You’re now interested in collectible cards, and now you want to engage? Or it could be you’ve never heard of such, and you want to give a trial? Then you’re at the right place. It’s a highly rewarding hobby that you can make your own. The cards provide that unique ability for an individual to collect anything. Some of the standard collectors’ themes include team collecting, set building, and parallel rainbow collecting.
This article seeks to discuss the types of baseball cards and their uniqueness.
Digital Baseball cards
Digital baseball cards are increasing in popularity and can be purchased exclusively online. The prominent example here are products from Topps like the Topps Bunt app, Topps now, Topps Living set, among others. Topps also has other sets designed and collected by the famous superstars Bryce Harper and Francisco Lindor.
Base Cards
Base cards are the most basic baseball cards, and they are individual cards comprising standard sets. Some of the common brands featuring base cards are Topps, Panini, Bowman, Stadium club, Upper Deck, Skybox, Donruss, and score. Base cards make hundred of cards but are divided into two series featuring previous season-best players. Some base sets only target the top stars and run less than a hundred cards.
Subsets
These are sets within sets and are usually runs of 10-40 cards within a base set. The base set features players with similar traits like power hitters, base stealers, top pitchers, and league leaders, among many others. Subsets have a different design than the traditional base cards like the multi-player Topps league leaders and the hand-painted Donruss Diamond Kings. Despite the subsets’ uniqueness, they hold about half of a player’s base card.
Rookie cards
Over the years, rules regarding rookie cards have changed. A rookie card is a base card once it has been included on a significant set at its core. The cards carry a premium due to their high demand. The players’ rookie cards often won’t reflect the year the player made his major debut. For instance, in 1993, Derek Jeter had rookie cards, but he didn’t debut until 1995.
Insert cards
Insert cards are unique edition cards inserted into packs. On the back of the insert, cards are odds. These are smaller specialty sets that feature players and have similar traits but rarer than cards in regular series holding additional value. Sometimes the Inserts are added one per pack; others are rare, only found once in every case. The foil serial numbering at the front or back of the card is what distinguishes the insert cards.
Parallels
These cards use the same photo and design as the base card but only implement a small change to make it different. The standard parallels feature colored foil, borders, and Refractor technology. Parallel cards are serial-numbered and can also be found on a per case or per pack basis.
Autographs
The card features an autograph of the player at the front of the card, and there are among the popular cards in the market today. The autograph can be hand-signed by the player or cut from a manufacturer’s check if the player is deceased.
Before choosing your favorite Baseball card or any other collectable sports cards, you must get enough information on the different types of Baseball cards and their uniqueness. That will make you enjoy the game.