🏈5 Ways Fantasy Football Helps Card Collectors

Fantasy players and card collectors aren't so different after all -- we share a handful of ways one can help the other!

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!

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🏈 ⚾ ⚾MARRYING FANTASY FOOTBALL & CARD COLLECTING

Over the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Fantasy Football drafts will be happening, as owners/GMs try to outwit their opponents.

I’ve been a sports card collector for longer than I’ve played Fantasy Sports, but I have always said that Fantasy players are who they are because they were likely once card collectors. In Fantasy, owners are “collecting” players for their teams. Both hobbies give someone a chance to prove they know a little bit more than the other people in their space. They’re trying to get players who produce higher than their original investment (whether that investment is money for cards or Fantasy draft picks).

For some reason, every pack of cards I open lately is like drafting kickers and defenses in the early rounds of Fantasy drafts.

Think about how we often take part in Fantasy exercises as card collectors!

• We “draft” which packs/boxes we want to buy!

• We root for the best players we end up pulling/picking because we benefit from their success!

• We trade cards/players and hope the ones we get back bring us more value!

Both hobbies have increased in popularity in the past decade, with Fantasy Sports getting a huge increase from Daily Fantasy Sports (which I believe leans more toward gambling than it does Fantasy) and the card collecting boom during the pandemic.

Marrying Fantasy & Cards the Right Way!

While Fantasy Football is by far the king of fantasy, I thought we’d turn this discussion more toward the granddaddy of Fantasy Sports – Fantasy Baseball.

What I can’t figure out is how card manufacturers haven’t paired up with a decent Fantasy league service to create a great Fantasy game that works with cards. (I think Fanatics eventually figures this out, by the way). I know SoRare is a fantasy game that involves digital cards, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Imagine Fanatics Live doing a 2025 Topps Series 1 Baseball hobby box break with 12 participants, who get two packs each. Each participant’s team is based on the cards they receive. If duplicate cards are pulled, then the first person who got that player’s card gets that player. Numbered cards, parallels and autographs trump any cards of that same player already pulled. Plus, those special cards get double Fantasy points each week.

After the box break, Fantasy teams take part in a Fantasy draft to fill out their roster. Then the same league takes part in a Topps Series 2 break in early June for the rest of the season! The two leagues run concurrently, and the combined finish by your team is the final ranking!

OK, it got a little confusing at the end, but still – there’s something there!

The Other Way Around

Let’s switch it up – and say MLB runs a Fantasy league service (like they used to, through CBS), and whichever team drafts the Fantasy MVP that year gets an autographed Topps card of that player. Maybe whichever team drafts the Fantasy Rookie of the Year gets an auto or just a special Fantasy ROY embossed card sent to him, with some other cool swag.

Marrying the two hobbies can be done in an awesome way, but one of the problems is – which one will do the other side justice? In other words, if a card manufacturer runs a Fantasy service, it’s going to be horrible. If a Fantasy service runs it, the cards won’t be any good.

I think we need Fanatics to buy up all the Fantasy services now. What do you think?

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Before we get too deep, I want to let everyone know about another great giveaway we’re doing on the YouTube channel! This is for a free graded card case from OnlyGreats.com! Check these cases out, which are perfect for taking cards to trade night, bringing cards to a show, or just protecting and storing all your great slabs from PSA, SGC, CGC, Beckett and more!

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🏈 5 WAYS FANTASY FOOTBALL HELPS CARD COLLECTORS

Since both Fantasy and Card Collecting hobbies are cousins, I feel there are several ways one can help the other. Since collecting cards is usually a long-term play, as you hold on to cards for years or decades in many cases, I believe Fantasy helps cards more than the other way around.