I recently started collecting baseball cards & I’m curious to know if anyone here collects sports cards?(any of the 4 major sports.) If so, do you collect to flip or for the personal collection? Please share what you have collected & if you have sent your cards to be graded.
I never really collected but when my brother was young he was big on collecting baseball, hockey and sometimes basketball cards so I would take him to card shows and card shops all the time. I can’t say I got into it in a big way, but I would buy a premium pack here and there just to see if I would get l anything good. Over the years that I would take my brother to all those shops and shows I managed to get a nice but small collection I guess. Never did flip them and still have all that I bought. Thinking about getting rid of some actually. Was lucky enough to pull a 1996 Derek Jeter mirror blue out of one of those premium packs. Need to get that one graded.
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Congrats on the Jeter pull! Let me know how the grading process goes. I looked up a few videos about grading cards & it seems like the most minor scratch significantly brings down the grade. I have a few cards that I want to get graded.
Yeah, Card grading is strict. I’m not even considering a 10. Probably an 8.0 or 9.0. No way I will send it though the mail so I have to find a local show/event where they will be taking submissions. I remember when I pulled the card. The dealer offered me $140 for it. Really considered it since I wasn’t a big collector but everyone knew even then Jeter would be something special. Kind of like how Trout is looking. A once per generation player.
Jeter was not a generational player, he was good, but not great. He never won an MVP, only has 260 career homeruns (He played on great, great teams that were bought by Steinbrenner) but you could have put a lot of SS on those teams and the Yanks still win. it is not a good comparison to put him next to Trout. Trout, at 28, has 2 MVPs and more HR, already, than Jeter had in his 20 year career.
Can’t always judge by HR stats and MVP tallies but I do agree, I think Jeter was a great player and made an impact on the field but I wouldn’t put him down as an All Time Great… what he will go down as eventually is a horrible owner… 
You’re 100% right about not being able to judge a player solely on one statistic or his Awards. I feel that most ‘generational’ players, whatever that defines, should have some individual accolades, including the MVP/Cy Young/Hart Trophy…He was a skilled player that was fortunate to be a part of some of the greatest teams in the history of the league, imo.
Let’s not get carried away now… It’s still the Yankees you’re talking about. (Sorry, I despise the Yankees… I root for any team that plays against them). 
I despise the Yankees. Despise. Them and the Cowgirls. But, credit must be given where it is due. Mind you, Steinbrenner bought those teams and Championships. Those great Yankees teams of Jeters era are lacklustre as far as being a great franchise in that era, although they had great, bought, teams.
Oh yeah… their payroll… geez, if they didn’t win every year, people laughed at the wasted dollars for sure…
Losing to the Marlins in 2003 was my favorite loss of the Yankees “Dynasty”. $48 million dollar payroll vs $153 million dollar payroll.
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I bought a few Juan Soto from the Nationals rookie cards last year. I just put them in a box in the back of a cabinet and I’ll just wait.
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Comparing his position and his overall impact on the game, statistics and popularity I think a lot of people will and do consider him a once in a generation type. Me, I have never been a Yankee fan and more often than not find myself rooting for whoever plays against them.
Growing up in NY and NJ when I was young I was always a Mets fan…which was great in the 80’s. Not so much thereafter. After I moved out west in the mid 80’s I slowly became an Angles fan. Trout is something else! Overall, he could end up being a top ten payer when all is said and done (maybe). His overall impact on the game is very far reaching, as was Jeters. Personally, I do think pound for pound Trout is a better player though. I’m sure there are Yankee fans who would dispute that.
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Since today is Mike Trouts birthday, I saw a comparison chart online comparing Trout & Ken Griffey Jr at the age of 28, & their numbers (GMS, AVG, HITS, HR, SB, Etc) are very similar. Wish Griffey would’ve stayed healthy through his entire career. He had the swag, offense, defense… everything! Smh at Cincy Griffey.
Be on the lookout for a rookie that plays for the Astros named Yordan Alvarez, he got called up a few months ago. This kid is only 22 and has so much power + timely hitting. He’s already tearing the Show up while only appearing in 43 games.
The problem with sports cards and old Magic The Gathering cards is the printing technology from the past is easily replicated today. Fakes are so good they are undetectable wether anyone in the industry wants to admit it or not. My husband unloaded his MTG collection for this very reason, get the money and run. When a piece of cardboard can go for $1000s of dollars watch out it could be a fake and even sending it to a grader they most likely won’t be able to tell unless it’s an amateur fake.
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At least he got worse as he aged, a good sign he never doped up like a few other players who somehow got better… You look at most major league players, you really see their numbers to start declining around 35 years of age and older… honestly, the way it should be.
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Kind of funny. I didn’t look up stats but a week or two ago was thinking how Trout and Griffey were very similar as far as being dominant goes.Griffey was a beast when he was with Seattle. Hopefully Trout can produce at a high rate a couple more seasons than Griffey did before he starts to decline.
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When Jeter was 1st mentioned in this thread as a generational player, to which I do not agree, Junior was the immediate player that came to my mind as a ‘generational’ baseball talent. We was something else before his body betrayed him. Pujols 1st ten seasons are quite impressive too.
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Yup, the numbers Pujols put up during his first 10 seasons are insane. I just looked up his rookie card, an autographed “Bowman” Rookie card of his sold for almost $11,000 a few days ago 
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Indeed. Without looking, I believe he had at least 30 HRs (or was it 40?), 100 RBIs and hit over .300 in every season, for his first ten years of service in STL. 