Blimey! A Card Collector’s Story From Across the Pond!
Our guest columnist from the United Kingdom shares how he came to love a mostly American hobby, despite the lack of baseball cards -- or baseball -- in his country.
Each Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter For Collectors has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets!
This Week’s Newsletter Highlights!
⚾🏈🏀 BLIMEY! A CARD COLLECTOR’S STORY FROM ACROSS THE POND!
⚾ PATRICK’S PRIME PROSPECT PICKS!
🏈🏀⚾ SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
⚾ THE GRIFFEY GRAND SLAM GIVEAWAY!
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.
⚾🏈🏀 BLIMEY! A CARD COLLECTOR’S STORY FROM ACROSS THE POND!
A few weeks ago, I found out that one of the winners from our Sports Card Trivia questions was a fella named Lewis, who lived across the Atlantic Ocean in England. That made sending a free 1979 Topps Willie Stargell card a little trickier on my end, so I asked him to tell us his card-collecting story! We’re going to be spotlighting different Happy Hobbyists every couple weeks. Here it is – please join me in reading this in the voice of Pierce Brosnan.
I grew up in a fairly rural area, best known for its cider production and Hereford cows. Despite living in the country, as children, we still had all the pop cultural influences that the major cities such as London, Birmingham and Manchester had. School playgrounds in the ‘90s were full of Yo-Yo’s, Tamagotchi and Beanie Babies, which all left the schoolgrounds pretty quickly. But football (soccer) stickers were always a hot commodity!
It’s “Sticky” To Rock a Rhyme!
It seemed like such a long wait for the weekend when you would get your pocket money and could go to the local corner shop and pick up a couple of packs of Merlin Premier League stickers. The excitement of opening a pack and finding a player such as David Beckham was only topped by pulling a shiny. [Editor’s Note: My guess is he’s referring to a Chrome card or maybe foil? I’m going to try to start using “a shiny!” in my videos going forward. Please help me remember this!]
A whole new currency seemed to run the playground. We would trade stickers most mornings before school in a fruitless endeavor to complete our sticker albums. After a few years of trying to do this, it was apparent I wasn’t going to succeed. Particularly as my financial backer was my dad and saw no fiscal gains from this pursuit.
In my mid- to late-20s, when visiting my sister, I was reintroduced to cards. My two sports-obsessed nephews were playing with some new cards. Unlike the stickers I had collected as a child, these Topps Match Attax soccer cards were full of stats. I believe the premise of the game was similar to Top Trumps [Editor’s Note: My guess that Top Trumps was a Topps series of cards based on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice show was incorrect.]
From then on, every time I visited, I would take a couple of packets for my nephews to open. It was great to see their excitement opening a pack in the hunt for a Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland.
There was a new high commodity in the school grounds!
Baseball, Bangers and Mash!
Getting into baseball happened by chance. Having just bought a new iMac for the house, I had a free trial for Apple TV+. From here I seemed to get locked into a subscription service.
While football (soccer) never really enthralled me, I do love sports. I like to watch rugby, triathlon, Le Tour de France and the Olympics when they are on. In fact, my better half says I’ll watch any live sport on TV -- except soccer.
One day, I was flicking through Apple TV when I saw an ad for Friday Night Baseball. What was this doing on a U.K. TV screen? The only American sports we got to see were Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and the annual Americana of the Super Bowl, where the main interest was on the halftime show.
What do I know about baseball? I know A-Rod, as my girlfriend said he dated Jennifer Lopez. I knew Darryl Strawberry from The Simpsons, and maybe I’d heard of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in a pub quiz. Am I really going to enjoy watching a sport I know nothing about and most people from the U.K. (sorry, people from the U.S.) thinks is glorified rounders, a game played by schoolchildren?
[Editor’s Note: In the fifth grade, I had a British teacher, and he taught us “rounders,” which is similar to baseball, but you use a mini-bat (like a giveaway you’d get at the ballpark), a smaller ball, no gloves and the fourth base was in a different location as the original batter’s box area. They broke the diamond!]
After watching a few baseball games on Apple TV, I started to get into this sport, so much so I decided to subscribe to MLB.tv!
As long as I covered up the scores with my hand, I could pick any game and treat it as though it was live. This seemed a great way to flit away my time in the tail end of COVID-19 lockdowns. This new obsession kindled a thought in my head -- aren’t baseball cards a thing!?! I thought this would be a cool way for me to learn a bit more about the players and feed the collecting bug in me!
What To Buy and Collect!?!
I had a bit of research to do, though, as there were many choices: From Bowman to Topps Now, from Topps Chrome to Allen & Ginter. I finally decided that the Topps Living Set was for me. It had a historical design I liked with artist drawings of the players, and each player only gets one card… ever! That is, unless they get traded to a different team. This series never stops and I’m still trying to pick up older cards to complete the current checklist.
Shipping Can Be Difficult!
Living in a country where football (soccer) is the predominant sport and the only bit of baseball you see is an “NYY” on someone’s cap was going to be difficult. Obviously, I could buy directly from Topps. However, the Topps Living Set has its own problems.
The UK website only sold soccer, UFC, F1 and cricket cards. I had to venture onto the U.S. website where shipping costs are a minimum of $15, so I had to group my items together to save on shipping. The problem was the Topps Living Set are only on sale for one week before being retired, making room on the site for the next week’s cards.
I’d often set an alarm to remind me of the one-hour crossover between different week’s cards, so I could save a bit of cash. Being an Electric Linesman, I’d often miss this crossover time while fixing power lines.
Where else could I get cards that I missed? I searched for card shows, but they all seem to be TCG focused. There might be a sports card stall in the corner, but it’s usually filled with soccer cards. This meant I had to venture onto eBay.
eBay, You Bay, We All Buy From eBay!
While eBay is a great place to find baseball cards, it does come with a rather large list of problems. Most cards I purchase on eBay are from the U.S. I purchased a few cards from Belgium and Spain, but the postage is still expensive from those countries, too.
What’s my next option then? Bulk orders! I would fill my cart with 10-15 cards to only see the shipping was $150-200. Some sellers refused to do combined shipping, while others wouldn’t respond, or they’d just turn off international sales.
Even when I end up buying a card, I’d have issues. The seller sent me the wrong card at a lower value, once, and another time, a graded card arrived damaged in transit. Both times, the sellers wouldn’t respond to messages. Thankfully, eBay issued refunds on those occasions.
The time difference is another major problem with purchasing from America. I sometimes have to get my final bids on a card at around 2am. I set an alarm on my wristwatch, so as not to wake my partner. If I didn’t sleep through the alarm, I’d sit in my dark bedroom, illuminated by an iPhone screen.
Will my bid win or will someone swipe it away from me in the dying seconds. Should I increase my maximum bid, trying to convert U.S .Dollars into Pounds Sterling in my sleepy head? Is this going to cost me a fortune with duty tax and postage? Finally, when the auction is over, it’s tough to get back to sleep with the buzz of winning or disappointment of losing in my head!
Even after I win a card, the waiting game becomes painful! The long shipping times to a different continent takes forever. Plus, I worry the card could get lost or damaged in transit. (Please use card protectors and not just a white envelope!)
What are my other options? I heard of Whatnot, but have done very little research into it. I am starting to look at online card shops based in the U.S.
I went to the MLB London Series in 2023 (Cardinals vs. Cubs) and 2024 (Mets vs. Phillies). However, people with cards here were mainly autograph hunters.
A trip to the United States might just be in order, so I can visit a card shop!
Lewis! Thank you so much for writing this up, allowing us Yanks an opportunity to see things from a completely different perspective! With Fanatics opening up a flagship store in London, it sounds like you are on the cutting edge in Europe, getting ahead of everyone else that’s about to jump into American sports card collecting! We look forward to updates on your collection!
PATRICK’S PROSPECT PICKS
Patrick Imhoff shares some of his favorite baseball prospects to pick up every few weeks!
Bowman 1st prospect cards are always a hot ticket. With that comes high prices for the so-called top prospects. In this corner, the goal is to highlight a prospect with tons of potential who doesn’t come with a high price. In this edition, we are highlighting Athletics 2B/SS/3B Max Muncy.
Muncy may be only the No. 8 prospect (per MLB Pipeline) in the Athletics organization, however, there is a lot to like about him. Muncy was a first-round pick in 2021 and will look to start the season either with the Athletics or at the Triple-A location playing shortstop. His defense and arm are solid enough to keep him at SS, however, his ticket to the majors may be playing 2B or 3B due to the presence of the A’s No. 1 prospect Jacob Wilson. At the plate, Muncy put up decent numbers last year in Triple-A, hitting .276 with 8 HRs and 33 RBI over 50 games. If not for an injury, he may have gotten the call up ahead of Wilson.
What I like most about Muncy is the price of his cards on eBay. For less than $10, you can find multiple options of his 2022 Bowman Chrome 1st Refractor BCP-89, many of which will be numbered. I recently made an offer of $8 (with free shipping) and grabbed his pink refractor numbered /199. Now is a great time to take a flyer on Muncy and grab an inexpensive card for a future MLBer.
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
Send me the answer to this question – you could win this free card from me! -- 2019 Topps Living Mike Trout #200
Which Topps Living card is believed to have had the largest production run ever, nearly 50%s more than the second-place card?
Email your answer to gonoscards@gmail.com and you can win this 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, Feb. 7. The winner will be announced in the Feb. 13 newsletter.
Our last two winners were Adam Smith (Won: 1970 Kellogg’s Joe Morgan 3-D #72) and Ryan Hennesy (Won: 2008 Topps Mickey Mantle #7), as they both were pulled among the correct answerers. Unfortunately, I asked the same question in back-to-back weeks, so we had two winners! Question: In what year did Topps first produce a subset of cards for The Sporting News Star Rookies? Answer: 1959
🏀⚾🏈 THE GRIFFEY GRAND SLAM GIVEAWAY!
We hit 5,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, so we’re giving away FOUR SLABS to ONE PERSON! Not just any four slabs, but four rookie cards of one of the most collectable baseball players ever: Ken Griffey Jr.
1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. #1 - PSA 8
1989 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr.#33 - PSA 9
1989 Fleer Ken Griffey Jr. #548 - PSA 9
1989 Topps Traded Ken Griffey Jr. #41T - PSA 9
Watch this video to know how to be eligible for this giveaway!
Coming Next Week!
⚾🏈🏀 COLLECTING FUTURE HALL-OF-FAMERS NOW!
🏈⚾🏀 SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
⚾🏈🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY!
***Important Card-Collecting Articles on DavidGonos.com***
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Email me: mailto:gonoscards@gmail.com
Have a #HappyHobby!
Podcast Music: "I dunno" by grapes - 2008 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
Great read this week. I will no longer complain about lack of stock on the shelves here in the states. Also, just a shout out to you David. It is cool how you give us the readers a voice to share our collective stories, you don’t see this very often