It’s a “Bulls” market for that basketball team’s trading cards in the Chicago area as dealers try to fight off the bear market trend for sports cards in general, especially baseball cards, that has affected the country during the 1990s.
Sports memorabilia and collecting enjoyed a boom in the 1980s and trading cards were leading the parade as dealers and collectors were willing to pay top dollar for rare — and not so rare — baseball cards of even the most mediocre of talent. Gone were the days of walking to the neighborhood 5 & 10, buying a packet of baseball cards, chewing on stale bubble gum and trading with your pals, then having your mother throw them away at the end of the year. Collecting — and selling — cards was big business.
But a combination of factors flipped the market in the 1990s; today there is still a demand for baseball memorabilia and autographs, but the casual collector has long since traded in his baseball cards. Today, he is looking toward the Chicago Bulls and other basketball teams as his card cash cow.
In Chicago also, NBA and Bulls trading cards — as well as collectibles — have risen in popularity and demand. Small wonder considering the success of the five-time world champions and the savvy marketing job done by the team and the league.
“The NBA as a whole has marketed themselves very well,” says John O’Brien of Midwest Cards and Sports Collectibles in Wilmette. “It’s a big market, particularly for the jerseys and anything to do with Michael Jordan.”
O’Brien is a typical dealer who drifted away from trading cards, particularly baseball, in recent years. He cites a problem that is repeated by other dealers again and again. “The problem with trading cards is they just plain shot themselves in the foot,” O’Brien notes. “You have 15 to 20 different companies making baseball cards. You’ve got Fleer, Skybox, Upper Deck. They each have seven or eight different lines. What you wind up with is 60 to 70 Ken Griffey or Frank Thomas cards. It’s a vast market now.”
Other dealers, like Schmidtendorf’s All Star Trading Cards in Glenview, have moved away from most of the sports cards into trading card games. Capt. Kirk and Picard have replaced Ripken and Grace.
Where a Nolan Ryan card once brought big bucks, a rare Darth Vader card has owner Paul Schmidtendorf’s clients coming in and looking for big money. The force has obviously changed the collection of stars from the diamond to the galaxy. The trading card companies that latched onto what was a hot product in the ’80s has caused a glut in the ’90s. Supply has exceeded demand for cards of current major league players, something that has yet to happen to NBA trading cards. But baseball’s labor woes have also taken their toll.
“Basketball has been outselling baseball here, a lot of it due to the 1994 strike,” says Mike Rudi, who works at TRS Sports, a sports collection and trading card business in Lake Forest. “It killed the hobby interest in collecting baseball cards. The Bulls, well, they are consistent and with the popularity of the Bulls, it’s made collecting those cards a bigger draw.”
There are still those who believe in baseball trading cards, even though the high prices have gone the way of the tasteless gum, which no longer accompanies packages of cards. Andy Bergman, owner of Bergie’s Sportscard Dugout in Highland Park, concedes basketball cards have nearly caught up with baseball cards — to a degree.
“The vintage baseball cards are holding their own while, yes, there is a trend here because of the Bulls that basketball is a hotter card. Part of that is because you only have 11 guys on a team in basketball and with baseball you have so many more players and more cards you are less likely to get a star player in your packet than you would in basketball,” Bergman explains.
“Frankly, I’d rather have an Ernie Banks card in good condition than Michael Jordan. There are plenty of Jordan cards; it’s harder to get a Banks card.”
Vintage cards do have pitfalls. Age can directly affect the quality — and price — for a card, and when the market peaked in the ’80s, counterfeiting of rare cards occurred. Steve Rocchi, present of California-based PSA Sports, a firm that specializes in authenticating trading cards, says some have gone to great lengths to fool dealers and collectors.
“We have had cases of say, a rare Babe Ruth card, where counterfeiters have put a card through a sophisticated copier, used expensive glue, peeled the existing picture off of an existing card for the card stock, pasted the copied picture of the card and tried to sell it for a sizable amount of money,” says Rocchi, who says his firm receives cards from all over the country for grading and authentication. “It’s important for anyone (to) make sure it’s authentic.”
The shaky baseball market has seen a reduction in the number of card trade shows in the area. Many collectors have turned to the Internet to determine market trends. Brent Gutekunst of SportsCollectors Universe (www.collectors.com) who oversees the site, which provides information on collectibles and trading cards, says the market remains volatile.
“We’ve found from the thousands of hits we get on our site that things rise in cycles. A lot of it is regional. Basketball is doing well but baseball cards have been around for 100 years,” Gutekunst notes. “What the future will hold, well, who knows? Maybe baseball, particularly with those vintage cards, will stage a comeback.”
SOME CARDS TO SEARCH FOR
The record paid for a trading card is $450,000 for a Honus Wagner T-206. It was owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who sold it last year.
You may not be able to get into that stratosphere, but, according to several sources, here are some cards you may want to keep an eye out for:
Set of 1952 Topps baseball cards
1950 Jackie Robinson, Bowman card
1955 Ted Williams, Topps card
1952 Yogi Berra, 1 Bowman card
1958 Bob Clemente, 52 Topps card (yellow letters)
1951 Nellie Fox, 232 Bowman card
1957 Brooklyn Dodgers team, Topps card
1970 Thurman Munson, Topps card
1955 Jim Thorpe, Topps football card
Kobe Bryant, rookie basketball cards
Ernie Banks, baseball cards
WHERE TO FIND SPORTS COLLECTIBLES
Looking for sports collectibles? Here’s a sampling of some of the shops in the Chicago area. Look under “Baseball cards” in the Yellow pages for other stores in your area:
Baseball Card Exchange, 3224 Ridge Rd., Lansing; 708-418-8219
Baseball Card Shop, 2716 Waukegan Rd., Waukegan; 847-244-1981
Baseball Cards Plus, 2033 W. Addison St.; 773-404-5055
Baseball Dreams and Memories, 5534 W 135th St., Crestwood; 708-371-2250
Bergie’s Sportscard Dugout, 474 Central St., Highland Park; 847-433-2250
Double Play Baseball Cards, P.O. Box 66, Highwood; 847-573-1306
Midwest Cards and Sports Collectibles, 124 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette; 847-853-0040
Off the Wall Sportscards, 805 Plainfield Rd., Joliet; 815-722-8824
Plaza Sportscards, Deerbrook Mall, 144 S. Waukegan Rd., Deerfield; 847-509-9275
Prime Time Sports Collectibles, 35 Berkshire Drive, Crystal Lake; 815-356-7756
Schmidtendorf’s All Star Trading Cards, 950 Milwaukee Ave., Glenview; 847-824-5710
Sportscard Corner, 218 N. Cherry, Freeport; 815-232-4622
Sports Cards and More, 712 W. Algonquin Rd., Algonquin; 847-228-5050
TRS Sports, 225 E. Deerpath, Lake Forest; 847-234-5678
