football set builders don't exist, why?

[crankbait09]

I have been collecting since 1986, and my whole card trading experience has been strictly baseball. in 2023, I started to collect football.
I have always noticed that people that are baseball set builders, were easy to come by. I guess up until late, it has seemed to tail off a tad. Nothing crazy though.
As for the football world, it's totally opposite. Since 2023, I have seen a couple of set builders but it's very rare. Set building is very hard to do, at least by means of trading.

What is so different about football set building vs baseball? It seems like football collectors buy the players/teams they want, but don't spend so much effort in set building. there's gotta be a good reason

 

[horfin]

Not to get political but I was the BIGGEST NFL fan that existed and I collected Football cards. Collin Kapernick came along and people supported him and the NFL supported him and I immediately stopped collecting football and immediately stopped collecting football cardsand the NFL was a bunch of wusses. I was a HUGE football set collector. I haven't watched an NFL game since.

Bill

 

[7timecy]

If you would have seen this this place 2007-2008 there were 100's of baseball set collectors. Tailed off is an understatement. You could buy 2 boxes of a certain set and trade everything within a few weeks.

As for football cost of the product is a big issue but football as never been real big as for online trading, that and basketball. All of the sports lack of set collectors makes you want to rethink how much you bust if you can't get rid of it.

 

[crankbait09]

Wow. Ya, I've definitely never traded online during the days of foot traffic as you mentioned. That's crazy to think about

And that's sorta where I'm at with football. I only buy mega boxes. Definitely NOT hobby boxes. Thise are way too expensive for me. I have quite a few cards for trade, but no set builders to trade with.

I save the hobby boxes for baseball. Although that may be slow at times, I can still trade them

 

[7timecy]

I mostly buy blasters at Walmart and such but I bought a six box case of Chrome Update, I'm barely moving any of it because there are like no set builders. In 2020 I bought the same thing and made tons of trade with that stuff and I would say this years rookie class is better. Honestly I returned this year from a 2-3 hiatus and I just can't believe how the board has shrunk. So I'm already slowing my buying of boxes and will buy what I want from Ebay and other sites.

 

[SymphonicMetal]

This is one of the great philosophical questions I have mulled over for decades along with the meaning of life and why the Middle East is always in turmoil.

I'm a huge football set collector but not for the new issues. The most recent set I am working on is 2006 which I just realized was almost 2 decades ago!!

I think baseball is more traditional and the collectors in this hobby tend to skew older. I noticed the customers at our LCS were younger and only wanted the hot, new players in football (Allen, Burrow, Mahomes, Herbert) and basketball (Zion, Ja Morant and one of the Ball brothers not named Lonzo). They had zero interest in baseball and threw away any cards that were not one of the latest, greatet sensations. And these guys spent an incredible amount of money on unopened to get cards of these players. So your observation is correct on the player collecting aspect of football.

Football has always been the poor sister to baseball when it comes to cards. Odd because only one or two people I know are ardent baseball fans where it seems to be the whole world is a football fan (unfortunately). I've always prefered football since it was more exciting to watch as well as the better buy . One person said football cards lag because the only players worth collecting are QBs and the rest of the postitions are not popular among collectors. And there is sa lot of truth to that.

My brother in Michigan sets up at a lot of mall shows and is strictly vintage. He told me football is about 10% of his sales and baseball rules the roost. Vintage football just never caught on as I thought it would.

Good topic yu started. I'll be curious to read the replies.

 

[chieftazmisty]

I AM A SET COLLECTOR IN BASEBALL FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL ANY TIME ANYONE WANTS TO TRADE SEND ME A PM AND WILL TRY AND HELP YOU OUT MY FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL GOES UP TO 2006 NOTHEING HIGHER

 

[dragonslayer913]

This site is mainly baseball collectors about 85% with FB I rarely see any blasters at Walmart if you purchase hobby cost is $250-$350 a box because of the Top RCs mainly QBs and the rare inserts such as Color Blast and Downtown which can fetch up to $500 or more I’m working on a few sets mainly from a few years ago

 

[daveteach]

I used to collect Bowman football each year and it had some great RC's such as the Tom Brady rookie but I stopped collecting sets when they chose to stop making Bowman NFL cards. I have started collecting football again with the recent Donruss product.

 

[bdink25]

I agree with

daveteach​

about the product available. When Topps lost the football license the industry didn't
have much to offer. Donruss, Score, Prizm---not too exciting. I also lost interest in
football because of all the nonsense. Besides all of that, everything is way too expensive
for set collectors in every sport. Happy hunting. Completing sets is very hard today.
I'm still looking for cards for 3 different years of Prizm baseball.

 

[crankbait09]

For me, since I can't seem to find traders to complete.my sets, I always leave my needs posted for a little while. Then once the trading dies down, I usually end up going to ebay or beckett marketplace to buy all my missing cards. I hate doing that, but, I want the sets completed and closed out. As you can imagine, I'm having to do that a lot. It'll be interesting to see how bad it will be when the 2025 topps series 1 box is released in February.

I like building sets. I certainly hope it doesn't come to a halt, but if the traders arnt there, then I have some decisions to make

 

[clk823]

I only Collect FB Collecting sets difficult ones has been a past time for me. I've put together 1998 Finest FB set with peels intact and my current one 2001 upper deck rookie F/X set I need to cards Victory and Vintage version of Troy Hambrick numbered to 750 on the fronts both Cards #338, fronts of cards are all foiled The rookie FX version has the 2nd yr Tom Brady pink foil fronts, Ive put together 1998 finest No peel set and a base set , 2 sets of 96 finest and a host of other set, Right now I am looking for 2023 Prizm Pandoras numbered to 400

 

[apba66and0]

I'm a set collector and have always tried to finish sets. The majority of mine are in the 90s & 2000s. Mostly baseball followed by non-sport then football & basketball with hockey, soccer & golf as well. For me it's been mostly 2 factors. One happens to be the proliferation of parallels. If you're a set collector, that's what it means to me - master set. Of course 1 of 1s like cut autos, printing plates & rare inserts make that pretty much impossible but you'd like to come close. But if you're chasing 5 different colors of each set, it just becomes a nightmare. I'm attempting it with 2021 Topps Heritage because the '72 set was the one that got me started in collecting and it's very overwhelming.

The second factor is the price of cards & boxes now. As a lot of collector's age, their income has to go to other things as well like, families and other expenses until we come around again to be able to collect more but the prices of cards just scare me off of sets. You know the stars in each set are going to cost even more because of the prices and again throw in the parallels and you're talking big money.

BTW, I agree with the thought that it's really only the big positions in football that drive the collecting which is a shame because if it wasn't for the lineman and other positions, football teams just can't be that good (see Bears).

 

[horfin]

For you football people...you can check my tradelist (the football is probably 100%) accurate.
I have about 23,000 cards from 1980 through 2005
and then probably 800 random cards from 2006-2023.

I'd prefer to trade them for my wants in baseball but I could trade them for random baseball or sell it

Thanks
Bill

 

[PRosefan1]

Personally, I think football set collecting may pick back up some when Topps starts producing again. Panini is OK but frankly, I think their cards and insert sets are too cartoonish for a lot of people. Add in the 700 different colors and patterns every year and it just seems exhausting. I dont really collect much football but when I pick something up, its usually older and usually a HOF'er.

 

[PRosefan1]

For me, since I can't seem to find traders to complete.my sets, I always leave my needs posted for a little while. Then once the trading dies down, I usually end up going to ebay or beckett marketplace to buy all my missing cards. I hate doing that, but, I want the sets completed and closed out. As you can imagine, I'm having to do that a lot. It'll be interesting to see how bad it will be when the 2025 topps series 1 box is released in February.

I like building sets. I certainly hope it doesn't come to a halt, but if the traders arnt there, then I have some decisions to make

Try sportlots.com cheap singles and lots of them. I have finished dozens of sets there over the years.

 

[crankbait09]

When I first started football cards (2023), I noticed really quickly that the amount of colors they offer of one specific card is very exhausting. Just like you said. You get all excited to collect the colors of a certain player, and it doesn't stop there. colors, refractors, no huddles, etc etc....I gave up on trying to collect them. if I pull them from a pack, COOL! but I'm not going out of my way for them. My set needs are primarily base, when it comes to football at least. I'll pick my Burrows, Chase's, and Browns if I get any, but the rest goes to my for trade list.

Baseball sets are also primarily base. If I get a number of inserts from the packs, I might try to complete that set, but they are pretty much traders for the most part.