Todays Portfolio Recommendation

Hint....it's an NFL Quarterback. If you said Tom Brady, you'd be wrong. :-)

For those of us old enough (like me) to remember the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty years we only have to think a second to come up with the name Terry Bradshaw who quarterbacked his team to four Super Bowls.

Bradshaw's 1971 Topps regular issue rookie card is very popular with football collectors. The supply is very low in high grades especially when you compare with the supply of rookie cards for modern day quarterbacks, like the aforementioned Mr. Brady. Since this is a desirable card, and the supply is low, the price reflects that with eBay prices (depending on grade) in the $300 range.

Bradshaw's only other 1971 card is another story all together. The 1971 Topps Game Bradshaw card, #43 in the set was an insert card. Most collectors do not recognize this card's scarcity. It is significantly harder to find this card than his regular issue 1971 card. These insert cards were found one per wax pack and there were 52 cards in the set. The card was NOT double printed so it is not as easy to find as some of the other cards in the set. It appeared in one of every sixty or so wax packs. Have a look:


Simply perform an eBay search and see for yourself that this card (in high grades) is in low supply. I would estimate that this card is roughly 80% scarcer than the 1971 regular issue.

There are fewer than 10 of these cards in existence that have been professionally graded as MINT. And there are NO professionally graded GEM MINT specimens. NM MINT....less than 50 cards exist. Clearly the supply of this card graded NM MINT or above is extremely low!

Most collectors simply do not realize that Terry Bradshaw has a rookie year insert card and so currently the demand for this card is low, as evidenced by the very affordable prices.

Ignoring the current price for a minute, here are a list of reasons why this card would make an affordable addition to your portfolio that is sure to increase in value:

• Football is as popular as any other team sport in America
• The 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers were among the best football teams of all time
• Terry Bradshaw was the quarterback and offensive leader of a four-time Super Bowl Champion
• Bradshaw is widely considered one of the top 10 quarterbacks of all time
• The 1971 Topps Game card is Bradshaw's only rookie year insert card
• Rookie year inserts of great players should be desirable additions to a collection

Above all, remember. Supply of this card is LOW. So when collectors catch on and demand increases, so will prices, along with the value of your portfolio. Do yourself a favor and pick one up now.

Terry Bradshaw Cards On eBay Now

Until next time......have fun!

To Grade Or Not To Grade...That is the Question

And the answer of course, is a resounding YES! I'm sure most of you knew that right? :-)

When dealing with an investment grade sports card portfolio, we will only be dealing in graded cards. There are several reasons for this. First of all, with the way business is done today on the internet, you will never have a chance to physically see, hold, examine many of the cards you buy for your portfolio, so buying graded cards gives the buyer peace of mind. He knows exactly what he is getting. There is no subjectivity involved....like when the seller advertises the card as NM NT-MINT and it arrives to you looking like its spent the last year in someones bicycle spokes.

Yes graded is the way to go, and even more so when dealing with vintage era cards.

Our hobby is not immune from unethical and downright criminal people, thus there are many counterfeit cards circulating. Fakes of Michael Jordan rookies, Wayne Gretzky rookies, etc are common. If you can't spot them, then you need to buy graded. If you're gonna shell out your hard earned dollars for a card like this one then you want to make sure you're getting the real deal!


Although there are many professional grading services on the market, I recommend dealing with the big two. Professional Sports Authentication ( PSA ) and Beckett Grading Services
( BGS/BVG ). These are the two most respected names in the business and if you choose cards graded by either of them you can't go wrong.

Until next time when I'll give you another nice card recommendation for your investment portfolio.

Happy collecting!

Frankie who??

Welcome back! I thought that today I would deviate from the dry analysis and give you a solid recommendation for a great baseball card for investment purposes.

How many of you out there recognize the name Frankie Frisch? Come on, lets see your hands. Some of you many know that HALL OF FAMER Frankie Frisch hit .316 for his career. He was the player-manager on the 1930's "Gashouse Gang", St. Louis Cardinals World Series Championship team. Educated collectors know that they should buy his early, rare and high-grade issues.

The supply of Frisch's cards while he was active in the 1920's and 1930's is low in any condition with the supply being especially low in high grades with less than 100 cards from this era in Near Mint or better condition.

It should also be noted that the supply of Frisch Nm Mint and better cards from the 1960's is also very low, with less than 50 existing from all the major grading companies combined. The two issues that I recommend that can still be picked up for a reasonable price are the 1961 Fleer and 1961 Golden Press issues.

Whether you know much about him or not, these are two cards that definitely have a great potential to appreciate in value over the years.

Click here to see Frankie Frisch on eBay

Why Do You Collect Cards?

Every collector needs to ask themselves that one fundamental question. Why do you collect? Is it to build a great collection that can one day be passed down to your children? Is it to collect all the cards of your favorite player(s)? Are you looking to flip hot cards to make a quick buck? Or, like me, do you want to build a solid investment grade card portfolio that will appreciate in value over time?

Collecting for investment will be the focus of this blog, but just because we're investing it does not mean we won't be having a lot of fun along the way. And your collection will not only be something of great monetary value, it will be something you can be very proud of.

So, where to start? Well, there are many possible strategies to take:

• Buy packs or boxes, bust them, and hope for the best....kind of like the lottery
• Collect cards from your favorite teams
• Collect sets
• Collect large quantities of the latest hot rookie cards
• Collect graded cards
• Build sets from scratch
• Collect unopened packs
• Collect autographed and game used cards

So you see there are a lot of ways to approach this hobby. Today I'm going to give you a few of my guidelines and in subsequent posts we'll dive into each one in a lot more detail.

• FIRST and foremost. HAVE FUN! No matter what your goals, if this hobby is not fun for you then you need a new hobby!
• Overpriced cards.....sell them now
• Underpriced cards.....buy them now....sounds obvious right? :-)
• Modern-day trading cards are GENERALLY bad investments
• Hyped rookies are not always what they seem
• Before buying any card, be confident that the price will increase over time

Thats all for today. Make sure to come back often as we get into much more detail on investment grade collecting. I'll even be offering recommendations on specific cards in all sports that you can add to your portfolio for reasonable prices right now.

Have a great day!