Football Trading Card Value: Part IV
As a collector of rookie football cards one of the most daunting challenges is determining the value of your football trading cards. Especially as a new collector the process can be a little overwhelming and in fact it may seem intimidating to the point you do not want to collect the memorabillia. I have written a series of posts describing how to value your football cards by using Ebay, Terapeak and pricing guides from the grading services. The truest value of all of those prices is the information that comes from Ebay as it is the value people will pay today.
Now that you have an idea of what people will pay for a rookie football card - the question is what is my Football Trading Card Value for my cards. To answer this question we need to examine what are the factors that are included when a grading service like PSA or Becketts grades the card.
Lets say you have two rookie football cards you wish to evaluate. A Topps Walter Payton rookie card and a Upper Deck SPX, Adrian Peterson rookie card what are the features that are used in grading the cards.
1) Age
Age is important as in general older common cards are valued more than newer cards. However, the cards produced today are produced with much different quality and standards so age is not the biggest factor in determining card value.
2) Quality
Look at the corners and edges - are they crisp and sharp or are they softened. This is a very important feature that is looked at when grading cards. Especially the older cards. A older card like Walter Payton is not likely to have great corners and edges so a card with great corners will command a much higher value.
3) Centering
Is the picture centered? Again the older cards the production standards were weak so finding a card that was not crooked and has a picture that is equally centered in the card is rare. This will automatically boost the price of the card.
4) Surface quality
Is the card smooth and clean or is the surface faded, bubbled or have some other defect. This is yet one more characteristic that affects card value.
5) Supply and Demand
Perhaps the biggest factor affecting card value is supply and demand. Many cards like Adrian Peterson are produced with limited production runs so the supply is low. When a player like this has an unbelievalbe rookie campaign the value skyrockets because the demand goes way up. A perfect storm creating high valued cards.
6) Limited Edition - specialty cards
The new inventions of the auto card and jersey cards gave a new look for card collectors and this also helps drive prices up.
What other factors impact prices? Please comment.
US $1.81
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