On Saturday, I drove out to The Great Mall in Milpitas for my second card show in eight days. With $50 and some change in my pocket, I wasn't expecting to buy much. Like last weekend, I planned to walk around, talk to some of the dealers, and hang out with my buddy, who set up at the show.
Then I came across these two memorabilia cards produced ten years ago when card companies still cared about the COA's given to collectors:
Each card contains a piece of the player's game used batting glove. Best of all, they actually have respectable COA's that state the following:
Congratulations! You have received a/an _____________________ game-used batting glove from The Upper Deck Company, LLC. On the front of the card is an authentic piece of batting glove used by _____________________ in an official MLB game.
Now that's what a COA should look like. It specifically states that the memorabilia piece was used in an MLB game by the specified player. The only thing it's missing is a photo of the batting glove and the date when the player wore the glove.
I'm very tired of manufacturers and their vague COA's that guarantee nothing specific. But I've already ranted about this before, so I'll move on to my other purchases.
Later on, I headed over to Max's table. He's the guy with the awesome 10¢ boxes. After digging through his boxes for 45 minutes or so, I ended up finding 77 cards that I could use. As usual, I pulled a variety of stufff: vintage, 90's inserts, low end rookie cards, and of course singles of players on teams I collect. Here's a breakdown of my 10¢ purchases:
Seahawks Singles
Packers Singles
90's Inserts
Scooby Doo Promo Card
Rookie Cards
Vintage Singles
If you're a collector on a budget, I encourage you to check out Max's boxes. He also has 50¢ boxes, $1 memorabilia cards & autographs, unopened wax boxes, and even collectible figures. If you live in the Bay Area and are interested in attending his next show, here's his flier:
Last, but not least... I picked up two boxes of 2009 World's Greatest Chase from Max:
Each box contains 16 packs and the packs can range from comic cards to sports cards to movie cards. At $5 per pox, it provided me with ten to fifteen minutes worth of entertainment. However, I'll share the contents another time... in another post.
Today's question goes back to the two memorabilia cards I purchased...
Do you collect memorabilia cards?
If so, how much do you care about a company's COA?
Happy Monday everyone. Have a great week... and sayonara!
I used to LOVE memorabilia cards. Especially when they were actually special. I remember spending $75 on a grant hill jersey card and thinking it would be the best card I'd ever own in my life. Then memorabilia cards got over saturated and the card companies got realllllllllly lazy with their COA's on the back to the point where you have no idea what kind of memorabilia card you have. Yes, it's cool to own and be able to afford game used cards of Ty Cobb, Walter Payton, MJ, Lebron Etc..but for the most part regular swatch jersey cards have gone the way of basically commons. Of course with me, now that I collect full game used memorabilia, i just can't excited anymore about tiny swatches. I dont want to sound snobbish, that's just unfortunately what happened to me when I started concentrating on full pieces.
ReplyDeleteIf I could afford owning full game-worn jerseys, I would start collecting them too. I guess it's pretty natural for us to evolve as collectors. I still collect memorabilia cards, but not with the same passion as I used to have.
DeleteGreat pickups. When I got back into collecting I picked up quite a few relic cards. I have lots of Ron Santo's. I particularly like the ones from Hall of Famers and second tier retired players. I picked up a few for my Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly collections. Most of the modern relics I can live without. You know they're basically unlimited so they lose some of their charm. As far as COA's it is nicer the more specific they are. I'd love to join Chris P but it won't be in this lifetime.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point about how today's memorabilia cards have sort of lost their charm due to the unlimited supply. I totally agree!
DeleteI'm kind of in the same boat as you... I collect memorabilia cards, but they're usually of HOF players or very specific current players.
I care SO MUCH. Over time I got rid of most of the non authenticated ones in turn for ones that were more detailed. Luckily almost all of Seneca's cards are authentic, which is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear that I'm not the only one. Companies are soon going to regret their decision to use vague COA's when collectors start giving up their pursuit for memorabilia cards.
DeleteI just don't like the vague coa you get now. It could literally be anything from anyone and you just don't know. That's why "relic" cards don't hold any value anymore. I love that Pudge card. Nice addition.
ReplyDeleteThanks... I think it's ridiculous how vague some of these COA's on memorabilia cards are. Hopefully companies will begin limiting the number of memorabilia cards they insert into their products, as well as go back to the days when COA's meant something.
DeleteExcellent pickups! Those batting glove cards are VERY nice.
ReplyDeleteI care about COAs. However, the recent trend by card companies is to shy away from the details. It's a shame, really.
One of my favorite cards in my collection is a game-used base card of Hideki Matsui from 2003 Playoff Pieces of the Game. I love it because the back of the card shows a picture of the actual base they used for the card. It also states specific details. Mine says, "used in an official MLB game on 4/26/03 featuring the Yankees vs. the Rangers." What more could you ask for.
I understand the economics involved, but I wish that some of the higher end stuff (Triple Threads, Tribute, Museum Collection, etc.) would provide more details. Heck, even an asterisk on the bottom just giving a date would be cool. You'd think they catalog that information anyways...
Wow... that COA on that Matsui card is top-notch. I have a few memorabilia cards that show photos of where the swatch came from, but nothing with an exact date. That's exactly how companies should do it... especially the high end products.
DeleteAnd yes... the most certainly should catalog the information about their memorabilia pieces.