What happened to the Game Used Cards we all USED to love?

[cobbcollector]

I began thinking.....with so many players signing contracts with card companies, gu cards are worthless unless you have a star with a patch piece.
It seems all we have are gu jersey and occassionally bat cards.
Think back in early 2000's when these cards were pulled:

GU Hat/Cap (i remember topps pristine had tip of the cap gu inserts)
GU shirt/BP warmup (shirt off my back set)
GU shoe cards (remember that more in basketball)
GU Buttons (leaf limited had nice ones #d/5)
GU Base (Fleer did well with these)
GU Glove (Fleer again did well with these and had some auto'd-playoff also did well with tools of the trade)

If companies would release this stuff at higher odds than regular gu jersey cards i feel that could help gu cards prices again.

Anyone want to share their thoughts?

[detroitlions]

For football "game-used" is 9 jerseys at the rookie premiere.

[MetDude]

I noticed some Absolute tools of the trade GU on ebay recently.
Some really cool stuff.
swatches from things like
chest protector
fielding glove
shoe
cap
warmupjacket
batting glove

[VWBUS1978]

game used cards are falling to the wayside
over-produced auto's of semi-decent players are barely worth the paper that they are printed on.

take the auto and replace it with a game used, and it's basically worthless (both are worth $1.25 @ blowout for store credit)

and, you are correct, patches on a vet or rookie card do sell the card, those are the only lincecum cards i buy, check my bucket out.

Pictures by mikestriptoeurope - Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com/mikestriptoeurope/)

but there are most certainly markets for both of the cards,

say a derek jeter game used card averages $15
a derek jeter patch averages $120+
a derek jeter auto averages $150
a derek jeter auto/jersey averages $190
a derek jeter auto/patch goes for $250++ the better the patches the better the payout

on the same note, and for comparison:

a tim lincecum jersey averages $5
a tim lincecum patch averages $75
a tim lincecum auto averages $75
a " " auto/jersey averages $120
a " " auto/patch averages $200+

IE: when the high-end patch cards go for so much money, people will defer to the lower end less rare cards, driving the price of those north as well.

i just think there needs to be more variations making sets harder to make/collect... Ginter for instance is NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to have a set of from 2006-2011 there are different color jersey swatches and some variations and extremely short printed cards, which in turn makes the secondary market fluctuate heavily, as opposed to tanking the week after a product is released.

[Dacubs]

spikes
the buttons were cool back then
bases were cool too

I think places need to start putting in redemptions for full sized equipment

[tajikey]

I remember pulling a Jimmie Foxx game used bat relic card from a box of late 90s Donruss Baseball. I ran around the house screaming like a little girl, I was so stoked. I then proceeded to ask my dad who the heck Jimmie Foxx was.

Last year, I pulled a Yankees 6-Relic HoF Booklet from 08 Triple Threads. I was still very excited, but it was much more subdued.

[hermanotarjeta]

What happened was that before, we had more faith in the card companies believing that the game used material was legitimate.

Nowadays, the card companies themselves have realized that they cannot prove in a court of law that their source of the game used items are legitimate, so they started using terms like "not from any specific event, game, or whatever", which basically means that these materials could be from any source, not necessarily actually used in a professional sport game by that specific athlete.
ie, total BS.

Most collectors aren't that stupid, though the ones that don't care continue to support their shenanigans.

Card companies must think we collectors are idiots for collecting these worthless pieces of cloth.

Until the literature on the back of the card can state specifically what the item on the card is and its provenance, I will have ZERO interest in "game used" items.

[cobbcollector]

but, still, the question remains...why have they stopped producing those extra game used items? can they not put the disclaimer on the back? i dont care what game it was used in, as long as he wore it in a game or used it in a game.

[Mattsurewood]

It does seem like things used to be nicer, I redeemed this Donkey Game Used hat out of 02 UD Authentics:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa246/mattsurewood/My%20Collection/dunnhat2.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa246/mattsurewood/My%20Collection/dunnhat.jpg

And even though not Game-Used, I liked the 2001 Fleer Legacy Caps, you don't see much stuff like that these days.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa246/mattsurewood/My%20Collection/nolanhat.jpg

[hermanotarjeta]

but, still, the question remains...why have they stopped producing those extra game used items? can they not put the disclaimer on the back? i dont care what game it was used in, as long as he wore it in a game or used it in a game.

The reason always comes down to cost/labor.

Shred up ten jerseys, slap the pieces in the machine that pastes them onto the card, and the zombies are still buying up this crap.

You need to make special adjustments to cut up more unique pieces and properly fit them into the cards, plus it is more work intensive. Why go through all this trouble if it isn't going to significantly increases sales/profits, especially when ding-dongs still buy the cards regardless?

[mcdo0423]

I think one main reason is...Panini doesn't have a baseball license. Most of those went on the wayside when Donruss went away which is why for the most part the last sets they were in are 2005 products like Absolute, Champions, and Prime Patches. Limited this year did have some but the swatches were really small and let's face it, Panini isn't as good as Donruss was.

[Zoop]

Agreed, I miss the game-used batting and fielding gloves, spikes, and the like. Needs more creativity.

[Tommy12oz]

i just think there needs to be more variations making sets harder to make/collect... Ginter for instance is NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to have a set of from 2006-2011 there are different color jersey swatches and some variations and extremely short printed cards, which in turn makes the secondary market fluctuate heavily, as opposed to tanking the week after a product is released.


I am only a few relics away from completing that ginter set, please see signature and try to help me out!

[Ncbrowe]

Fleer legacy was the ultimate box. You got an auto hat, #Ed rookies, I believe it came with 2 guaranteed hits as well. If we had a box today like that it would be $350 easy. This box's retail 145 bucks.