Cardboard alchemy

People are turning pieces of cardboard into gold.

For most sports card collectors they got their start as a youthful preoccupation, amassing images of their favorite players, whether they were All Stars, members of their favorite team, or someone who had caught their fancy.

But for some people, sports card collecting has grown into an adult passion and in many situations the thrill of owning a card of your favorite athlete has evolved into a serious pursuit that is as much about finance as it is about fanhood.

For many collectors it’s about the personal pleasure of owning a particular card, not unlike collecting art. But for some it’s a million-dollar endeavor akin to wheeling and dealing on Wall Street.

A lot of people are making a lot of money, the hobby has never been hotter

“A lot of people are making a lot of money, the hobby has never been hotter,” says Scott Monize, 47, who owns LTD Sports, a sports card business located in the North End of New Bedford. LTD (which stands for Living The Dream) functions out of a warehouse, doing most of its business online via the auction site eBay. Monize boasts an inventory of more than a million cards.

“Because of the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of people have more time on their hands and they’re not spending as much of their money, choosing to focus their energies and resources on the sports card market,” Monize says. “For many years about 20 percent of collectors were doing it to make money, today it’s about 50 percent.”

The majority of sports cards are devoted to baseball, basketball, football, and hockey, but there are also soccer, auto racing, wrestling, and MMA cards. For many years baseball was the most popular to collect but Monize says that the current most popular cards are basketball.

The original sports cards were of baseball players that were found in cigarette packages beginning in 1886. Today they are sold in a variety of ways, ranging from $3 packs to boxes that can go for thousands of dollars. Cards can be bought at retail stores such as WalMart and Target, at card conventions, card shops, or online.

Monize says that he built much of his stockpile by purchasing other people’s collections and continues to buy cards to this day. “I’ve acquired a lot of cards by word of mouth,” he says. “I like that I can make a little bit of money and be around sports, something that I love very much.”

Building a roster

Monize claims that he has the only registered sports card business in a 30-mile radius. He first took an interest in sports cards at the age of eight and has been a professional sports card merchant since 2007 when he bought Southeastern Sports Cards in Fairhaven. He moved the business to Westport in 2010 before changing the name to LTD Sports and relocating to New Bedford in 2016.

The value of a sports card is determined by three main factors: the scarcity of the card, the condition of the card, and the greatness of the player. In addition, some lines of cards are considered to be more collectable or trendier than others.

“The numbers of a card that are in print is very important,” Monize says. “Some companies will only print one card of a particular player, known as a ‘one-of-one.’ Because they’re so rare those cards can be very valuable as soon as they hit the market.”

The condition of a card is also very important. A “mint condition” card will be worth more than the same card that may have worn edges or corners or a defaced photo. To have a card “graded” on its condition you must mail it to one of three main companies in the United States: PSA in California, Beckett Grading Services in Dallas, or the Sports Grading Company in Florida. Cards are graded on a scale of one to ten.

Cards from a player’s first season, known as “rookie” cards, will take off in value if the player has a formidable career. If a player is elected to the Hall of Fame, the card will increase in value. Buying a card can be a gamble, a situation similar to playing the stock market. A lot of collectors will go online to research a young player to try to determine his future performance and worth.

“Not every card is going to go up in value because not every player is going to be great,” Monize says. “Every year there are new players, but there are very few stars such as Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, or Lebron James – you can count the greats on one hand. Many collectors will buy a card with the hope that it will increase in value, but if a player tanks, forget about it. You can get crushed.

“A card that’s trending up may not continue to go up, but if you’re buying it because you like it you’re not really concerned about the long-term value. Some cards can be an investment while some can be bought for prestige.”

Making the draft

Doug Keating, 48, of Woburn, is the owner of Cardboard Promotions and puts on sports card conventions at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield approximately 17 times a year, mostly on weekends and holidays. Each show includes as many as 50 vendors from throughout New England and New York and draws as many as 500 customers.

“When I open the doors at 8:45 in the morning there’s already a line of people waiting to get in,” Keating says. “They’re looking to get the best stuff before it’s gone. There’s the thrill of the chase and you never know what you’re going to find. That’s why people enjoy opening packs of cards – you never know what you’re going to find.

“There are different interests for different people. Some people look for old cards, some people look for new cards. Some people come just to browse and see what they can find.”

Three times a year, Monize’s passion for sports cards takes him to Philadelphia for a three-day convention where he works a booth for LTD Sports. Most years he will attend a five-day event, the National Sports Collectors Convention, held annually in a major American city. He also attends the annual three-day convention hosted by the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club at the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington.

At the big conventions you can have 10 or 20 thousand people going non-stop, buying and selling

“Conventions are mania,” Monize says. “At the big conventions you can have 10 thousand or 20 thousand people going non-stop, buying and selling. I’ve had people spend hours at my booth picking out cards while we chat about sports. I’ve made a lot of friends in the industry.”

“I see many regulars at my shows,” Keating says. “A lot of friendships are made between vendors and customers.”

An American pasttime

Michael Croteau is a 17-year-old from North Dartmouth with a sports card collection of more than 50,000 cards. At the age of seven he took an interest in the world of collecting when his father began sharing his baseball card collection.

“It inspired me to take interest in the history of sports,” he says. “Card collecting is something that allows me to spend such valuable time with my dad. It’s an American tradition and it’s a great way to bond and become closer as father and son. It’s really nice.

“My father’s collection gave me an interest in the great players who have come before, a lot of Hall of Famers like Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, and Harmon Killebrew.”

Croteau collects baseball, basketball, football, and hockey cards. In addition to collecting cards of his favorite players, he is interested in rookie cards and Hall of Famers. His prized possession is a 2000 rookie card of his favorite player, Tom Brady. His grandparents and parents chipped in to buy him the card for his most recent birthday in April of last year. The card cost $350.

“After he won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay I went online to check on the value of the card and it had skyrocketed to a thousand dollars.”

But the Brady card isn’t the priciest piece in Croteau’s collection. In 2019 the father and son were on a trip to Disney World and visited Hulk Hogan’s surf shop in Orlando, FL for an autograph session. They brought with them a 1982 card of Hogan they had purchased at LTD Sports and had the wrestling mega star autograph it. Croteau says that the card with the autograph is worth approximately $15,000.

“When you get a new card it’s like being a little kid at Christmas, it’s gratifying,” he says. “If I have kids someday I’ll pass them down to them.”

Boom and bust

“I’ve been collecting cards for 30 years and I’ve seen a lot of ebb and flow in the market,” Monize says. “In the late 1980’s and early 90’s there was a boom in the market, people were buying up cards thinking it could put their kids through college. As a result the card companies flooded the market with cards to meet the demand which caused the market to crash. Since then the card companies don’t print as many of the same card, keeping the demand outweighing the supply which keeps the value of the cards high.

“Today cards are flying off the shelf. People are waiting in line to buy them with the sole purpose of turning around and selling them for a profit the very next day.”

But according to Monize, for him and many other collectors sports cards are a “fun alternative investment” such as owning precious metals, gold, silver, or diamonds.

“The best thing about sports cards is that you can collect just one team or one sport and have more on your plate than you know what to do with. It’s a personal experience. Even if you just collect one player there could be thousands of cards out there. You can collect them for one dollar or a million dollars. That’s what makes it so fun.”

“As long as sports are popular there will be collectors,” Keating says. “It’s something you can do whether you’re eight or 80.”

“Card collecting is something I’ll be doing throughout my life,” Croteau says. “There will always be another card to collect.”

MVPs

Last January, a Mickey Mantle baseball card from 1952 sold for $5.2M

In August of last year, a 2009 Mike Trout baseball card that was bought for $400,000 two years earlier was sold for $3.9M

A rookie card of basketball star Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks sold last February for $4.6M. It was last purchased for $400,000.

Prior to that, the highest selling basketball card was a Giannis Antetokounmpo, which went for $1.9M in September of last year.

The most valuable hockey card is a 1979 Wayne Gretzky which is worth $50,000.

1958 cards of soccer great Pele have fetched as much as $25,000.