Number Card

March 16th, 2009 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Number Card

Jersey Cards: From Rare to Common

As an avid sports card collector, I have seen the days where cards were just cards. Even rookie cards were not marked. We all saw the rise and fall of sports cards in the early 1990’s. It seemed everyone was out to make a buck on older cards. Nowadays we see several different kinds of cards. We see base cards, autographs, inserts, parallels, and we also see a special kind of card that contains game or event used pieces of equipment players have used. Originally these cards were very rare and only contained pieces of a player’s jersey. These special cards are affectionately known as jersey cards.

Sometime in the late 1990’s someone had a brainwave to increase the value of regular sports cards. Until then, the only value in sports cards were either serial numbered rare cards (very rare) or rookie cards of special players. Rookie cards unfortunately were often overproduced limiting their value. Someone decided to purchase game used jerseys from players and cut them up into little pieces and put them on a sport card. This idea was an instant hit, mainly because at first they were so rare. You would have literally have to buy cases of a hobby box set in order to get the chance to land a rare card with a piece of a players jersey. These cards were rare and valuable indeed, and to the collector who was used to the plain card, quite beautiful.

Jersey cards had hit in full force. Collectors could not get enough of the chance to pull a card which had a piece of uniform on it which the player actually used. It was exciting times as these cards added a large amount of value to early sets. The excitement seemed to grow and as typical human beings, we wanted more. Card companies started buying jerseys in droves and putting jersey cards in all their main sets and people ate it up. The downside of course to this was that now jersey cards were starting to be more common, significantly limiting the value of each card. Jersey cards were being created for every player as well, so instead of finding that jersey card of your favourite super star, jersey cards starting appearing for part time players and fourth liners. The industry had changed; jersey cards were now standard and no longer rare.

To combat the fact that people were losing interest in jersey cards, card companies started to limit the print run of some cards. Some sets were now offering short print (or SP) runs of jersey cards, guaranteeing one or more jersey cards serial numbered in each hobby box bought. The variations of serial numbering would differ from set to set which directly affected the purchase price or supposed value of a set. Originally, if you got a jersey card which was numbered out of 1500, you were overwhelmed with joy. Of course as human beings we always want more. After this, it had to be out of 1000, then 500, then 250, 100, 50 and now the ultimate is that special 1 of 1 card. Card companies had hit the ultimate in jersey cards.

Over the following years and to current day, card companies still spit out several different types of jersey cards from unnumbered to those rare cards for a set in which only one is made. Besides this, card companies have increased the stakes adding jersey patch cards, jersey number cards and sports equipment cards (game used balls, hats, sneakers, skates, etc) all designed to quench the human desire for more. The only question now is where do we go from here? Will they produce cards only made of jerseys? Perhaps you’ll be able to get full jerseys in boxes. Only time will tell. For now though, the jersey card still has a special place in our hearts as the first memorabilia to get inside a pack of cards.

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