hobby, occurring at a rate unthinkable just ten years ago. To help inflate prices, some dealers will claim that a product is scarce and difficult to obtain, while in reality these less-than-honest businessmen have several cases of the item stored in their warehouses. The merchandise may be difficult to find on a retailer's shelves, but it is definitely not hard to find in the back rooms of hobby shops.
Several factors have changed the very nature of sports card collecting. Unless actions are taken to change current trends in the hobby, there may be no end to the transformation of the hobby into an impersonal business.
Professor's Note -- Anthony, are you a one-topic man? I enjoy your writing because you have a good command of the language. I also have nothing against baseball cards -- heaven forbid! But maybe you could exercise other realms of your brain by trying other topics... "A"
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