Denver Vintage Sports:

Specializing in
Vintage Football Cards & Memorabilia

Denver Vintage Sports buying & selling & appraising vintage football / sports cards & memorabilia

COLLECTING FOOTBALL CARDS VS. COLLECTING BASEBALL CARDS

Some collectors specialize in collecting one sport, a sport that's special to them, while others, they collect cards from all sports. Some may collect favorite teams, some collect favorite players and some collect complete sets. Baseball card collecting has been a national hobby for decades and is by far the most popular sports card collectible. Collecting baseball cards and collecting football cards (or any other sport frankly) are similar in many ways, but there are also some key differences that could apply to comparing with any sport.

There are a few ways that collecting football cards (or other sports cards) differs from collecting baseball cards:

Seasonality: Football and baseball seasons occur at different times of the year, and this affects the release schedule of their respective card sets. Yearly Football card sets typically come out in the late summer or early fall, just before the start of the NFL season. Baseball card sets, on the other hand, are usually released in the spring, just before the start of the MLB season.

Card design: Football cards and baseball cards often have different designs. Football cards may feature more action shots of players in motion, while baseball cards may showcase players in more static poses, like batting stances or pitching motions.

Player popularity: In the United States, football is generally a more popular sport than baseball (even though baseball has been around much longer), especially among younger fans. This means that football cards may be more popular overall, and may command higher prices for certain players. However, baseball has a longer history and more established fan base, which could lead to higher demand for vintage baseball cards. Baseball cards have been made more in the past than football cards and the nostalgia factor comes into play with older baseball cards more often than football.

When comparing overall value of baseball player cards vs. football player cards, it's interesting to note that baseball cards of equal or even sometimes lesser players will command more in terms of value that the same level of football stars. This happens even though for most years (especially through the 70s and 80s) Topps produced more baseball cards than football (or any other sport for that matter).

Card rarity: The rarity of individual cards can vary between football and baseball and player to player. For example, in baseball, rookie cards (cards depicting a player's first year in the major leagues) are often highly sought after and can be very valuable. In football, autographed cards and memorabilia cards (cards that contain a small piece of a player's jersey, for example) may be more popular.

The Rookie Card craze started in baseball cards more than football cards. It started with the Mickey Mantle Rookie Card from 1952 Topps, this was the original rookie card that was most sought after. In the 1980s, Rickey Henderson burst onto the baseball scene and his rookie card ignited the rookie card frenzy we know today. Henderson's 1980 Toops rookie card became an immediate collectable and has maintained good value across the years.

Football also has its own share of iconic rookie cards including Bronco Nagurski, Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas and more recently Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Walter Payton to name a few.

Number of Choices: Over the last few years, there have been more baseball card sets released than football (or hockey or basketball for that matter) giving collectors more options. That may mean that some collectors are spending more on baseball cards (in order to collect their favorite player or favorite team across all the different sets) meaning they have less to spend on football cards.

Baseball sets contain many different parallel versions of the same card - so does football but to a lesser extent - including autographs, jerseys and combination cards with both. Football cards have similar parallel versions, but tend to offer fewer options.

Overall, while there are certainly similarities between collecting football and baseball cards, the differences in seasonality, card design, player popularity, and card rarity can make each hobby unique.