I’ve been doing sportscards for nearly 30 years now and have been around for some incredible market/hobby trends, enough so that I’ve been generally able to grasp what is good (or going to be good) and more importantly what will not be as valuable as it currently is. All of this recently led me to Formula 1 cards a few years ago. A sport and sportscard situation so amazing on so many different fronts that we decided to build a website (in 2024!) to showcase and share our thoughts on where it may go.
Over the next few weeks, months & years I wanted to share my thoughts on the F1 Card Market to provide my insights and experience. What I may lack in pure F1 historical knowledge, I hope I can make up with my very deep and detailed database of sportscard knowledge. I want to make very clear that this is not investment advice, these will be my open thoughts on the F1 card market and all the information that I believe will be relevant as the years go by. I think it may be interesting one day to reflect and see how much right and wrong I projected here.
So that everyone can come along, I wanted to start out this first time with the very basics and eventually make our way into more nuanced thoughts on specific F1 cards/sets as the weeks go by, periodically I’ll talk about values in the market I’m seeing. Whether you’ve been buying F1 cards for decades or this visit to our website is your first effort into F1, I want to make sure we can all start here together as I share my thoughts on a sportscard situation that is like no other to me.
With that being said, it's that time Crofty - Light’s Out & Away We Go!
Why F1?
In 10 Words:
It’s the most perfect sportscard situation seen in our lifetime.
In 100 Words:
In 2020, Topps for the first time ever received the license to print Formula One cards. In doing so, they became the first major sports trading card manufacturer to produce F1 cards and ended a 28 year drought of F1 cards being produced for worldwide distribution. Topps would produce only two products – Topps Chrome & Topps Dynasty, their absolute aces. The lack of products for the 28 year gap created a pent up demand from the existing F1 collector base and most importantly created products full of RC Cards of worldwide superstars with already huge existing fanbases. The Perfect Storm.
In 1,000 Words:
Large gaps in between sportscard products have always been great in other sports. Let’s list a few:
- 1952 Topps Baseball (previously 1948 Leaf & Mini sized 1951 Bowman)
- 1961 Fleer Basketball (previously 1957 Topps)
- 1986 Fleer Basketball (previously 1981 Topps)
- 1996 Topps Chrome All Sports (1st Topps Chrome)
- 2003 Exquisite Basketball (1st $400+ Pack Product)
- 2009 National Treasures Basketball (1st National Treasures Basketball)
- 2012 Panini Prizm All Sports (1st Panini Prizm)
- 2017 Topps Chrome UEFA (1st Topps Chrome Soccer)
This is basically a list of the most popular and important sportscard sets of the last 75 years. You’ll see a common trend among them, the first 3 sets were all produced after a small 4-5 year gap between Trading Cards made by a major manufacturer. While this definitely helped the supply/demand model it also built up the amount of players who received their first Trading Cards (Rookie Cards!) in each set.
Though they have RC Cards in 1951 Bowman, both Mickey Mantle's & Willie Mays' 1952 Topps Cards are universally considered to be their best (and to many “RC” like) cards. 1961 Fleer brought the Rookie Cards of Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson & Jerry West even though Chamberlain was drafted a year before both Robertson & West. 1986 Fleer featured the Rookie Cards of Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas, Dominque Wilkins, Clyde Drexler, Michael Jordan & Patrick Ewing – names that would dominate the NBA for a generation and each from different NBA Draft Year Classes but today still all considered RC Cards in the 1986 Fleer Set!
The next group of iconic sets contained some of the most popular elements of modern collecting – Chrome, Refractors & On-Card Patch Autographs. Look up any player who has been featured on a trading card over the last 30 years and you’ll most likely find that their most expensive and desired cards contain one of the previous elements.
High quality and aesthetically pleasing Chrome & Refractors have attained a timeless modern nostalgia and the technology’s reach throughout almost every sport has created an easy way for collectors to pair their Chrome Kobe RC with their Chrome Ohtani RC and somehow feel like it makes sense. On-Card Patch Autographs have given collectors the chance to attain the ultimate personal collectible without taking it tooooo far – Material worn by the player and the card’s surface featuring an actual signature from the legend (or future potential legend) on the card.
In 2020, Topps for the first time ever received the license to print Formula One cards and combined both elements above in their premier F1 releases. First, Topps would end the 28 year drought between F1 Trading Cards produced by a major manufacturer, the last being the 1992 Grid Formula One card set. Then, perhaps honoring the standard and worldwide prestige the sport itself holds, they brought their absolute aces by releasing only two 2020 products – 2020 Topps Chrome F1 & 2020 Topps Dynasty F1. With 2020 Topps Chrome, Formula One collectors were introduced to the trading card world with Topps’ most famous card finish and the gorgeous Rainbow assortment of Refractors. Along with an absolutely gorgeous insert set, Track Tags, they also included Autograph cards of F1 drivers and made them in extremely limited quantities.
With 2020 Topps Dynasty, they took the 1st Year of F1 Topps to the apex of the sport. Every card in the set would be limited to no more than 10 copies of each made and every card in the set would feature both an On-Card Autograph AND a very generous piece of worn material. Choosing to again stick to the high-end exclusivity that the sport itself is known for they would only make 3,746 total cards in the product. To the best of our knowledge this alone would make it the single most limited mainstream trading card product ever made. There is a long list of astounding facts that should make this set historically relevant for a very very long time. Among the nuggets, Lewis Hamilton, Valterri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Pierre Gasly & Danil Kvyat (!) only have 121 Single Signed (Non-Team Dual) On-Card Autographs made in 2020!
That’s the Card side of it, now onto the sport itself.
There is no doubt that F1 has seen it’s growth in the US over the last few years, establishing two new Races in Miami & Las Vegas along with a growing legion of relatively young fans. The 2 key questions that we need to ask as this relates to sports cards –
- Will F1’s US popularity return to it’s original low standing or is this the start of something special?
- Will sportscards continue to gain popularity Internationally in countries where F1 is considered among it’s most popular sports along with Soccer?
For one, modern technology has made it much easier to access and watch the sport whenever we want wherever we want – previously a huge barrier for many.
In 2022, Formula One themselves purchased a 40 Acre property on the backside of the Las Vegas strip to build their American Headquarters. In 2023 the first ever Las Vegas Grand Prix Race brought in 1.5 billion dollars of revenue for Las Vegas, the highest number ever for the city for any event. To put this into perspective, a few months later the 2024 NFL Super Bowl was held in Vegas and featured a heavyweight battle between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers and their very large fanbases. It generated 1 billion dollars for the city, also a new record for any NFL event for the city but the Vegas Grand Prix still generated 50% more for local business. No doubt this had a major impact on the recent news of American goliath General Motors (GM) deciding to join Formula 1 going forward with their commitment to become an F1 Team in 2026.
Now does this sound more like a sport that is fading or just starting it’s ascent?
And that's it for this 1st installment! Hope you all enjoyed this. There’s a LOT more for us to delve into, but until next time we hope you all have a Happy Holiday Season and while you’re at it don’t be afraid to send us any messages or emails. We love cards and love talking about them, sharing our thoughts and experiences. Most importantly, we've loved being able to be purposeful over the years and point people in the right direction to do cards for the longer haul. Our inbox is always open to questions, suggestions and comments at info@grid-xchange.com.
Want More?
