Collecting Signed Ken Griffey Rookie Baseball Cards
Collecting autographed baseball cards nowadays can be a irritating endeavor. There are around 5 or 6 corporations that produce major League Baseball cards which does not appear like too many so that is acceptable. Each card company typically creates up to twenty distinct sets a year. This many sets can be totally overpowering and only looks to benefit the card publishing companies and not the collector.
Baseball card suppliers then seed the packs of these various sets with “chase cards”. These chase cards are not often part of the real set but generally very limited numbered editions of cards. These chase cards can have almost nothing to do with baseball. Chase cards can be items of a Babe Ruth baseball bat to a autograph of former President Howard Taft and on. Collecting the chase cards becomes the point of purchasing packs of baseball cards as they can be really precious and sell for a lot of money on eBay. The actual cards of the baseball players are an afterthought. Business has overtaken collecting.
Much of this craze can be traced back to 1989 when the Upper Deck Company developed their first Major League Baseball set. This set included the very 1st Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. There were no chase cards or limited edition runs, just the Griffey Jr. baseball card. When Griffey Jr entered baseball he was a youthful phenom who folks believed had the potential to break all of baseballs records and his earlier play appeared to attest to this. Baseball card collecting became a craze as individuals tried to get the Griffey Jr rookie card.
When I was a kid in the late sixties and early seventies there was one business making one set – this was Topps. Collecting these cards was easy – you went to the nearby drugstore and purchased a pack after begging your mother to get you one. I would then go home and promptly “flip” the cards with my buddies (a game) and immediately add wear and tear to my cards. Nowadays collectors of trading cards like Mickey Mantle autographed baseball cards seem to want the cards for their possible monetary worth and take care of the cards like they were treasured jewels, often putting them in heavy plastic protectors to prevent everyone from handling them and thus damaging the card.
So is there a middle ground for an autographed baseball card collector or baseball fanatic? Yes there is. First take a look at the fine print on some of the $10 or $20 packs you are going to purchase to hopefully get a chase card. The fine print will inform you that you have a 1 in 10,000 chance of truly getting a chase card. So if you don’t get a chase card you will be left with five baseball cards from the pack in a collection. Sadly it will be a set no one is looking to complete.
Collectors need to rein in their anticipations and concentrate on being a fan of the game and bear in mind that collecting baseball cards can basically be an extension of their love of baseball. Concentrate on a few of the basic collections that are not as chase card targeted such as the standard Topps or Upper Deck set. Do not buy a pack of five cards for $20. Even baseball card companies are even beginning to recognize that they have over-saturated the marketplace and are paring back the amount of sets they make.
