The Essential Guide to Football Card Acquisition

Hey there.

How's it going?

Have you ever wanted to own a piece of the game?

You know, I'm talking about the card of your favorite rookie quarterback or a slice of history from the legend you grew up watching.

But then you walk into a card shop or browse online and it hits you.

Prism Optic hobby retail parallels PSA 10.

It's an entirely different language.

No fear.

You might feel lost, but you're not alone.

The world of football cards can feel confusing and intimidating newcomers.

And the biggest fear is always the same.

Am I about to waste my money or is it a waste of money?

If you're about to have some fun and you can do it on a low budget, and we're going to show you how here in this series.

We're going to be talking about the next few weeks on how to start collecting football cards.

We're going to give you an overview of that today here on Pigskin Dispatch.

Check it out.

Pigskin Dispatch video.

Yeah.

Woohoo.

Now, the first thing you want to do is to start choosing the why you want to collect.

Before you start spending a single dollar, the most important thing you can do is answer one simple question.

Why am I collecting?

There's no wrong answer here.

But knowing your goal will guide every single decision you make and make the hobby more rewarding.

It's your foundation.

Let's break down the most common approaches.

First, you can be a player collector.

Now, this is one of the most popular ways to start.

You pick one, two, or a handful of your favorite players and try to get as many of their different cards as you possibly can.

Let's say you like Tom Brady.

Maybe his rookie card is next.

Maybe a Super bowl card.

Maybe an all Pro or Pro bowl card.

There's many different options to choose from.

You can also go to somebody else.

You know, maybe you want to go back in a wayback Machine and get a Reggie White.

You know, they're lots of fun to do.

You can get the same things there.

You get them as a Packer, you get them as an Eagle.

You know, different seasons, all pros, all kinds of different things in the different brands.

Now, there's lots of variations known as parallels or even when cards are have an autograph.

This way you get to follow a player's entire career as they hit the new milestones and your collection becomes a physical record of their journey.

That's a focused, intensely personal way to collect with a game.

To illustrate how rewarding this can be.

Here's an example.

In this past year, the value of.

Rookie cards and emerging stars like, let's say CJ Stroud surged by over 50%.

Not only bringing a windfall to those who invested early, but also creating a deeper emotional connection as they witnessed his growth.

The intersection of emotional joy and potential financial gain truly embodies the way of collecting.

Second way is you can be a team collector.

Does your loyalty belong to only one franchise?

Well, some.

Sometimes that's what people do.

You may want to start off and.

Say, hey, I'm going to get the entire Green Bay packers team from last season.

Maybe you want the Green Bay packers.

That's be a fun one to do, but I might cost you a little bit more money.

But that's what's called being a team.

It's a fantastic way to feel connected.

To the whole organization and it gives you someone to root for and collect every single season.

Third, you could be a set builder.

Now, this is one that's I found.

A lot of fun.

For those who love a challenge and rush over the hunt, this is your destiny.

A set is a specific group of.

Cards from a single product like the.

2025 tops chrome base set, which might actually include hundreds of cards from across the league or.

And I ended up finishing the collection with a lot of help from my friends and some of my local card shops that helped me out there too.

And finally, there's the investor.

This one's a little bit more difficult.

The approach treats cards as assets with the primary goal of being a financial return.

This requires a much deeper level of market research, data analysis and preparedness to take on a risk.

And also takes a little bit more funding we'll get in touch with makes a card valuable.

But I can't stress enough that for beginners, start by collecting what you love.

It's a passion, it's a hobby.

It's got to be fun, you know, and you want something that's fun that you can relate to and that you're passionate about and you don't have to spend a lot of money.

There's ways you can do it.

You can go to a rummage sale in your neighborhood perhaps, maybe there's some cards for sale there.

You know, there's local card shops that have some cards that are of all different varieties.

You could buy the newer cards and brand new packs.

They also many of them have older cards and some at a steeply, deeply lesser price than retail that you might have done.

Matter of fact, I have a consignment shop that's near me where you can buy 10 cards for a dollar.

You know they're not the most valuable ones, but sometimes you just go through and you find some and it's a lot of fun just to grab them and come home and check them out and do some research on those players.

I use that quite a bit and I use some of those in the videos that we put here on Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel.

Understanding the key brands on the card types.

Okay, so once you got your mission, you know, and you're in the card aisle and you face a wall of different boxes, this is where most of beginners start to get overwhelmed.

So let's make it simple.

First thing you need to know is that the trading card world just went through a major shakeup.

For many years a company called Panini was the only licensed authorized use of the NFL team names and logos on the cards.

Now fanatics recently in the last couple years bought the Topps brand and now they have the licensing to go with it for the NFL.

This means that while you still see a lot of Panini products on shelves from past years, the new officially licensed cars with the logos will be from Topps.

Both companies make dozens of different products and they generally fall into three tiers.

Think of it like cars that you have reliable daily drivers, a popular sports car and a high end supercars.

Now the collector's corner is, you know, understanding the modern trading card is almost difficult process.

But for fans looking in to possess a piece of gridiron history, a contemporary trading card market delivers a high stakes means to engage with the game.

However, the industry is presently navigating its most major shift in decades.

The brand shake up Canadian fanatics.

Yeah, that's definitely thing we, we just talked about.

But there's also, there's three tiers of of the modern collecting cards of three categories.

There's the entry level daily drivers.

Products like the Panini Don Russ or the new Tops equivalent are the perfect starting point.

Known for their iconic rated rookie subset, the cards use a classic paper stock and are affordable and accessible.

Then there's the mid tier sort of the sports cars of the trading Card business.

This is the big three of the modern Harvey Prizm, Don Ross Optic and Select Prism are the crown jewels famous for its metallic chromium finish and a rainbow of colored prism panels.

Optic provides a chrome finish.

Standard Don Russ designs and select is known for its tiered base, the concourse of Premier and a field level which certain cars are naturally rarer than others.

Then there's the high end supercars or super cards.

Brands like the National Treasures and Flawless are for serious investors.

Frequently featuring on card autographs and large patches of game worn jerseys.

Boxes of these can cost thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars.

And they contain the most premium items on card autographs, patches from game worn jerseys and even embedded gems.

As a beginner you don't want to be buying these boxes I don't think yet.

But it's good to know that they are when you see them so that you can recognize them.

And it's an absolute peak of the hobby.

Vinny sets you'll find different types of cars.

You can.

You have the base card which is a standard player card that makes up the most of the set.

Then there's the all important rookie card marked with an RC logo most of the time.

And these are the most sought after cards for any player.

Parallels are the versions of the base card in different colors and patterns and many are serial numbered meaning only a limited number exists.

So you want to make sure you're one of the limited numbers and that makes it rarer.

The lower the number of cards that they have more valuable.

And finally you have the inserts which are special subsets with unique designs and autographed or memorabilia cards which are often the most significant hits that you can find.

Now where to find them and where to how to put a budget together.

Well this is where things there's any newcomer.

We just suggested a couple things.

You can go outside of retail and go to you know, like we said the consignment shop or you know, go to a rummage sale or you know, but you're.

That's sort of hit or miss.

You don't know what genre, what years.

You might not even find the players that you want to find, especially if you want more modern players.

But you can go to retail, go to big box stores like Target and Walmart and they come in formats like blaster boxes, usually between 25 and 35 bucks and then or you have smaller packs which might call you cost you seven, eight bucks.

Retail is way cheaper and turning into an easy entry point.

However, the odds of finding scarce cars are very rare.

And autographs and low number parallels are much much, much lower a level of being able to find those.

Think of it like playing the lottery.

It's fun to play a low cost.

Thrill, but don't expect to strike gold.

Now the hobby our products are shown to local card shops and online specialty realtors.

And a hobby box is much more than more expensive than the entry level.

Ranging from a few hundred dollars to even thousands of dollars.

And sometimes the trade off hobby boxes guarantee hits.

A hobby of box of Prism for example will guarantee a certain number of.

Autographs and rare parallels.

And this is more for the more.

Serious collector, but it's at a bigger cost, more risk, more reward.

So what's my recommendation for beginner?

Actually neither of these.

The most critical piece of the advice I can give you is to accept the singles market.

Instead of gambling on sealed boxes, you can go to the websites like ebay or Comcast or visit a local card show or a local card shop and get the exact card that you want.

You know there's plenty of places online like we said, ebay, Amazon and some others and even go to our fanatics link which we have right down here in the description.

You might be able to find that card that you might be looking for there.

You know we are an affiliate marketer of fanatics.

So anything that you buy on fanatics through our link that helps fund and keep our videos coming as well as placeanddispatch.com.

now let's set a budget.

Let's say you have $50 a month that you can spend.

Just, you know, don't just buy two blaster boxes.

Instead aim to buy one great really single card for your collection each month.

Maybe this month it's the prism rookie of your favorite player.

Next month maybe it's a cool looking colored parallel.

This method builds a meaningful collection you want and not a pile of commons you really don't care about.

Now, how to spot a potentially a valuable card.

This is a trick that a lot of different ways to go about this.

But part of the fun of collecting is it's a treasure hunt.

The chance you might stumble on something truly valuable.

It's rare, but it could happen.

So what elements produce value?

It really boils down to a simple formula.

The player plus the card type plus a scarcity.

What's the condition?

First, the most important thing is the player.

In the football card world, quarterbacks are kings.

The quarterback's the most critical position on the field and it's also the most critical one in the pack.

Now their Card values prove it.

If after quarterbacks you still have a star, skilled position players, elite wide receivers, star running backs.

While great defensive players get a lot of respect, their cards don't come in the same high prices that the offensive counterparts do.

Second is the card type.

And the king of all this is the rookie card.

Look for that little RC that we talked about earlier, that little shield on the player's card.

And the player's rookie card from a major set like Tops Chrome or Panini Prism is their blue chip collectible.

It's the card that carries the most long term value and potential throughout their entire career.

The third, scarcity.

Not all cards are created equal.

And this is where the parallel shine because a base prism card is, is standard.

But a silver prism, the uncolored metallic version, is rare and more desirable.

Then you have the whole rainbow of colors.

Blue, green, red, gold, black, whatever they have out that year.

Many are serial numbered, telling you exactly how many were made.

A card numbered 1/99 means only 99 copies exist.

A card numbered slash 10 is even rarer and a 1 of 1 is an ultimate prize.

The lower the number, the more valuable the card because there's less of them.

And an autograph card has enormous value.

With the scarcity.

Finally there's a condition.

A card with sharp corners, clean edges and a perfectly centered image will always be worth more than ones with dings and flaws.

So that's what you have on the new cards.

But there's always, there's, you know, probably almost 100 years of player cards that you could go through now.

They became really popular in the 50s, 60s and the 70s, 80s and 90s are all over the place.

But they are lesser value.

70S cards, which I grew up with, I wish I would have kept some of mine that I had when I was a kid because they are at card shows more valuable.

You know, some of them approaching in the hundreds of dollars, some are even more expensive than that.

And so they're rare finds to get.

But cards seem to be holding their value and going up.

Not quite the way the baseball cards do.

But football is holding the zone and coming quite a passionate fan base out there, that's collecting cards.

So make sure you join what you, what you love.

Make sure you do what you can afford.

If you can only afford five bucks a month, then by all means do five bucks a month.

But like I said, you can go places and get some older cards and, and get, you know, 10 of them for a dollar.

So with five bucks at that, you.

Get 50 bucks or 50 cards for five bucks.

That's a great thing to enjoy each month you have a card and a half a month basically to really enjoy and take a look at and admire and you get to pick out the ones you want from the selections that they have.

Card shop owners are definitely can be a help to you and some other great resources with some very smart people that we're going to have up coming up here in some upcoming episodes such as Bob Swick from Gridiron Grace magazine.

I have a few other buddies that are big collectors.

They're going to give out their pointers and how to do things as well.

But another thing to do is how to store them.

Now you don't have to go and get something fancy.

You know, back when I was a kid how we had rubber bands and shoe boxes.

Rubber bands might not be the best idea because it's ruins that one.

That one element that we said causes value, which is condition and that's where storage comes in place.

But.

And maybe not, maybe not.

The old shoe box is maybe not the greatest idea.

But your local card store or online, they have special cardboard boxes that they can sell you which are very reasonable and affordable.

Also they have different variations of plastic sleeves, some very thin milled clear plastic to some harder cases that you can do.

I, I bought a condition cases recently that we're showing here in a video where you can put a pack of, you know, 50 to 100 cards in one small case and then take multiples.

Of those and put them in a.

Larger case just like you see on screen right now.

So there's many ways to collect many different things to collect.

You got to pick your lane and stay in it and do something you can afford and most of all have fun doing it.

But it's definitely it's that connective tissue.

To the game we love and I.

Think you're going to enjoy it.

I've collected when I was a teenager and now I've brought it back here as an adult and I missed in between.

But yes, it does connect you to the game.

It makes it really enjoyable especially to.

See those legends of the game that.

You love to watch on Sundays or maybe you like to watch on Sundays 50 years ago or maybe never got to watch.

You get to enjoy them.

But you know, never fear, we're going.

To salute them here on Pigskin Dispatch on our videos on pigskindispatch.com on our daily timelines and celebrate their birthdays as well here at Pigskin Dispatch.

We're here for you.

We're here for football history.

And what better way to preserve football.

History than to collect some cards?

So do what you love and good luck with that and stay tuned for our upcoming episodes and as we give you some advice from experts on how to start collecting football cards.

Hope you enjoyed this.

Till next time, everybody.

Have a great, great Iron Day.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

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