9 Great Gifts Under $99 For Card Collectors!
Shopping for sports card collectors can be tough -- unless you fo
Each “Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter” pack has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets – like me!
This Week’s Newsletter Highlights! –
⚾ 9 GREAT GIFTS UNDER $99 FOR CARD COLLECTORS!
⚾ TOPPS ALL-TIME ALL -COLLECTABLE ALL-STAR TEAM!
⚾ SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
🏀 🏈 ⚾ IF PATRICK IMHOFF BECAME CEO OF FANATICS
As a member of the eBay Partner Network and an Amazon Associate I earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Here’s a link to my Amazon storefront where I link to all my favorite card-collecting supplies. Thank you for supporting our affiliations by making purchases through us! Also, all sports card images come courtesy of BuySportsCards.com.
⚾ 9 GREAT GIFTS UNDER $99 FOR CARD COLLECTORS!
We all know it’s difficult to buy gifts for collectors of any sort, much less buying gifts for sports card collectors! Are we paying too much? Do they already have this? Do they even want it? Here’s two handfuls of awesome gifts for baseball card collectors, as well as any other type of card collector!
1. 2024 Topps Gold Paul Skenes Rookie Card #US100 # /2024
Skenes is the hottest rookie card of the year, breaking some rookie pitching records and bringing home the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year trophy. (Note: You want #US100, not his Rookie Debut #US288.) View prices on eBay (approx. $99)
2. Graded 2nd-Year Card of a Vintage Hall-of-Famer
Getting a rookie card of a vintage super star is awesome, but it’s super expensive, too. How about a second-year card of one of the greatest hitters of all-time, whose jersey number is retired by three teams, with a statue in three different MLB ballparks? 1958 Topps Frank Robinson #285 PSA 5 – View prices on eBay! (approx. $99)
3. Best-Looking Wall Display Ever: 36 Cards
I love these so much – I bought three of them off Amazon… one after another… in three separate purchases. $62.95 with 2-Day Free Shipping on Amazon Prime
Leftover Money? 200-ct Ultra-Pro Toploaders and Penny Sleeves $32.99 on Amazon
4. Graded Card of an All-Time Great!
There are about 10 players considered among the all-time greats from the second-half of the 20th century, and Ernie Banks (Mr. Cub!) certainly ranks among them. View prices on eBay! (approx. $99)
5. Beautiful Card of All-Time Hit King! 1970 Topps Pete Rose All-Star SGC 7
I’m a huge fan of The Sporting News All-Star cards from 50-plus years ago, and this is one of the best looking cards, of one of the greatest baseball players ever. (We both know he’s going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame soon, now that he has passed.) View prices on eBay! (approx. $99)
6. 2023 Topps Anthony Volpe Autographed Rookie Card
Volpe is one of the most celebrated young Yankees stars in the game, playing the most important position for the Bronx Bombers. He has several different autographed cards in different Topps products you can choose from, including Topps Archives, Topps Allen & Ginter and Topps flagship. View prices on eBay (approx. $99)
7. Graded Rookie Card of a Future Hall-of-Famer
Bryce Harper ranks among the top sluggers trending toward earning a spot in Cooperstown, and he has several Topps rookie cards to choose from. My preference? Harper’s 2012 Topps Update card #US183. View prices on eBay (approx. $80)
8. Unopened Wax Packs From Early ‘80s
Buy some old packs of cards from 1983, 1984 and 1985 and give your friend a chance at pulling rookie cards of players like Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, Darryl Strawberry, Don Mattingly, Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Orel Hershiser and Mark McGwire! Prices vary on different packs, but try to find sellers with feedback that’s 99% or above. View on eBay!
9. Five (5) Hanger Boxes of 2024 Topps Update
We all know that Topps Update is the best series in 2024, with fantastic rookie cards of players like Skenes, Jackson Holliday, Jackson Merrill, Jackson Chourio and Wyatt Langford, not to mention the Rookie Debut cards of all the other great rookies from Series 1 and Series 2. But the Hangers seem to have the best chances per dollar of pulling awesome cards, so load up on five off these on eBay for about $99!
You can check out all my other great gift ideas for card collectors here, but they’re not all under $99 like the ones above.
⚾ TOPPS ALL-TIME ALL -COLLECTABLE ALL-STAR TEAM!
Last week, I reflected on the awesomeness of the 1976 Topps All-Time All-Star Team subset within the 1976 Topps Baseball set. I thought, with the 2026 Topps Series 1 release just about 15 months away, we can assume Topps/Fanatics is going to have some awesome celebration of MLB’s 150th anniversary, much like they did about 50 years ago.
I changed it up a little, and instead of making it just an All-Time All-Star team, I’m going with the “All-Collectable” team, which celebrates their cards as much as their achievements!
Who Would Make the New Topps All-Time All-Collectable All-Star Team?
I’m limiting this team to just those who played in the eras in which Bowman or Topps produced baseball cards. Here’s my guess – I want to read yours in the comments!
Catcher: Yogi Berra – Johnny Bench lovers can feel free to argue, but Yogi has the charm, the stats and the Yankees logo to lock in this spot easily.
First Base: Albert Pujols – McGwire would’ve owned this category, if not for… ya know.
Second Base: Jackie Robinson – Easiest pick on the list.
Shortstop: Cal Ripken Jr. – His rookie card was one of the biggest early junk-wax chase cards for sure.
Third Base: Brooks Robinson – Tough to go against Mike Schmidt here, but I feel like Brooks’ vintage-ness gets the bump.
Outfield: Mickey Mantle – Heard of him?
Outfield: Willie Mays – Best player to collect not named “Mickey”!
Outfield: Ken Griffey Jr. – Had to choose between The Kid and Rickey Henderson here, but had to go with the man whose rookie cards by four different manufacturers (Donruss, Fleer, Topps and Upper Deck) rank among the top eight cards graded by PSA alone. He has HALF of the eight most graded cards.
Designated Hitter: Hank Aaron – He slides into our DH spot (which he did with Milwaukee late in his career), so we can have three awesome center fielders in our outfield spots.
Starting Pitcher RHP: Nolan Ryan – He is the most collectable pitcher from any Topps products!
Starting Pitcher LHP: Sandy Koufax – Three Cy Young awards, retired at 30 years old and ended up being the youngest player ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame!
Relief Pitcher: Mariano Rivera – Even the greatest reliever ever still isn’t really that collectable, mostly due to when he arrived on the scene.
Barely missed the list: Barry Bonds, Roberto Clemente, Rickey Henderson, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson, Mike Trout and Ted Williams. Who do you disagree with?
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
Send me the answer to this question – you could win this free card from me! 1977 Kellogg’s 3-D Super Stars Pete Rose!
Both Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks have just one base card issued from Bowman in the ‘50s – what year was it?
You MUST be a subscriber to win. Email your answer to gonoscards@gmail.com and you can win this 1977 Kellogg’s 3-D Super Stars Pete Rose card! Rather than take the first person who answers it right, I’m going to do a random drawing of all the people who answer this question before midnight, Friday, Dec. 20. Winner will be announced in Dec. 26 newsletter.
Question from Nov. 28: Who were the two players Topps has chosen to be Card No. 1 the most in their flagship sets (tied for five times)? Answer: Hank Aaron (1963, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76) and Alex Rodriguez (2003, ’05, ’06, ’08, ’09) have each appeared a record five times on card No. 1. Nolan Ryan (1970, ’90, ’91, ’92) has earned four No. 1 cards. Ted Williams (1954, ’57, ’58) and, most recently, Mike Trout (2014, ’16, ’20) have three appearances each. – Winner: Paul Bonfanti! Congrats, Paul! You won the 2021 Topps Update Mike Schmidt card!
Read the Question from Dec. 5: Answer before midnight, Friday, Dec. 13. Prize: 2022 Throwback Thursday Mark McGwire Incredible Hulk! Winner will be announced Dec. 19.
🏈 ⚾ 🏀IF PATRICK IMHOFF BECAME CEO OF FANATICS: #21 of 23
Imhoff breaks down all the moves Fanatics should make, just two years away from when they unify the baseball, football and basketball card licenses in 2026. He shared his first move in our June 20 newsletter, and he’ll continue to share more of these going forward.
No. 21 – BRAND CROSSOVER
As CEO of Fanatics, I would network with my buddy, the Upper Deck CEO. I would propose that we make cards for each other to be used as inserts. For example, use a new/updated version of the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card and add it to the Topps Update product line.
Strike a deal to use the Young Guns logo from hockey cards and make some Young Guns rookie cards for baseball and basketball players (shout out to David Gonos as this was originally his idea, not mine). Conversely, send Upper Deck product of retro Topps rookie cards and inserts. This would be great for the industry to work together and share favorites of collectors.
[Editor’s Note: Yesss! [fist pump!]]
You can subscribe to Patrick Imhoff’s Substack Newsletter here.
Coming Next Week!
⚾🏈🏀 REINTRODUCING “HAPPY HOBBY SPORTS CARDS” – What’s New?
🏈⚾🏀 SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
🏀🏈⚾ IF PATRICK IMHOFF BECAME CEO OF FANATICS
⚾🏈🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY!
***Important Card-Collecting Articles on DavidGonos.com***
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Have a #HappyHobby!
Podcast Music: "I dunno" by grapes - 2008 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
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Love the team. Any thought on Jeter over Cal? I like both but I could have seen that going the other way. Really dig the shopping list too, I am now confident an Ernie Banks card and Robinson card will end up on my watch list, thanks for that.
Really nice list of gift suggestions, I would happily receive any of them. Maybe I’ll bring the ole newsletter up on the wife’s phone and just subtly leave it there, ha.
I still love the idea of Topps having Young Guns, wish that could work.
I think you nailed the All-Collectable Team. The only two I could see a little pushback are maybe for Schmidt and Trout, but I woulda given very slight edge to Brooks also, and as far as Trout, who you gonna leave off if you let him on the team?
Well done, as always. Thanks!