Footy Cards

[GhostofJimJess]

I'm piecing together a small article for a fanzine on the history of Footy Cards. You know, the sort we used to swap in the schoolyard, trading a Ray Shaw for a Kelvin Templeton etc..

So if anyone can assist me with a bit of background on the following queries I'd be most appreciative.

When were they first introduced into the VFL?

How were they intially distributed ?

When did Scanlons get in on the act ?

Was there ever a real "market" for them i.e. did any hold any real financial value over the years, like a Penny Black of footy cards.

... and any other historical tidbits that you might have stored away in your memory bank.

Cheers,
Ghost

 

[deliberate!!]

Here's some of my sketchy knowledge.....

The likes of Scanlon weren't the original way to buy these cards....I believe they came as premiums.......add-ons to products......

For example I have a football card of my grandfather (who played for Melbourne in the 1930's) that came with a packet of cigarettes,
the size of half a playing card (very small)

I believe various companies released their own with the harder to get today, the more costly.

I think in the sixties, Petrol Companies 'Shell or Caltex' released their own cards, as did Coca-Cola.. even footballers heads were put under drink caps....

Which then flowed on to the 70's football cards.....right through till today......

Some of the 70's series made a complete Grand Final poster shot once you flipped each card from the set over and joined them together....

With a lot of the football cards in the last 30 years......I still wonder who the gooses are that value them, because they don't work off the same principles as the US card collectors
ideals or even stamp collectors...

For instance, it's always got me beat why the 1990's Stimorol AFL Set isn't worth more than the years around it as it's the first year of a new League......no longer the VFL.....but the first year of the national league.....(that doesn't happen too often)
And valuers don't seem to rate the mistakes as well.......there was certain cards in the 80's and 90's that had glaring mistakes....like players with the wrong club mascot on the cards.....so it's got me beat how they value past sets.....probably on numbers released...

Hope any of this helps...
Cheers

 

[1jasonoz]

And valuers don't seem to rate the mistakes as well.......there was certain cards in the 80's and 90's that had glaring mistakes....like players with the wrong club mascot on the cards.....so it's got me beat how they value past sets.....probably on numbers released...

Ive got the entire 80's collection of the Roos, one card in particular gets me, its a card from 87(remember rightly), with a shot of a Carlton player taking a shot for goal, right in the centre of the card, then with just the head of the North player visible(and an arm/leg behind the Carlton player). Boy bet he was happy to have the card produced.

 

[CharlieG]

Scanlan's started in 1968, and continued on until something like 1991. After that, another brand that I can't recall the name of did 1992. The standard Scanlan's set was 168 cards - the best 12 players, the coach and a team card for each of the 12 clubs that were in the league for most of the Scanlan's era. I guess it probably increased to 192 for the few years with the Bears and Eagles in the team.

I collected them for a few years in the '90s... during that time, Select was the brand. It went from about 450 cards across two series (the first series had the stars, the second had youngsters and second-tier players) in 1995, to less than 200 a year in about 2000. These days, they are a sort of Pokemon type game, but they are too expensive, and they're dying a natural death.

I have a couple of South Melbourne cigarette cards from the 1930s. Back then, they were only one sided - you were supposed to stick the cards to each other, back to back. Hence, I have a South player with a Hawthorn player on the back, and another with a Melbourne player. I'll dig them out later today and see what the brand was. As deliberate said, they were very small - about the size of a passport photo.

I can tell you this - rarity certainly increases value. I have a couple of cards that are (or were, before people lost interest) worth $100s... Some cards are extremely rare. I have a Tony Lockett goal record card that I think is the rarest in my collection (but I wouldn't even know what I have anymore). It was worth several hundred a few years ago. The rarest cards were even rarer because they weren't put in the packs... there was another card that you sent in to get the actual card... it's reasonable to assume therefore that not all of the cards ended up in circulation.

Even the most common insert cards (cards that were surplus to the main deck) such as best and fairest cards or Rising Star cards could get $15 or $20 back in the mid-90s. I used to get a full box, and I'd trade the doubles for any I was missing, and any that were left over were turned into Swans inserts. It was a very effective way of getting a full set.

I'd suggest that you call a card trader - there's a few around Melbourne - for their more specific knowledge. I don't collect anymore, so I can't help you much more than that.

 

[MadMaxx]

Originally posted by deliberate!!

Some of the 70's series made a complete Grand Final poster shot once you flipped each card from the set over and joined them together....

A mate of my dads worked as the accountant at scanlons in 1981, and got me an uncut sheet (Full set) of footy cards. When you turned it around, it had a big pic of Kevin Bartlett from the 1980 GF on the back. Alas, I was a kid (who didnt barrack for the tigers) so it got trashed and chucked out a few years later.

I told a fella at a sports collectors shop about it one day, and he winced and told me that it would be worth minimum $2,000 and possibly up to $5,000 as it was unique in it's uncut state.

DOH!

My full sets of cards from 1980-1992 are worth about $600 tho. (I stopped collecting when they went to the fancy american style cards)

 

[mighty_west]

I hope this helps you out!

Scanlens 1966-1982 1984-1987
Stimirol 1988-1991
Regina 1992
Select 1993-2003 and still going.
AFL Player choice 1994
AFL Cazaly 1994
AFL Sensation 1994,1995
AFL Quarters 1995 (2 sets)
AFL Classic metal 1996 (Select)
Footy ODDBODZ Hypervision 1997
Team 2001,2002,2003

There are a lot more one off sets through the 90's including Optus, Ansett Cup etc...
I am a collector of Western Bulldogs Cards, for an in depth list check out the Card zone site www.cardzone.com.au
This is where i usually go to purchace cards.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Thanks for the heads up, guys. Some really valuable info in there, and provides me with a great foundation to the article.

Thanks heaps,
Ghost

 

[Rumple Skilton]

I can't remember which weekend newspaper he is in (The Age or Herald Sun), but you should try to get in touch with Rick Milne who values sporting memorabilia quite regularly and is considered somewhat of a expert in the field.

 

[MarkT]

Can't help much with the history other than I had always thought it all started with cigarette cards and they were around during WW2 so they date back at least that far. I recently found a box of old footy cards I had collected from my school days in a clean up. At school the cards weren’t so much swapped as gambled. We'd play various games to win each others cards. I must have done alright in 1977 because I have the whole about 4 times over and I recall giving a large pile of cards to my younger brother years ago when he was into collecting them. I also have a bunch from other years – mainly pre 1977 I think but I didn’t look all that closely.

 

[Port Adelaide 1870]

Try this site..I believe it will give you as much info as you could possibly desire..

regards

PA1870

http://sportmem.customer.netspace.net.au/index.html

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Awesome work, PA1870.

 

[mocaholic]

My brother & I collected heaps late 60's, all the 70's and even up to the early 80's before I gave it away. At one stage we had every set for about 15 yrs (including the outrageous Set A & Set B years when they had two sets of the same cards - what a rip-off).

Still have a cack about a few cards:
- Mal Brown wearing brown cords;
- KB in the act of handballing (when did THAT happen??);
- Anybody (but often Kevin Sheedy) called a 'utility';
- Norm Dare holding a medicine-ball shaped footy over his head as in the act of 'marking', in the pitch black;
- Colin Hounsell with the standard 'one-hand-scooping-ball-off-ground' pose;
- David McMahon doing the 'baulk' pose: arm outstretched, ready for the blind turn. Standard for about 10 years, that one;
- Bruce Stevenson in the act of kicking, with his foot I would estimate roughly 48 feet above his head. A freaky pose, reminiscent of Basil Fawlty doing his goosestep. It managed to stay blue-tacked to my bedhead for about 5 years! Strangely enough, the procession of chicks into my bed during that period slowed down somewhat...

Sadly I gave them all back to my bro.

 

[smilingassassin]

Team 2004 Cards

My son and grandson collected the complete set of Team 2003 Cards last season. Does anyone know if there will be a Team 2004 collection out this year? If so when will they go on sale?

And when is the next edition of Inside Football due out?

Thanks in anticipation of your help.

 

[Rooboy 96]

Originally posted by GhostofJimJess
Was there ever a real "market" for them i.e. did any hold any real financial value over the years, like a Penny Black of footy cards.

last week on ebay a single card sold for over $1300... a bloke in Dandenong has been buying up the Captain Signature Cards from 2000...

to me the penny black is the 1963 Scanlens A.Aylett... I have never even seen one...
The 1963 set was a limited trial set of 10 cards... released in only Footscray and Geelong... each card is worth in excess of $500 but are rarely seen for sale...

Hope this helps...

 

[dogman22]

Wow, I've bumped this thread up.

Great to read about the old years of footy card collecting - I've been collecting since 1986.

At the moment, I'm looking to build my collection, so if anyone's got any old footy cards out there that they want to get rid of, especially those produced by Scanlens/Stimorol between 1985 and 1991, then PM me, and I'll be more than happy to buy them off you for a fair price.

 

[Bulldogsroar]

contact damien green

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~dgreen2/