The True Value of Rookie Cards? Exploring TCBD
I’ve made a lot of jokes about the fact that there’s a new soccer set being printed avery fifteen minutes.
In fact, Topps will print three more 20-21 Champions League sets while you’re reading this article.
that is indeed, not a fact
But, I thought I’d put it to the test.
So today, we have a small article looking at Trading Card Database and comparing card counts between modern and older players.
Why Trading Card Database? Pros and Cons
Some basic pros and cons for using TCDB for this task.
Pro
It’s faster to collate the data
It’s got a lot of cards that I didn’t know ever existed
It inluces modern insers and parallels
Cons
It’s definitely not ideal for vintage as a lot of stuff from the 50ss and 60s just isn’t there
Soccer has so many sets from all over the world, and it doesn’t have all of those
Not ideal for stickers
To sidestep this a little, I’m not going to mention guys like Pele and other vintage players. As far as the “it doesn’t include all sets from all over the world” section, I think that’ll cancel each other out to a degree.
Still, these numbers are close to the pin without me having to spend countless hours trying to find every set a player features in - which, let’s be honest, is basically impossible anyway.
The Results
I picked four players ar random for this. I tried to get a range of great players from the 90s to today, and looked for big name players and current rookies.
Keep in mind, these also include sets like Match Attax etc…
Also, it’s important to know that these lists are about the supply - not the demand.
Erling Haaland
Total Cards: 495
Erling Haaland is one of the best young strikers since R9. In the few years since he burst onto the scene he’s been in a lot of sets.
I’m surprised they didn’t try and squeeze him into the Euro 2020 set somehow. Shit, I’m surprised they didn’t try and squeeze him into the Copa America 2021 set!
Haaland’s first cards on TCDB was from 19/20 season - with there only being two seasons of cards.
That’s an average of 247.5 cards a season.
You can find his cards here on eBay.
Gerd Muller
Total Cards: 78
It was Muller’s passing this week that really hammered the point of this article home.
On TCDB, he’s only listed as only having 78 different cards or stickers.
Granted, his actual number is probably a lot higher than that, as he fits perfectly into my points before about under-representing older and foreign sets.
Still, with there being 29 different seasons listed on his page, that’s an average of 2.7 cards per season.
It’s not like this thing is missing 245 cards a year….
You can find his cards on eBay.
Jude Bellingham:
Total Cards: 318
Jude Bellingham is one of the best rookies from the top five leagues last season (well, he did play in the Championship, but what makes a rookie is another discussion for another time - All, I’ll say is it’s a bit rich to complain about misused RCs in soccer and not with Luka Doncic).
Anyway….
In his one season of getting cards made, TCDB has a total of 318 different cards printed!
And because I’m a math wizard, that’s an average of 318 a season.
You can find his cards on eBay here.
Roberto Baggio
Total Cards: 381
The Divine Ponytail was one of the best players of the early 90s - and an icon of Italian soccer.
Baggio has only 381 cards printed from 25 different seasons - that’s an average of 15.24 a season.
Again, there’s some early stuff that’s probably missing on this list, but as far as a ball park figure goes, that’s pretty telling.
You can find his cards on eBay.
Lionel Messi
Total Cards: 3513
Messi is a very interesting one for me on this list.
One of the best players of all time, and has been seen as that for a while
His career has gone alongside the soccer card market exploding
He’s in every set that licencing allows - and a lot of inserts
This meant, to me, that he’d have a bunch of cards around - and 3513 is the highest number here.
However, when you average it out over the 18 seasons listed on TCDB, that’s a touch over 195 cards a season - Much lower than Haaland and Bellingham.
And without counting them one by one I’d guess that most of Messi’s cards have been in the last five seasons opposed to the first thirteen.
You can find his cards on eBay
What Does it Mean?
Okay, so me telling you that there’s more soccer cards printed now than before isn’t really new information.
Just remember when you’re buying that there’s just so many more cards of players printed today than there ever has been.
Messi had five or so rookies - Bellingham has over 300.
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