The Year Sports Cards Flew Off the Shelves

A new wave of collectors resulted in sports cards that once sat on Walmart and Target shelves before, disappear fast.

When the pandemic struck, a lot of things I'd been used to in life changed. Schools were closed, spring sports seasons were canceled, most businesses had to shut down and several activities I had planned were no longer on the schedule.

And then a funny thing happened -- the football cards I was used to buying were flying off the shelves.

I've been collecting football cards since I was in college, and did some baseball, basketball and hockey -- that is, until finances dictated I cut back and I decided to focus primarily on football.

But for many years, I could stop in the Walmart or Target and pick up "blaster boxes" of football cards. They contained a few packs, and sometimes included a bonus, at a relatively low cost. It was an inexpensive way to continue my collecting ways, and in many cases, it wasn't difficult to find cards of the current crop of draft picks.

That changed in 2020, when the pandemic not only disrupted most activities, but people wanted to find something to do when they were confined to their homes. Some people ran across sports cards, decided they wanted to collect them and started making purchases.

In some cases, top cards for players went through the roof. Patrick Mahomes, fresh off a Super Bowl win, saw his cards that started at about $2 when he was drafted, then climbed to at least $10 when he had his MVP season, now sold for at least $100, with the ones that weren't available in retail packs, and thus harder to find, going for $1,000 or more.

In other cases, it was those blaster boxes I loved to purchase no longer on the shelves, because somebody decided to buy them all in one fell swoop.

Never mind that this was the type of product that, in past years, sat on shelves for weeks, even months, and sometimes showing up later at a discounted price. New collectors entering the hobby wanted product, and a few opportunistic people bought everything they could, then marked up the product at a higher price.

Sure, the thrill of chasing down a draft pick's rookie card is fun, but there's a difference between what is stocked at a retailer and what is stocked at a hobby dealer. The hobby dealers get boxes that are more likely to have the bigger "hits" such as the most prized autographs, jersey or relic cards, and numbered parallels.

Those type of "hits" are much tougher to come by in the retail product. I will admit to pulling an Ezekiel Elliott autograph that was numbered 1 out of 10 out of a Donruss retail blaster a couple of years ago. However, that was the exception -- the rule is that it's tougher to find the most desirable "hits" in a retail box, and you are more likely to get a simple jersey card of a less popular player, worth no more than $6.

Sure, you can still find the rookie cards without much trouble, but the rookie cards don't start out at three figures right away. In fact, Mahomes is one of those rare instances of a player coming out hot right away. In most cases, the cards you find in the retail outlets settle down to modest prices, barely breaking $10.

Yet somehow this justifies marking up product to insane levels.

However, I don't blame hobby dealers, who simply need product, or veteran collectors, who simply want to find their favorite players. Nor do I blame the companies -- true the companies have signed exclusive deals with sports organizations, but if more companies were allowed to produce trading cards, the hoarders would just buy them, too.

No, the hoarders aren't the primary people who are responsible -- there are always going to be people who want to strike when something heats up. After all, that happened back in the 1990s when football and basketball cards took off.

(There are a few hoarders I blame, though -- and this takes me to one story a dealer told me about a person who was caught on camera stopping by the cards at a Walmart, taking one of each item that was on the shelf, scanning it, then simply shoving the rest into a cart and leaving the store with it all. That's shoplifting, of course, and anybody who bought product from that person at a higher price is in possession of stolen property.)

It's actually the people who entered the hobby without taking the time to educate themselves as to what the difference is between hobby and retail product, and who made assumptions that, because somebody like Mahomes had cards that hit three figures recently, surely there will be another one that hits big.

That particularly could be true with Trevor Lawrence entering the 2021 NFL Draft. Considering all the attention he's received, I won't be shocked to see the retail product flying off the shelves again -- save maybe for Target, which is already putting limits in place about how many sports cards people may buy in a single purchase.

However, rather than scold the newcomers to the hobby, I want to make sure they understand how the hobby has worked over the years and what to watch for when they are shopping for product.

Because if they aren't careful, the bottom could drop out of the sports card market at any time -- like it has in the past when people were convinced that this was the thing to do.

Knowing exactly what's the best product to buy if you want a chance at a big "hit" and what to buy if you just want to get your favorite player is the best way to enjoy the hobby -- and the best way to avoid those situations in which product that used to sit on the shelves, now suddenly becomes a hot commodity, but there’s no guarantee the good times will last.