Sports card collectors are a tad obsessive. I should know. We see every dollar spent on stupid distractions like food and shelter as a total waste.
So, if you have a collector in your life, run away while you can! No, but seriously, they will not want you to buy them anything else. Don’t even try to get Prizm fanatic socks for the holiday.
Honestly, don’t get anyone socks for the holiday unless you hate them. But you may not know where to start if you aren’t a card person. Or maybe you are the ultimate collector and want some original ideas for the holiday. Either way, we have you covered.
Here are the best Christmas ideas for Sports Card and memorabilia collectors.
Usually, we get one big gift for someone close. If the person in question is a hardcore sports collector (or you want to get yourself an excellent gift), there are some great options. They range from the generous to the totally over the top. Further down in this article, we have more modest suggestions in the stocking stuffer genre.
If you want something you cannot miss, buy a hobby box of a product your loved one collects. We all love to rip something, even when it’s not the best product ever. There is an inherent excitement to it. But a hobby box of our favorite is like a wet dream to a collector. The latest release is always a great bet.
However, if you feel like going the extra mile, you can try to track down a First Off The Line (FOTL) version of the release. Or another way to show your love is to get an older and rarer hobby box from previous years. For a football product, anything from 2017 is going to get a great reaction because it was Patrick Mahomes’s rookie year.
2020 is another beautiful option because it has Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert’s rookie cards in the mix. They also tend to be a bit cheaper. If you are going the baseball route, 2018 was the rookie season for Shohei Ohtani, the most popular athlete in the entire hobby right now. Basketball hasn’t had a great rookie year in a while (though that will change this year), so many people go back to 2018-19 for those Luka Doncic rookie cards.
Buy Now:
Buy boxes on Topps.com
Buy boxes on Walmart.com
Buy boxes on eBay
You can find an autograph for just about any athlete on eBay.
Today, the high-value stuff is even authenticated, so you can make sure you are not getting ripped off. I got my father, an old-school Yankees fan, an autographed picture from Phil Rizzuto one year. It was incredibly well received.
There is something more personal about this than many other sports gifts. It is personal on all levels. There is an autograph involved, which makes you feel more connected to the athlete in the athlete in question. But also, if you give the right athlete, the gift’s receiver feels seen. And isn’t that what a good gift is all about?
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Card collectors need boxes to organize their cards. Usually, these are shabby-looking cardboard boxes that look like smaller versions of moving crates. But Etsy is now selling beautiful vintage-looking boxes with team names and symbols on them. You can get them the one with their favorite team logo.
Or, if you are feeling really ambitious, order one of each so that the collector in your life can put the cards for each team in the relevant box. Man, that would be awesome. Maybe someone wants to get those for me?
If you have a smaller collection or don’t want to spend that much money, you can get a single box with dividers. Here is a good example of that. This one can be laser engraved with the name of your loved one.
Buy Now:
Shop for boxes on Etsy
Shop for single boxes or dividers on Etsy
Usually, when we buy a Christmas present, we want to make the other person happy. But sometimes, we want to make all their dreams come true. Does that mean you will finally accept their marriage proposal or take them on that dream vacation? Yeah, I suppose you could.
But if you really love them, ask a simple question: “What is your grail card?” Every collector has one. Usually, more like 20. But there is that one that stands above all the rest. Ask them and hope it’s not a PSA 10 Mickey Mantle rookie card.
If you fulfill a collector’s grail card wishes, they are yours forever. Those are the rules. I believe it is in the Beckett Price Guide or something. It may cost a lot money, but who said love is free?
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Most of our cards are just base junk. But we all have those few items that are our pride and joy. There are various options for display, but the LED option shines above the rest. Get it, shine? They give you a beautiful way to display cards and come in various colors.
There are single options for one card or ones that allow you to show a whole variety of them. If a young collector is scared of the dark, you can even get them a baseball card-themed nightlight.
Buy Now:
Shop for LED card displays on eBay
Shop for baseball card themed night light on eBay
The lighted up option isn’t for everyone. It can be a bit tacky. Another option is to give more of your hard-earned money to PSA. After all, they don’t get enough of it, right?
They make a wonderful (and expensive) display case, allowing you to display up to 24 PSA-graded cards. It has a mahogany door and black suede matting. But the greatest part is the UV filter glass that will stop the cards from fading. The case costs a hefty $549, but what is that compared to the spirit of the season? PSA has a range of other display cases for sale.
Buy Now:
Shop for PSA display bases on eBay
Have you ever read the book The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate? If you want your relationship to work, you probably should. It talks about how every person expresses and receives love in their own way.
One of the most common ways is through quality time: just being with the person you care about. For someone like that, the best gift is something you can do together. That is where a ticket to the game comes in. If you attend an event that matters to someone you love, you can spend quality time with them while showing them that they matter to you.
Christmas is a great time for sports during basketball, football, and soccer seasons. What if your loved one is a baseball fan? You can always get their tickets in advance or plan a road trip to spring training. However, that might be TOO much quality time.
Buy Now:
Shop for tickets on Ticketmaster
Everyone wants a case where they can store Zion Williamson. You better get a BIG case, though. No, but Zion Cases are significant for professional traders and sellers. They allow you to store a good amount of graded cards in a classy-looking, very secure case.
The standard type holds 164 PSA, 112 BGS, or 112 SGC slabs. But you can get a bigger one that holds up to 200 as well. This can upgrade your loved ones’ card show and trading game in one fell swoop. These babies cost between $120 and $300, so they are affordable.
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Everything on this list is incredibly excellent, and collectors will be delighted to receive these items. But let’s get real: a lot of this is very pricey. Sometimes, you want to get card stuff for a casual friend or acquaintance. Or maybe you are getting a main present for the person, and want to.
Add something from the collectibles world to sweeten the pot. Or perhaps you lost your spending money on the Steelers game. Either way, you will sometimes want something more affordable.
We love vintage cards because they are beautiful things, representing another time and place. Some specific designs and players make us incredibly happy. There are a few companies that make shirts with our favorite baseball cards.
TEEPUBLIC is one great source for these shirts, including some great classics like the T206 Honus Wagner card or the Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Meanwhile, Fanatics owns Topps. Though we have to say, they could be doing a lot more with those. The Homage website has some fantastic spins on Topps shirts and reprints of great vintage cards.
Buy Now:
Shop for card T-shirts on Teepublic
You might want something personal without spending a fortune. If someone in your life breaks regularly, a custom mat with the name of their company, a logo, or a personally customized picture could do the trick.
Of course, if they work for Backyard Breaks, don’t get them a present. Inked Gaming sells beautiful customized mats for a shockingly low price. Your loved one will think you spent way more money than you did. That is a win.
Buy Now:
Shop for custom breaking mats on Inked Gaming
If someone you care about is selling cards on eBay and using bad photographs, you should do something about it. Love means never having to say, “What is that garbage listing?”
There is a lot of competition out there for online card sellers. The best-sellers are using light boxes to get the right angles and light to highlight their cards.
There are a few good options for this. But a particularly good one is the boxes the Gem Mint Club offers. They light up your cards marvelously well, and the Gem Mint Club boxes also come with six different backgrounds.
They are also not much more expensive than the standard light boxes, so well worth the investment at $37.95. Check out other excellent Gem Mint grading and card sales products, including cases for graded and ungraded cards, shipping cases, and grading tools.
Buy Now:
Shop for light boxes on GemMint
Christmas is a time of laughter and cheer. Or so Hollywood tells us. And nothing brings more joy than humor, especially if it comes at someone’s expense.
Several t-shirts, mugs, and other paraphernalia are laughing at sports card collectors and our weird obsession with pieces of cardboard with athletes on them.
It’s a bit like those wine mom mugs we all know and no longer love. There is an added advantage here. Making it seem like your loved one has a sports card addiction gives you an excellent excuse for not buying them expensive cards. So it works on every level!
You can get a tumbler that says, “I wonder if my baseball cards are thinking of me, too.” Or a candle for your significant other that says, “smells like he bought another box of cards.”
Or an “I have too many baseball cards – said no one ever” shirt. Honestly, I am pretty sure I have said that. Multiple times. That doesn’t mean I got rid of any of them, however.
Buy Now:
Shop tumbler on Etsy
Shop for candle on Etsy
Shop for t-shirt on Etsy
Socks and sweaters have been a mainstay of Christmas gift-giving since time immemorial. No one is delighted to get them, but they are a valuable and practical gift.
They also cost less than most gifts, assuming the sweater isn’t cashmere. For card collectors, top loaders and penny sleeves perform a similar function.
They won’t garner massive excitement from the recipient. But they are instrumental, and there is no way they won’t be used. So, several months later, when still using the stock of supplies you provided, your loved one will be fondly thinking of you. And isn’t that what counts?
Buy Now:
Shop for top loaders on eBay
Shop for penny sleeves on eBay
You may not want to use any of the ideas we suggested here. That is understandable. Collectors are like snowflakes, each unique in their needs and beautiful in their way. Aside from the people who post on social media asking, “How much is this worth?” about their cards. Those people are not beautiful.
But if you are not going to listen to us on what you should buy, at least listen to us on what not to get. There are things every precious snowflake should avoid.
Topps Holiday Baseball may sound natural to a loved one for the holiday. But it’s a frustrating release. Ugly sweaters and cheap representations of Santa mar the cards.
The snowflakes they invariably put in the background are tacky and unappealing. Worst of all, the cards are worth nothing because collectors don’t like them. Opening Day is a far better option to introduce kids to collecting.
And there is nothing wrong with giving them an entry-level product like flagship Topps, Upper Deck, and Donruss. Every kid wants to feel like they are adults!
Buy Now:
Shop for Topps Holiday boxes on Topps.com
Shop for Topps Holiday boxes on eBay
I am one of those people who is dependent on Amazon Prime for sustaining their lifestyle. Look, I hate society and everything it has to offer, ok? But if there is one thing I NEVER get off that website, it’s sports cards.
It tends to attract people who reseal and cheat because hobby enthusiasts avoid it. Instead, regular people buy from there when they are just getting into the hobby or buying a gift for loved ones.
That is why I am mentioning this in the article. You are far better off buying on eBay or from one of the big card companies like Blowout Cards, Dave & Adams, or Steel City Collectibles.
The holiday season is for giving, and we have provided you with some great ideas (I hope) for gifts for that particular person. We will also forgive you if you get any of this stuff for yourself.
But while these cover most of the major bases, every collector is particular and has their unique take on the hobby.
So look at what they are most passionate about in the hobby, and give them something that shows you recognize and respect that. We sports card collectors are weird people, but we like being appreciated, too.
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