I’ve always had a passion for collecting “alternative” vintage sports cards of “GOAT” athletes. In particular, I nerd out over collecting athletes whose cards feel most overlooked and under-appreciated relative to the scale of the athlete’s impact on his/her respective sport. For such athletes, it is often the case where not only are their rookie cards and other early card issuings affordable, but they are shockingly rare.
Using the basic equation of card price * card population as a back-of-the-napkin way to calculate the “market cap” for a given athlete’s cardboard, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that for certain iconic athletes, their early cards are shockingly undervalued relative to almost all reasonable comparative “mass appeal” athlete counterparts (and their associated card populations and average prices).
There are of course other factors in play here, such as whether or not the cards being compared are graded (and by whom), how “collectible” certain athletes (despite often enormous achievements) can ever end up being vs. others, etc.
To keep it simple, below I'll lay out step-by-step how one such recent exploration into this hypothesis of mine came to prove the model to be workable in driving tangible returns, which I hope in-turn will inspire some of you to pursue your own "Small Bag Strategies" in the collectibles market. What I can safely say—having completed the process—is this: I’ve never had so much fun and satisfaction making several hundred bucks in my life.
