Nonsense Newsletter No. 108: The Greatest Show on Turf, the case for hockey, Michael Rubin and more!
In this week’s edition of the Nonsense Newsletter, John Dudley recounts his favorite football team of all time. I once again plead with all of you to give hockey a chance, and we have a Quick Hits section for the ages! So, you know the routine by now, sit back, kick back and enjoy this week’s edition of the Nonsense Newsletter.
By John Dudley
We are coming up on the 25th !?! anniversary of my favorite football team ever, the Greatest Show on Turf St. Louis Rams. I’m not a Rams fan at all, but this team was the most fun one I’ve ever followed and I still think I’ve never had as much fun watching football as I did watching Warner lead them to the Super Bowl.
One of my ongoing collecting goals is collecting with more deliberateness. I want to spend less time and money picking up cards of random players and instead want to focus on creating a list of cards to actively target. In that spirit, I figured the upcoming anniversary was a great time to start a new mini-collection of cards from my favorite NFL team ever. So, here’s a quick guide to 1999 Rams’ cards.
Marshall Faulk
Marshall Faulk and LaDainian Tomlinson might be the scariest players ever to appear in your opponent’s roster for fantasy football. Faulk is also a testament to how far running backs have fallen in the hobby. He's a HOF member and a clear top 10 back of all time, but his cards barely move the needle. Much of that is due to his debuting smack dab in the middle of the junk wax era, but that alone does not explain his low prices. Instead, they can only be explained by collectors abandoning non-quarterbacks en masse.
High End: PSA 10 1994 Upper Deck SP Die Cut (Last sold $1025)- Faulk’s high-end card carries an impressive price tag cracking four digits. The SP Die Cuts are tough enough to find in 10 grade that I can see an argument for this card being underpriced.
By John McTaggart
I’ve spent many words and many column inches in this newsletter talking about hockey cards and the hockey hobby.
Now, the very notion of this may turn off most of you, but be honest with yourself for a second…. It’s an intriguing hobby, you have to admit.
The cards, for the most part, are still very reasonably priced.
The wax… same story.
The people in the hobby are extraordinarily pleasant to deal with and kind.
The hockey hobby community is, and believe me when I say this because I have been in this game for a very long time now, helpful, supportive and downright wonderful.
There are also legitimate stars in the game right now, stars that should transcend the sport alone.
Players like Connor McDavid, Alexander Ovechkin, Auston Matthews and Connor Bedard, are superstars (and budding superstars) on the same level as LeBron James, Shohei Ohtani, and Patrick Mahomes, for example.
These players are that impactful in their respected sport of hockey and that dominant at the same time.
All of this said, the hobby that centers around hockey is still a fraction of that seen in the other sports, and the deeper I delve into this hobby (and I’m pretty deep into it at this point, and diving even further in) the less I understand it.
Quick Hits
Hobby News- Michael Rubin popped up on Bill Simmons’ podcast to discuss things at Fanatics last week. It’s worth a listen as Rubin touches on a variety of topics including success in reducing the outstanding redemption population and the intriguing possibility of putting chips in cards to uniquely identify them. With the Fanatics revolution almost complete, it’s worth paying attention to what they are thinking about.
Vintage- Okay, this is actually very cool for those of us who are fans of vintage baseball cards. An All-Time Topps Vintage Baseball Team Cards Roster was recently revealed. Not only must this effort have been an incredible amount of work, it’s a glimpse into the level of passion and dedications those in the vintage hobby have. Check it out here.
Hobby News- Topps has a couple of new Star Wars releases with 2023 Topps Finest Star Wars and 2023 Topps High-Tek. Tek brings back the popular line to the Star Wars world for the first time in six years. There are only three different base patterns (as opposed to as many as 45 for other Tek issues) and the big chase will be autos. Tek has a small auto checklist with Rosario Dawson and Katee Sackhoff being the highlights.
Hobby News- Marvel has hit a rough patch. Spiderman seems immune from the downturn though. Upper Deck continues its Marvel offerings with Spider-Man: No Way Home set featuring the über-popular film. Autographs will be the biggest chase. Unfortunately, at only two per 12-box case, they will be rare. Precious Metal Gems and a few other inserts offer value though. The draw for this product though is that this is one of Marvel’s more well-received films.
The Sports Card Nonsense newsletters reflect the opinions of only the authors and contributors. They are for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation for purchases or of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any assets.