Asking what sports cards are best to collect for profit is like asking someone what their favorite stock to buy is!
Sure, everyone has their ideas, but not a ton of people really have it dialed in (unless that person you’re asking is Warren Buffett).
In the card world, it’s actually a pretty small number of people who are able to consistently turn a profit. You need foresight, patience, and dedication to the sports you collect so you’re aware what’s going on.
Today, I’ll show you which types of cards sports flippers and investors go after and then give you some examples of what those cards are!
(If you’d like to see my favorite strategies for turning these cards into profit, then check out The Ultimate Playbook to Make Money Selling Sports Cards)
The Best Types of Sports Cards to Collect for Profit
Here are the best categories of players to target:
- Returning From Injury
- About to Get Called Up to Majors
- Playoff Run
- The Team is Poised to Come out on FIRE
- GOAT-Type Player with Cemented Legacy
- Young Players with Upside
- Every Rookie Card You Can Get Your Hands On
- Player Moving to Larger Market
- Players Going to Get More Run
- Players in Their Offseason
1. Returning From Injury
The hobby tends to forget pretty quickly about guys who get injured. But it’s a great time for us to stock up on a player that we think has good upside or has already proven himself to be one of the best!
Let’s take a look at Joe Burrow’s PSA 10 Prizm. His prices started declining when he started slow, and then really fell off with his season-ending injury:
We’ve seen a slight incline in his pricing, but I’m guessing that’s due to the general excitement of football in January. I bet in about 3 months, we’re going to see all-time lows for a top-5 QB.
2. About to Get Called Up to Majors
Wander maybe isn’t the best example to use, but he was one of the most hyped prospects we’ve seen in awhile. Take a look at what his pricing did when he got called up (2019 Bowman Mega Box Wander Franco PSA 10)
His prices were already pretty high, but his cards jumped from about $350 to $450…and then back down as he came up and played poorly. They rebounded when he started playing well…but then now dropping off for the usual offseason drop.
3. Playoff Run
Remember Tyler Herro’s crazy run in the bubble and the Heat made the finals?
His prices quadrupled! Of course, it’s a little hard to predict that both he and the team would go on a run like they did, but finding the right player can really pay off!
4. The Team is Poised to Come out on FIRE
Anthony Edwards had kind of a weird pricing…it seems like people got real excited for him over the summer and leading up to the season…but then dropped right as the season started!
He did start a little slow, but then his team took off, and his prices jumped from about $70 to $110 pretty quickly. They’re starting to trickle back down, but that’s normal during the dog days with the NFL playoffs sucking all the attention.
While this strategy of a team starting hot works in any sport, I especially like it for football. If there’s a team with a relevant quarterback who plays an easy schedule for the first half, that’s a good player to take a chance on!
This can also work well for a team that made significant improvements in the offseason. Whoever their top 2-3 most hobby relevant players are will usually see a bump in pricing. An exception can be a superstar who’s already established—regular season wins might not mean a lot for their hobby value.
5. GOAT-Type Player with Cemented Legacy
I’m not talking about very good players or even generation talents who are still young. I’m talking about the guys who are either retired, or have enough of a legacy that it doesn’t matter what happens in their career from now on.
These are guys like:
- Jordan
- Kobe
- LeBron
- Brady
- Jerry Rice
- Mike Trout
- Ken Griffey Jr
Also, when I’m talking about the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), it doesn’t always follow exactly with who’s really the best ever.
Jordan is the best, but most would argue that Tim Duncan had a better career than Kobe…yet Kobe’s values blow Duncan’s out of the water.
Same with Griffey. Not the greatest, but might be the most popular player of the past 30 years.
So just be careful—some all-time greats just don’t get the same hobby love for whatever reason.
But these are the players that you collect with an eye towards holding basically forever. They’re the ones that you don’t sell unless there’s an insane spike, you need to pay your mortgage, or you pass onto your kids.
These are the cards that you love having in your collection, but you also see them as steady investments.
The only thing that can derail them at this point is something awful (see Simpson, O.J…and even so, plenty of guys still collect him)
6. Young Players with Upside
When I say upside, I’m referring to:
- Their talent – of course they have to have a bright future
- Their team – if they’re in a small market on an awful team, you won’t see prices go crazy unless they’re a generationally-hyped player (Wemby)
- Their prices – some players come in with so much hype that they’d have to win MVPs to go any higher. Think Lamelo, Lawrence, or Wander (ugh).
But buying young players with upside is the basis for most collectors in this hobby. Many of us would love to invest in high-quality Durant rookies but are priced out.
For that reason, collectors like me will go spend $50 on a decent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rookie. He’s turned into a full-blown superstar, but hasn’t had the playoff stage yet. Just wait.
7. Every Rookie Card You Can Get Your Hands On
If you’re a person who rips boxes, here’s my best advice:
Put EVERY rookie you get into a penny sleeve and save in a box.
You lose very little with this strategy with a ton to gain. How many people do you think went back to find Giannis or Jokic rookies only to find they’d tossed them aside and now have bent corners and scratches?
After a few years, you can throw the worthless rookies in your commons box and reuse that penny sleeve, but at least a few guys in each class take a few years to pop.
This reminds me of how I found a few Steve Nash rookies in my commons box when I got back into collecting. I’d stopped before he’s turned into a superstar and thought he wasn’t worth anything. Now the cards are in terrible shape.
8. Player Moving to Larger Market
Market doesn’t always play a factor (LeBron in Cleveland did pretty well), but it can certainly help.
In fact, let’s look at the reverse—a player moving to a smaller market.
Kyle Kuzma’s PSA 10 Prizm should never have been selling for $10.
He was on the Lakers and (kind of?) dated Kendall Jenner. They won a championship, but he wasn’t a big part of it.
The Lakers get bumped early in the playoffs and he gets traded to the Wizards. Here’s what happened to him:
On the flip side, Russell Westbrook coming back to the Lakers had the inverse effect.
The red arrow shows his price the day before the trade was announced.
(Of course you can see the fit hasn’t been seamless and his pricing reflects that—which is why you always “sell the news”)
9. Players Going to Get More Run
Who do you think is going to get more opportunities this coming year to show what they can do?
Which player got traded to a better team?
Which player had someone ahead of him get traded?
Which player could win a QB battle?
I think about Jordan Love a few years ago when Aaron Rodgers wanted a trade. Just the rumor of the trade sent Love’s cards into high demand…but then he wasn’t traded. (Of course, he was traded the following year and those Love collectors have since been vindicated).
Or, another example of the reverse is that I thought Drew Lock would beat out Bridgewater for the Broncos starting job a few years back. I bought a Prizm rookie for $85. Let’s just say I sold it a few weeks later for about ⅓ of that. 🤦♂️
10. Players in Their Offseason
And last but definitely not least, is one of the ol’ faithful investing strategies:
The best time to buy is almost always during the offseason, when collectors aren’t as excited about their teams. During the season, collectors get excited and impulse buy all the time.
However, think about the NFL playoffs…how many people are closely watching baseball pricing at the same time?
Of course this isn’t the case across the board, but it’s a great time to be on the lookout for good deals.