From baseball to Pokémon: Card collecting for everyone - East Idaho News
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From baseball to Pokémon: Card collecting for everyone

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This story is brought to you by Silver Slugger Coins & Cards, southeast Idaho’s No. 1 coin and sports card shop. Come in today and let our friendly staff help you build your collection!

No matter how you feel about card collecting or your connection to it, it has a rich history.

Card collecting. When you think about it you might have flashbacks to your childhood and wonder where on earth you put that box or binder full of page protectors and crisp sports cards.

Can you still remember the feeling of excitement as you opened a new packet of cards, hoping to find a favorite sport star’s face smiling back at you?

The first pitch

The first sports cards were created in the late 1800s when baseball became popular. Initially, the cards were packaged with other products such as mementos or fun advertising afterthoughts.

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John Clarkson

It wasn’t until years later when cards switched to being sold just for collecting.

The industry remained relatively unchanged for decades until the card-collecting kids of the ’50s became the nostalgic cash-carrying adults of the ’70s.

A home run?

Beginning in the late ’70s and early ’80s, many adults got back into the hobby, and prices soared.

People began seeing cards as investments instead of a hobby and would treat their cards like gold. Card companies flooded the market to keep up with demand, but the saturation ultimately resulted in disaster, and card prices plummeted.

The numbers tell the story. In 1992, sports card sales were estimated at $1.5 billion. Compare that to recent years, when sales have hovered around $250 million.

Business analysts say the card companies poisoned their own industry, and figures show they have never fully recovered.

Battle to overcome sophomore slump

As years have passed, sports enthusiasts have switched preferences from collecting cards to autographed items and photos.

Card companies began many different tactics to win collectors back – including embedding pieces of jerseys, autographed cards, and, at one point, DNA packs.

babe-ruth-dna

You could actually send off to get pieces of hair belonging to famous people like Babe Ruth.

Then there’s the switch in the type of cards people are collecting.

Joe Kunz, the owner of Silver Slugger Coins & Cards in Idaho Falls, says he’s seen a big shift with the younger crowd.

“The card market has changed quite a bit with the younger generation instead of collecting baseball cards,” he said. “A majority of the kids now are into gaming cards like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon.”

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Kunz said the business is definitely changing, but it’s not going away.

“With the introduction of the gaming cards it has made it so there’s something for everyone. The sports fan can collect the autographs and memorabilia cards of their favorite athlete, where the gaming fan can come and try to build a great deck of cards to play with their friends,” Kunz said. “The card market is making a rebound because they are listening to the customers and giving them what they really want.”

Cards hold a piece of the past documenting the history of sports legends, pop culture, and the changing of eras. Whether you collect for the love of a game or as a pastime, card collecting has now spanned more than a century, and that’s quite an accomplishment.

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