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KAYE’S COLLECTOR CORNER

By Mike Kaye

Non-Sports Cards Worth $50,000?! How Sporty!

When we speak of sports cards what often comes to mind is players like
“Michael Jordan” or “Mickey Mantle” prominently featured on a rectangular
piece of cardboard that contains sealed packs and bubble gum sticks. Those are
neat, but what about cards with no “real life” sports players featured on them,
cards with branded fictional characters, or role-playing adventures? I bring you
the world of non-sports cards. If you begin collecting non-sports cards there are different ways to collect.
I could ramble on by giving you the history of non-sports cards but that You can buy packs and open them to begin putting together sets or collect the
would be a long, grueling history lesson, so instead I will simply provide you sealed packs themselves. Other collectors buy entire boxes or cases and keep
with famous non-sports cards and non-sports cards sealed packs that could put them sealed. There are collectors that buy boxes to open because they are
some money in your pocket. trying to find the rare inserts, autographed cards or numbered special cards.
If you have read some of my previous Another angle is to seek out original card art
articles, you know that collectors are or pre-production card art.
looking for examples closest mint condition. My personal favorite non-sports card
With this I mean, original packaging, store series is Topps “Garbage Pail Kids”. I
price tags, or in the case of non-sports remember the days of buying packs for
cards, still sealed in the original packs, or under a dollar from gas station candy aisles.
ultimately a full box or case of sealed packs I recall during a trip to New York finding
from the original factory. That’s a lot of Garbage Pail 4th series cards, that had just
temptation for anyone to not have opened come out, selling for the .25 cent price that
these cards, to put together complete sets, was displayed on the packs. In Florida it
or attempt to find rare inserts or signed seemed, I never saw them being offered for
versions. the actual listed on the packs. What are they
Let’s start with a 1959 Fleer “The 3 worth today you ask? A full box of series 1
Stooges” collection of (13) unopened packs currently sells for $20,000!
with an empty original box that sold last Other non-sports cards being offered back
year for a whopping $52,800 and a complete in the 90s were “Looney Tunes”, “Beavis
set selling for just under $39,000 in Heritage and Butthead”, DC and Marvel brands.
Auctions. Next there’s a rare 1935 “R90 None of these held their values for long,
Mickey Mouse with the Movie Stars” especially compared to sports cards. I was
complete set of (24) cards worth $24,000! fortunate to find holofoils and prisms in
A similar complete set sold in 2010 for just south of $18,000 so holding the some of the packs from time to time. The peak on those individual cards would
set a little longer proved to be a decent investment. A 1956 Topps “Davy reach $10 - $20 per card which was still no comparison to a rare sports cards
Crockett” – orange cello box with 36 packs sold last year for $14,400. A sealed at the time. The old saying, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush holds
box of 1976 “Star Trek” went for $6,600 and even “Casper the Friendly Ghost” true too in my world. Sell while the iron is hot! Once attention wanes off the
reached $9,000 for a 1960 sealed box. These are some astronomical numbers cards so too does the temptation for others to pay a premium for your find.
considering most of these originally sold for pennies per pack! Perhaps selling it while you have an eager buyer is the best option, or not in the
When I first began my research, I would have put money on the “Beatles”. unpredictable world of non-sports collecting.
I was surprised to see a sealed 1964 O-Pee-Chee “Beatles” sealed box selling What some collectors do is go into their local retail store like a Walmart or
in the $4,000 range. A “Beatles Color Photos” sealed rack pack auctioned Target and pick out a current box of what’s trending, say, “Walking Dead” or
through Heritage Auctions last year had a final price of $900 and a sealed “Pokemon” as an example. It’s almost like a scratch off ticket because if you
single pack of 5-cent “Elvis” cards from 1956 Bubbles Inc. (Topps) had a final can find the signed card or limited edition insert inside, you can then toss it up
hammer price of $1,800! With returns like this, maybe it’s time to start taking on eBay and begin profiting while the item is hot and new. Typically, a long-
non-sports pack collecting serious. term hold on such a novelty may not be the smartest play. The 90s “DC Cosmic
cards” boxes I’d seen priced as high as $110, and the foil inserts fetching $20+
a card, sold for $5 a piece at a show.
The money in non-sports cards appears to lean toward sealed packs and
boxes. Vintage boxes can snag a pretty penny as opposed to opened packs
with completed sets. Case in point, a sealed 60s “Beatles” rack pack reaching
$1,300 at auction or a set of (5) sealed “Star Wars” wax packs from series
1-5 selling for $218. Some collector’s sell an assortment of (10) or (20)
different themed packs in one group lot. A recent example of this was a pack
assortment spanning the 1960s-80s that included “Hulk”, “He-Man Masters
of the Universe”, “Welcome Back Kotter”, “Goonies”, “Charlie’s Angels” and
various others catching a final bid of $225. Opening those packs and selling the
card stack is highly doubtful to have captured that kind of return.
I hope I’ve given you something to chew on and no, I’m not referring to the
decades old bubble gum you’ll find in most of these vintage wax packs.

Collector K would like to hear what you have to say, today, so email away and have a nice day.
Email: kpeople@hotmail.com