My Top 5 Sports Cards Of 2020 And What They Taught Me

With it being the final day of 2020, I thought it’d be a good time to look back at the year through the lens of one of my hobbies: sports cards.

Since the world was turned upside down, I had to pass the time by taking a greater interest in some of my hobbies to stave off growing more sardonic. Arguably, the hobby to receive the greatest benefit from the global pandemic was my sports card collection. I had time to sort and collects cards while remaining attached to the various sports as their seasons remained in constant flux. For me, it was a of form of retaining some normalcy.

I could both month-by-month with how my year went but that’s no fun. Also, I don’t know how else to wedge my collecting habits into casual conversation and I’m sure as hell not ending 2020 by sharing my “art collection” with the general public.

First, here are some honorable mentions.

2020 Heritage Dinelson Lamet 1/1 Custom Card:

My passion to create custom 1/1 cards sparked in 2020 as a result of dealing with excess base cards and I’ve been able to recoup the cost of buying cards, and then some, in a constructive and creative manner. As someone whose craft is primarily digital, it was a nice change of pace to make art with my hands once in awhile. Most players I put up for sale but some, such as Lamet, I kept aside for myself.

2020 Mosaic Scripts Max Unger/Kyle Long/Arik Armstead/Louis King/Troy Brown Jr Auto:

I think the design for the Scripts auto subset in 2020 Mosaic Basketball/Football is hands down the best-looking card of 2020 and rejoiced in being able to collect many budget-friendly cards from those sets on the secondary market instead of opening each set. If the autos were on-card, they’d be perfection. I’m sad baseball did not take part in this subset in the 2020 Chronicles release but I’ll take what I can get. Collecting sports cards throughout 2020, in general, was an impressive source of design inspiration and I hope to implement a lot of what inspired me through 2021 and beyond.

With those out of the way, here is why I chose the five* cards you see pictured above as the ones that defined my 2020.

2020 Archives Steve Carlton 1976 Topps Traded Auto /50:

I’ve learned that there are haves/have nots of sports card products in 2020 (I’m starting out with the cynicism). Retail card hunting was tough this year. A lot of people, outside of sports card collecting, were blindsided by things they didn’t see coming. The worst in a lot of people was brought to light over the past few months and it’s up to us whether they deserve a free pass or require atonement. You either learn from your mistakes or you’re doomed to repeat them. Not every instances of irrationality is the same and it’s important to reflect that the global pandemic is still going on and won’t magically disappear tomorrow.

When there’s a hot new product on the shelves it most likely meant another was being ignored. At the end of the day, if you want to collect for collecting sake then you shouldn’t be shamed for liking a less popular product. Be who you are. I may very well share more of who I am in 2021 as a resolution because, every year for the past decade, I chosen to be more open with myself about what I like/don’t like.

I bought 2020 Fire/Gallery, two retail product lines often degraded in the hobby, and 2019 Heritage, another poorly received product, and, in each case, I was rewarded with a hit for my troubles accordingly (Luis Robert green parallel /199, Marwin Gonzalez auto /25, Rickey Henderson stamp relic /50). The Steve Carlton autograph I pulled out of 2020 Archives blaster box, left on the shelves at my local Target for seemingly days on end, is my best example of finding a diamond in the rough as it ended up being the best auto I pulled in 2020.

2020 Donruss Justin Herbert Optic Pink Prizm (x2):

I learned that flipping cards might seem appealing on the outside but every bubble is going to pop sooner than you think and the pressure to sell while the market is at its peak can be exhausting.

Everyone is enticed by a get rich quick scheme to some degree. As humans, much like water, we tend to look for the path of least resistance to earn what we seek. In many cases, we have laws put in place so some of those paths are hopefully never trodden on.

One of the saddest thing to come from 2020 (sorry, more cynicism incoming) was seeing, not only the amount of people willing to buy into false information and conspiracy theories in order to wish COVID-19 away instead of facing the reality of the situation but that the people peddling them, those that indirectly aided in the continued spread of COVID-19 and likely death of thousands of loved ones, will never have to face the full consequences of their actions. They will get to hide behind money, power and supporters who’ve sadly found themselves buying into a false reality; a reality they view as their path of least resistance.

Card collecting has also faced this rash thought in 2020; resulting in the creation of a bubble that’s yet to be burst. Overnight, cards seemingly doubled/tripled/quadrupled in value. Topps and Panini, seeing dollar signs, fueled the fervor by putting out new release after new release, even as seasons remained at a standstill. Card grading companies such as PSA suddenly found themselves more so as the arbiter of the sports card market; being able to dictate whether a card and its owner is “worthy” enough to reap the rewards from this bull market using an inherently biased grading system.

I was admittedly, at one time, caught up in this. By far my biggest rip-and-flip of 2020, I bought eight newly stocked 2020 Donruss Football mega boxes, $40 a piece, from Target. In fact, I stayed up all night to be there when Target opened the next day to buy the remaining six after buying the first two the night before at 9pm.

In the moment, I was addicted. Over the next week, I learned the trials and tribulations of ripping and flipping. I ended up making my money back only cause I struck when the market was at its peak. If I were to try and sell the cards I sold now, less than four months later, I would’ve likely lost half my money.

For my spoils, I pulled and kept the best two Justin Herbert, a QB I covered while attending Oregon, as early as when he was a senior in HS, and once said “he’d be a good QB for Montana probably”, cards I’ve gotten in 2020.

As of New Years Eve 2020, one of these cards, ungraded, sells for $200. Had I graded them with PSA and they come back as PSA 10s, I’d be looking at two cards worth $500–1000 a piece. Had I sat on the boxes, instead of opening them, and sold them sealed, I’d be looking at turning $320 into $900.

Do I see these cards as easily the most valuable in my collection, let alone $1000–2000? Do I see those boxes worth nearly 3x their retail price?

No.

That’s why I’m out. There’s a lot of people still blinded by these figures and I had my fill. I don’t need someone to tell me the value of my cards. I can do that myself.

2018 Topps Update Jacob Nottingham RC:

As I grew wary of opening product, I’ve learned to shift my priorities to buying singles of cards that mean something to me personally as that gives me more joy than pulling a 2020 Heritage Mike Trout /999 & /571 chrome card ever would (sorry Trout).

In the same vein as my prior two cards, 2020 should be a year of reflection and understanding what really matters. We let certain things fall by the wayside over the years and ultimately, it’s important to realize when it’s not too late and when you’ve only got a limited time to experience something. Every desired action has an opposite reaction you must be willing to cause.

I’ve never been the person to buy food at a sit-down restaurant or pay for delivery. There’s at least a few items in my wardrobe that I’ve had since high school, 10+ years, simply because my body hasn’t drastically changed and I’ve kept them in good condition. I do feel weird admitting that I buy sports cards to people not interested in the hobby but I keep reminding myself that we each perceive value differently.

I found a local card shop that had boxes upon boxes of $0.50 cards (which were always reduced upon the final sale price) and found myself coaming through them for 12+ hours and experiencing more joy than I had hunting for retail product. That experience was something 99.9% of people wouldn’t find enjoyable and that’s alright. In the same way I don’t expect people to understand my other interests, I shouldn’t be offended if people kind that tedious interest perplexing.

On the final day of the regular season, in a tight-knit race, I won my first-ever rotisserie league title by 0.5 points thanks to Jacob Nottingham’s 9th-inning RBI in the final regular season game for the Brewers. I picked him up in the final week of the season to fill in for Francisco Mejia who I finally sent to my DL after I rode his injury for weeks so a bad catcher wouldn’t hurt my BA. It was the league my Dad has been apart for as long as I can remember and, when the world stopped in March, I was this close to leaving the league altogether because of strain and anxiety from the impending lockdown.

I bought this card from one of those boxes for $0.25, among many other finds that I could easily flip and make 5–10x the money I put it. This card, in particular, is in fact worth no more than $0.25. He’s a journeyman player who may very well be on the downward slope of his professional career in baseball. I couldn’t be happier.

2019 Heritage Minor Leagues Nick Madrigal Boxtopper Auto /25:

At the end of 2019, I was at the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego looking for a job.

I had been doing freelance graphic design work for just under two years but was looking for something far more stable. I got one interview request while at the meetings and was otherwise went 0-for-however many resumes I submitted. I’d even declined another job offer before the BWM as I didn’t feel comfortable working for the particular team after my interview with them and I wanted to bet on myself.

I felt a lot of emotions during the holiday season that I didn’t want to feel.

Come January, I got the call. I landed with a team I couldn’t be happier with. I packed up and drove across the country in a U-Haul with my Dad (Wyoming > Nebraska surprisingly).

A month and a half into my new job, COVID shutdowns began flying in and I was effected shortly thereafter. I’m thankful that my team has kept me on during these trying times in MiLB. It certainly wasn’t the first year on the job I expected. I’m trying to look forward to 2021 and the oddities it will most certainly produce.

I’m glad I betted on myself and can’t wait to root for and support players betting on themselves like Nick Madrigal (even though he’s sadly an Oregon State alum) in 2021.

2020 Topps Factory Set Gavin Lux Foilboard /264:

For sometime, the interests of my Father and I have grown apart but one thing we’ve always had was baseball. He took me to games growing up. I learned what a hot dog was at a Dodgers game. He took me to the aforementioned rotisserie league’s draft when I was little.

Getting back into the game with my new job, and looking for a way to keep connected with him on opposite sides of the country, we’ve opened product on FaceTime over the year to enjoy the hobby together and stay connected. It certainly isn’t the most ideal situation but, as many people estranged from their loved ones during 2020, I’m happy it exists nonetheless.

He’s been able to visit me, along with my mom, twice since moving out here. The last time I saw him in-person was when the 2020 Topps Factory sets were released in September. We were chasing the Gold Star parallel boxes, which are 1-in-3 boxes, and ended up going 2/2.

I was meant to go home for Christmas and spend New Years Day back in Yakima but increasing COVID cases got in the way. The last product we opened together, in-person, was his 2020 Topps Factory set where he pulled Gavin Lux, the most sought after rookie card from his favorite team, in his exclusive 4-card foil board parallel pack. Out of the 700 players he could’ve gotten, he got was the most valuable card he could’ve gotten for himself.

He asked me to hold onto it; surmising that I’d be able to take better care of it for him. I will.