Perhaps the greatest thrill of a young baseball fan is opening up his or her first set of baseball trading cards. Not knowing exactly whose card will be in the package and hoping beyond hope that your favorite player will be there is just one of the many thrills all new baseball fans look forward to.
Since the late 1980’s buying baseball cards one package at a time is not necessarily the norm. Baseball boxes, with anywhere from twelve to thirty six packs per box, are now often purchased in their entirety by collectors looking to find those rarest of cards in great quantity. As opposed to gathering a huge selection of different player cards, the collector is after two things in particular – the hot rookie card and the specialty card. For this reason, buying baseball boxes rather than single packages is now the investor’s purchase of choice.
With baseball supplies, memorabilia, and individual player cards all gaining in popularity a new era of collectors have arrived. Collecting baseball cards is no longer only for the young to use as noisemakers in the spokes of their bicycles but for the fan who closely watches player development and statistics as well. By purchasing baseball boxes the likelihood of collecting more than just one of those rare cards is increased astronomically. The most common baseball card boxes today have approximately 360 cards per box, or roughly half of an entire set. With the most sought after cards randomly packaged throughout the company’s boxed sets it makes for a huge selection from which to grasp that ever elusive card. In buying baseball boxes, collectors get exceptionally great prices should they happen to find a higher than average number of rookie and specialty cards per package. So while the youthful exuberance of looking for that one player still remains, it is there for a different purpose. For the last fifteen years, the majority of those opening packages of baseball cards have done so looking for today’s most popular card and not necessarily their favorite player.
While baseball boxes and their sales continue to grow it is still a wonderful market for those of all ages to enjoy. Along with selling complete season sets individually, all baseball card companies still offer the individual package for the child in all of us. Whether collecting cards alone or with your children, the joy of opening that single package is still much more exciting than carefully unwrapping entire baseball boxes of cards making sure not to damage any cards that may affect an investment. Either way, both the young enthusiast and the most well-informed collector will always look forward to the cards that come with each new season.
