It’s kinda funny when you look at old sports cards. This one isn’t exactly *old*, but James Harden kinda looks like a little kid in this pic. The beard definitely makes him recognizable.
... I really like sports cards as kind of a snapshot of a moment in time, but sold my collection ages ago. Sports cards became this big *thing* in the late 80’s and early 90’s where everyone and their mother was collecting cards...and then it all came crashing down a few years later...I think people realized that most of the ‘rare’ cards were actually overproduced and closer to completely flooded, and the bottom dropped out. You can *STILL* buy packs of 1987 Topps baseball cards for around 50 cents. It’s absurd. …
I see the same kind of arc happening with shoes, although it’s not as pronounced, nor would I think shoes could have the same die-off as sports cards did; at the end of the day, sports cards are little pieces of paper and shoes are shoes. They can be worn. Sports cards can be used for…? …
Anyway, I like looking up 10/10 graded rookie cards for certain players and trying to determine what their most recognizable signature sneaker model might be and imagining the future where sneaker grading takes off like sports card grading takes off and what the prices could be...I like to compare them. This isn’t the most *apt* comparison, but I think it’s interesting to see what players shoes are worth *after* they change sneaker deals. Most Adidas Hardens really aren’t worth that much, nor are his Nikes (they’re not all that big off court), but the Player Exclusives are where the real money is at. …
A 10/10 Harden rookie just sold for $2.6k, while his Player Exclusives (in most likely a TSS graded 9/10 condition) sold for $600. Quite the difference. If you found a TSS 10/10 Player Exclusive - how much would *you* ask for the rarest of the rare?