Basketball cards, football cards, wrestling cards, and all manner of sports cards have been around since the middle of the 20th century. The start of the 90’s was a great period in basketball and other sports, with athletes like Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen and Shaquille O’Neill doing amazing things on the basketball court. The fad of collecting basketball cards was never greater at this time, with a number of successful companies vying to be the most valuable.
It was always young children, of course, who would decide these cards were valuable. One of the simplest ways to tell which card was worth the most was by how popular the athlete on the front was. A Michael Jordan card would be more valuable than a Luc Longley, for instance. But also available were special cards, which included gimmicks like holograms and shiny material to be worth more, and make the image more attractive.
The companies that created these cards saw a great deal of profit in this time. Fleer cards were generally considered to be of high quality, while Topps cards could at this time never seem to be quite as stylish as the rest. The most popular, however, were those from the Upper Deck brand. With each card made in smooth, crisp detail and a tiny hologram declaring it to be official Upper Deck merchandise on the back, these cards were the one most looked for by kids in the schoolyard.
The question is often put forth: Why do children place so much value on these little things? At first, it seems like a fair question. The material used by the cards cannot possibly be worth anywhere near what the producer has paid to create them, or what any of the materials are worth. It’s only the fact that a lot of different people agree on a card being valuable or not valuable that makes any value. As strange as it sounds, the perception of something being real makes it real. When one person says a piece of cardboard is worth a lot, he’s delusional. But when many people say it, the people who disagree are missing out.
Now, this all seems to be a weird thing to think of as true, yet think about this: Why is their value to money? Do the materials of cash have any actual value? Of course not, greenbacks are worth getting simply because everyone agrees that they are valuable. So as strange as we think the kids getting the basketball cards are, we would consider someone who didn’t care about money would be insane, too.
Basketball cards have in these times become highly unfashionable among youngsters. While there was a momentary craze for Pokemon, the fads of today tend to be digital, with many children using mobile phones instead of cards, or pogs or yo-yos. It’s simple for us to look at them and think of how silly they are, but were we really any better? Now here’s a scary thought: When these kids are our age, what will their kids be collecting?
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