Autographed Baseball Trading Cards Rare, Collectible & Autographed Baseball Trading Cards

Collecting autographed baseball cards nowadays can be a frustrating endeavor. There are around 5 or 6 businesses that develop major League Baseball cards which does not appear like too many so that is ok. Each trading card business frequently creates up to twenty different sets per year. This many sets can be certainly mind-boggling and only appears to benefit the card publishing companies and not the collector.

Baseball card suppliers then seed the packs of these various sets with "chase cards". These chase cards are not always part of the real set but typically very limited numbered editions of cards. These chase cards can have absolutely nothing to do with baseball. Chase cards can be items of a Babe Ruth baseball bat to a signature of former President Howard Taft and on. Collecting the chase cards becomes the point of shopping for packs of baseball cards as they can be quite priceless and sell for a lot of cash on eBay. The actual cards of the baseball players are an afterthought. Business has overtaken collecting.

Much of this craze can be traced back to 1989 when the Upper Deck Company produced their first Major League Baseball collection. This set included the very first Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. There were no chase cards or limited edition runs, just the Griffey Jr. baseball card. When Griffey Jr entered baseball he was a young phenom who individuals thought had the potential to break all of baseballs records and his earlier play appeared to attest to this. Baseball card collecting became a fad as people tried to get the Griffey Jr rookie card.

When I was a kid in the late sixties and early seventies there was one corporation making one set - this was Topps. Collecting these cards was simple - you went to the neighborhood drugstore and purchased a pack after begging your mom to get you one. I would then go home and promptly "flip" the cards with my friends (a game) and quickly add wear and tear to my cards. These days collectors of trading cards like Mickey Mantle autographed baseball cards appear to want the cards for their possible financial value and take care of the cards like they were precious jewels, often putting them in thick plastic holders to prevent everyone from handling them and thus damaging the card.

So is there a middle ground for an autographed baseball card collector or baseball enthusiast? Yes there is. First take a look at the fine print on a few of the $10 or $20 packs you are going to invest in to hopefully get a chase card. The fine print will tell you that you have a 1 in 10,000 chance of truly obtaining a chase card. So if you don't get a chase card you will be left with five baseball cards from the pack in a set. Unfortunately it will be a collection nobody is wanting to complete.

Collectors need to rein in their anticipations and concentrate on being a fan of the game and bear in mind that collecting baseball cards can basically be an extension of their love of baseball. Concentrate on some of the basic collections that are not as chase card centered such as the standard Topps or Upper Deck set. Do not purchase a pack of five cards for $20. Even baseball card corporations are even beginning to notice that they have over-saturated the marketplace and are paring back the number of sets they generate.