ITT, a snuff video for game jersey collectors (NSFW?)

[hockeyjerseyssuck]

Found that on youtube. Thought of you guys. How does this make you feel? Not for the faint of heart.

[furiousd]

I've never understood why a scrap of chopped up jersey has any collectible value whatsoever. Do the same thing to toys, coins, stamps, furniture, art, whatever, and you've ruined it. I wouldn't pay a nickel for one of those cards.

[AngeloS76]

I don't think that Panini would cut jerseys into little rectangles if there weren't card collectors out there willing to spend $15-20 per pack for those "specialty" cards. Supply and demand, I guess. Maybe the best way to deter this kind of thing is to snatch up all the rare gamers and hide them.

And at least nowadays, teams issue multiple sets for home and road per season, so modern gamers aren't nearly as rare, and it might not be so damaging to the game-worn hobby to lose one to the card companies.

[hockeyjerseyssuck]

I've never understood why a scrap of chopped up jersey has any collectible value whatsoever. Do the same thing to toys, coins, stamps, furniture, art, whatever, and you've ruined it. I wouldn't pay a nickel for one of those cards.

Jersey cards generally don't have a lot of value. Card companies have whored out every gimmick. The only thing with real staying power are rookie cards because they can't create them after a rookie year is over, and they even do their best to ###### those out by having so many sets.

There are a lot of factors. But for example, I could buy a UD Karlsson jersey card for a buck, maybe two bucks.

People collect things, regardless of what they are, because us humans are insane. I am pretty sure that is how they describe collecting in the DSM IV or whatever it is. With cards, they become more desirable based on how limited they are. This is how many they are numbered out of. A jersey card that isn't numbered is basically an expensive base card. Then it matters how aesthetic the card is called. Meaning, no one gives a s*** about a one coloured piece of jersey, but people go crazy for nice looking pieces of patches. If you look at UD The Cup cards for example, the /249 rookie cards can vary wildly in how much the sell based on the quality of the patch in each specific card. They also gain collectibility based on the name value of the set.

I don't really have a problem with game jerseys being cut up, but I do find it crazy that teams or leagues let historically relevant jerseys get bought up in auction by card companies. Wasn't Babe Ruth's jersey the first big game used insert in baseball or something? How could the MLB let that happen. Not because I like jerseys, but because that is an artifact of the sport.

If someone wants to glue Mark Borowiecki's game jersey to a card, that's cool with me. There's no real lasting value to most game jerseys nowadays now that they've become a collectors item that people are actively trying to preserve and that the league are making less abundant by providing multiple sets per season or sometimes per game.

Edited April 28, 2016 by hockeyjerseyssuck

[hockeyjerseyssuck]

I've never understood why a scrap of chopped up jersey has any collectible value whatsoever. Do the same thing to toys, coins, stamps, furniture, art, whatever, and you've ruined it. I wouldn't pay a nickel for one of those cards.

They used to have value mainly because they were very hard to pull and admittedly, if you're a kid collecting cards, getting a piece of (Insert late 90s NHL stars name here) was a really cool concept.

They started using "event worn" jerseys, and made them really abundant. There are even some UD cards that feature pieces of jersey designs that a player never wore (pre-edge Senators red on a pageau card for example.)

The ones being cut up in a video were for a more higher end set. The value comes in the aesthetic of the card, and how limited the set is. Regarding your toy or coin analogy, I think one way to explain it to make it make sense is that the people buying those cards are card collectors, not jersey collects. They buy cards purely based on the aesthetic/price and exclusiveness of the product. Jersey pieces are just something used to compliment this and give them more different types of inserts to get people excited about.

I think there's going to come a day when they cut up pieces of rare cards to put in card sets. That's like the natural progression there. A 1/9 Wayne Gretzky card with a piece of a high graded Gretzky rookie.....I'm actually kind of surprised that hasn't happened yet.

[furiousd]

The value comes in the aesthetic of the card, and how limited the set is. Regarding your toy or coin analogy, I think one way to explain it to make it make sense is that the people buying those cards are card collectors, not jersey collects. They buy cards purely based on the aesthetic/price and exclusiveness of the product. Jersey pieces are just something used to compliment this and give them more different types of inserts to get people excited about.

That's a good way to put it. (And that humans are insane. Also a good point.) I just can't see the sense in the argument that a jersey card derives its value from the scarcity/desirability of the jersey used to create it, but the creation of the card is only possible through the destruction of the jersey.

Aside from religious relics, which is a different brand of craziness, I can't think of any collectible where the value survives the destruction of the object. I'm sure there's something I'm not thinking of.

[mfitz804]

I think there's going to come a day when they cut up pieces of rare cards to put in card sets. That's like the natural progression there. A 1/9 Wayne Gretzky card with a piece of a high graded Gretzky rookie.....I'm actually kind of surprised that hasn't happened yet.

Put a plastic pouch on the shoulder of every game jersey, cut up the jersey cards, insert into pouch, at random. That's a double game worn! Everyone will love getting a Crosby gamer with an Oveckin swatch!

Or, if we are going to destroy vintage gamers, just throw them on other players first. How about a Crosby worn Gretzky worn scrap card? Or an Ovi worn with a Crosby worn Gretzky worn swatch in its pouch?

Endless possibilities, confusion, and ultimately, stupidity.

[AlereFlammam]

Wasn't Steiner trying to sell a stralman Rangers gamer for like $600 and when it didn't sell they pulled it cut it into 300 cards and charged $20 per card or something?

That's jersey abuse.

[thebiggoalie]

Wasn't Steiner trying to sell a stralman Rangers gamer for like $600 and when it didn't sell they pulled it cut it into 300 cards and charged $20 per card or something?

That's jersey abuse.

Yes, and they still have more fully intact Stralman jerseys after that!

[mfitz804]

Now, take all the Stralman cards, see them into short form, and have him wear them in a game.

[Devilsguy]

I've commented plenty about these jersey cards but here is the quick way of what I have said over the past year(s):

1) I don't mind them cutting up modern jerseys. Players these days wear so many jerseys in the season that I really don't care if one more gets cut up.

2) I do have a problem with them cutting up milestone jerseys and vintage jerseys.

3) I do believe that at least 50% of the jersey cards that are listed as game worn and not event or photoshoot worn are either fake, or never worn by the player. Have any of you ever seen a swatch in any of these cards with any hint of wear on them? I know some of these might be 1-period or 1-game wonders but even those sometimes have wear. In my years of looking at these cards, I have never seen a single one with any sort of bit of wear. Hell the vintage ones they supposedly cut up should most definitely have wear on them, yet they look clean as could be.

4) Speaking of the above, the famous video of Panini cutting up a Lemieux Penguins 91-92 3-patched jersey has been questioned many times over the years whether the jersey is real or not. Just the quick shots of it, the jersey does look questionable.

5) Speaking of the above 2, the "LOA" that is often on the back of these cards saying that it was worn by the player offer little to absolutely no insight about the detail of the swatch. It basically says "this item in this card was worn by the player featured on the front." It's generic and basically saying "it's real because we say so." These card companies have put so much questionable and even proven fake stuff in the cards over the years that these LOA's are useless.

6) These cards are indeed often gateways into the game worn jersey hobby. Why spend $100-200 on a 1inx1in swatch when you can get the entire jersey for $300-600?

[TMLFAN]

I always get a good chuckle out of the people that spend $500+ on one of those shield cards (card has the whole NHL shield patch on the card) when they can get that players whole game used jersey for less.

[Devilsguy]

I always get a good chuckle out of the people that spend $500+ on one of those shield cards (card has the whole NHL shield patch on the card) when they can get that players whole game used jersey for less.

Agreed.

I also forgot to mention that a lot of the people who dump series $ into the jersey cards probably just don't know better. They are probably unaware that you could get the entire game worn jersey for the same price and sometimes cheaper.

There are also some people who are a little weird with their money as well (which I guess is their right). They will buy in a year about 5-6 of these $200 jersey cards but when I tell them that instead with that same money they can buy 1 or 2 entire game worn jerseys for the same money in a year, they look at me and say to them it's just cheaper to get the cards since they are only spending $200ish at a time. Whatever floats their boat.

[mfitz804]

Also, some people might collect cards but not be interested in collecting entire jerseys.

[hockeyjerseyssuck]

Also, some people might collect cards but not be interested in collecting entire jerseys.

This is a point a lot of people are missing in this thread. If jersey cards didn't exist, it isn't like people collecting would buy gamers to fill the void. They'd just buy other cards.

Jersey cards are also dirt cheap. There are a few examples like the NHL shield cards, the laundry tag cards (which is hilarious), or the fight strap or tie down cards which go for a lot. But that has more to do with aesthetic and collectability than whether it is a good value to pay a few hundred bucks for a piece of a 1000-2000 dollar jersey.

Your run of the mill jersey card is dirt cheap though. For 99 percent of players, if you don't care about the series the card comes from, you can find a jersey card for 1-5 dollars.

As far as wear goes, I've seen a few with wear. A lot of these are "Event worn" which means the player wore the jersey while taking a s*** in Upper Deck head quarters and handed it back to them 5 minutes later. So they wouldn't have wear. Although, I've seen wear on jersey cards, even on cheap UD series ones.

[Devilsguy]

This is a point a lot of people are missing in this thread. If jersey cards didn't exist, it isn't like people collecting would buy gamers to fill the void. They'd just buy other cards.

Jersey cards are also dirt cheap. There are a few examples like the NHL shield cards, the laundry tag cards (which is hilarious), or the fight strap or tie down cards which go for a lot. But that has more to do with aesthetic and collectability than whether it is a good value to pay a few hundred bucks for a piece of a 1000-2000 dollar jersey.

Your run of the mill jersey card is dirt cheap though. For 99 percent of players, if you don't care about the series the card comes from, you can find a jersey card for 1-5 dollars.

As far as wear goes, I've seen a few with wear. A lot of these are "Event worn" which means the player wore the jersey while taking a s*** in Upper Deck head quarters and handed it back to them 5 minutes later. So they wouldn't have wear. Although, I've seen wear on jersey cards, even on cheap UD series ones.

It's true that there are collectors who are strictly card collecting and don't care about collecting jerseys. That would explain a lot. However, I have heard plenty of card collectors who jumped ship to collecting jerseys because they didn't know that you could buy the entire game worn jersey or they think even scrub gamers are expensive (which is true in other leagues like the NBA where commons often start at $1000). I don't think it's a huge percentage, but a decent one for that group.

As for the cheap common jersey cards, are they even worth the $1-5? There is nothing to them except a piece of single colored cloth with an extremely generic "LOA" on the back. Hell there are plenty of cards where the player is shown wearing the jersey of his old team, but yet the swatch is of colors of a different team that player was later played for that don't match what he was wearing in the picture. People actually want that? I guess I just don't get it as I am not a card collector.

I do believe you when you say you have seen cards with wear on them, but if you see one please let me know. In my years of looking at them I have never seen 1, so I actually would like to see one. I would especially want to see one of the vintage ones where there is an actual hole or good repair on it.

[mfitz804]

Pretty obvious IMHO. The cards are collected by card collectors. They may or may not collect jerseys.

Also, just from a storage standpoint, you can fit 100 jersey cards in your hand, whereas a even thirty gamers will require their own closet or portion thereof. Might be a concern for some collectors who have limited storage space, so they decide to collect smaller things.