PC Spotlight #5: College Memorabilia Cards

These days... memorabilia cards just aren't what they used to be. If you were fortunate enough to pull a game-used card back in the 90's it was a huge hit... because they were fairly scarce. Today... some products have several in one pack... while other have several in a box. They just don't hold their value like the good old days.

Then... throw in the fact that card manufactures have started inserting "player worn" and "even worn" cards... and that added more supply with less demand.

I know several collectors who don't even want regular memorabilia cards anymore. The only thing they're interested in are multiple colored patches. But... this brings up another problem... fake patches.

But... you won't see me complain... because that just means that collectors can now pick up a card that has a piece of memorabilia worn by their favorite players at bargain prices.

One of my favorite things to collect are Press Pass memorabilia cards that feature game used swatches from college games. The thing that attracted me to them were the numbers. My guess is that players go through less college jerseys, than professional jerseys.

Anyways, I started collecting these last year, when I was searching for memorabilia cards of SJSU, Stanford, and Cal players.

One of my first purchases off of COMC brought these into my collection:

Justin Forsett

The Forsett is one of my favorite cards, because it's actually featured in three different PC's of mine... my Seahawk PC, my CAL PC, and of course my college memorabilia card PC.

The Lopez Brothers

In addition to the Forsett, I was also stoked to find jersey cards from the Lopez brothers. Last month, I added another Cardinal to my collection:

Toby Gerhart

I didn't take me long to find this Colt Brennan card:

Colt Brennan

I have a lot of family who live in Hawaii and my mother even went to UH, so I pull for the Warriors whenever I'm not pulling for the Bay Area teams. However, these cards were pretty expensive when they first came out, so I had to wait awhile to add it to my collection. Then a few months ago, I was able to snag this one for a couple of bucks. I guess good things do come to those who wait.

My most recent purchases involve a bunch of college ballers, who became solid NBA players.

Russell Westbrook

Rudy Gay

Steve Francis

All six of these cards were purchased for a little over $15.

The last card in my PC is actually the first memorabilia card that I ever pulled. It's from back in the day. I'm pretty sure that I didn't even know what a memorabilia card was, but I knew it was cool when I pulled it from the pack. It's one of those cards that I'll hold onto until I pass on... because it's just too cool to give up.

Ray Allen

The white/red piece is actually the painted part of the jersey (probably his number), and the blue is the cloth. These babies were tough to pull. According to Beckett, they were inserted into 1 out of ever 640 packs.

There's a nice Shareef Abdur-Rahim on COMC, but it's a little out of my league. However... Santa if you're reading this... that card is definitely on my wish list.

So today's question of the day is...

What collectibles are on your Christmas wish list?

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend... Sayonara!