Trading cards, once a staple of the NASCAR collectibles scene, have fallen in value and availability.
A decade ago, just as the sport was warming up to gaining national attention, several manufacturers were pumping out lines of trading cards to rival the best of the traditional stick-and-ball sports. But soon after, the market got clogged, Maxx (the first company to produce a set) fell out, and the business began to sink. Now, while PressPass continues to produce a variety of lines, movement in the marketplace for new cards-or the resale of others-seems to be stalled.
"It's been mediocre," says Bob Suiter, owner of Pro Star 2 Collectibles Inc., a Crawfordsville, Indiana, retailer (www.prostar2collectibles.com). "The problem is, there's not enough new drivers. They keep putting out the same cards over and over."
Therein lies one of the fundamental problems with the trading card side of NASCAR collectibles. In other sports, such as football and baseball, there are many new rookie players each year. New players mean new cards, and the potential, albeit small, to get a rookie card of a future superstar.
That aspect alone makes collecting the cards fun for the hope of having a future gem. But, as is widely known, in NASCAR there might be a handful of new drivers each year.
"I quit messing with cards in 1995," said the owner of a large collectibles retailer in North Carolina, who requested his name not be used. "I've got a back room full of cards. I don't even display them because I don't want to waste the space in my store."
The North Carolina retailer, who does business in the heart of stock car country, said he gets maybe one request a month for racing trading cards. "I'm sure there's people that do well with them," he said. "I don't. One problem is that the card companies got greedy. Too many cards were the same. They'd make one with green borders and then say, here's the same card with a gray border."
Besides the shortage of new drivers-and the presence of multiple competitors-some retailers say the cost of new editions of trading cards may be driving some buyers out of the market.
For example, where a multi-pack box of trading cards sold for $69 several years ago, they're now $150. Likewise, a single pack of cards now goes for upwards of $4.
Card makers were not immune to the sales problems. A few years ago, PressPass began creating a series of cards with race-used material in them, using tires or sheetmetal from a car.
"Really, the only cards that really come down to something are the autographed cards, race-used suits, or your glove cards," Suiter said. "As far as your common card, there's really no increase at all."
To that end, it's those cards with a piece of race-used material in them that seem to do well on the secondary market for trading cards. For example, a 1996 Dale Earnhardt Burning Rubber card was recently offered on eBay-considered the bottom of the collectibles secondary market by insiders-for $50. Conversely, a 10-pack box of unopened 1997 PressPass VIP cards was being offered for only $15.
And single cards of less-than-spectacular drivers can go for pennies, if there's even a secondary market at all.
A good yardstick of how important-or not-the trading card business is to retailers is to take a random read of the classified section of any of the racing trade newspapers. While there are plenty of mentions of die-cast and other collectibles, there's nary a hint of trading card availability.
"In my opinion, the card companies in all sports have run out of gimmicks," Suiter says. "What's next, open a pack and find a $100 bill?"