The hobby of sports card and memorabilia collecting has definitely come a long way since the days when stale, pink pieces of bubble gum were included in a pack. Whether business or hobby, card-collecting is expensive and complicated. It’s also failing to attract new members.

Collectors of sports cards and memorabilia united at the Centre Village Mall on March 26 and 27 to showcase their collections, while trying to make a few bucks at the same time at the Hockey Card and Collector show.
Rob Price, the owner of In the Crease, put the show together. Price tries to organize it a couple times a year.
“The more people I can get behind the tables, the more people we can get involved in the hobby and hopefully have fun,” says Rob Price, who started collecting cards as a kid but had to restart because he, like a lot of people his age, never took care of them.
“I started again in 1989,” he says. “7-Eleven had a promotion where if you bought a slurpee or a big gulp you got a pack of hockey cards. I was hooked from there on.”
“I still have complete sets from 1968 right up to the present.”
Price collects mostly hockey related material, focusing on goalie and Toronto Maple Leaf memorabilia, things that link back to his childhood.
The most valued part to Price’s collection is his five O’Peche Wayne Gretzky rookie cards.
“I have three that are just in the $500 to $600 range and the other ones probably $1,500 to $2,000… or something in there.”
Some of the other things in Price’s collection are autographed jerseys and pucks (300) from players he’s met.
The hockey card market has seen many trends over the years, collectors have seen their value in cards fluctuate, yet the overall cost of the cards continues to rise. This is a situation that Price feels makes it difficult to attract new blood to the hobby.
“To keep hobbies going we need the younger people in it,” says Price.
The average pack of cards costs around five dollars. “There’s not many eight, 10 and 11-year-olds that can afford to buy too much of that.”
Price finds the collecting business is now being done more by wealthier people who have disposable incomes.
The only way the hobby is being passed down, Price says, are through dads who are in their late 30s, early 40s who use to come to his old store in Centre Village Mall with their kids, buying cards together, using this as a way to build a father-son bond.
“The more you can do with them the better. I have two boys and they collect with me and we just have fun doing it together, even if we’re at the kitchen table looking at cards in the binder.”
Not only has the business evolved but so have the cards themselves since there are numerous speciality cards now created.
In the mid to late ‘90s Price says jersey cards, which have pieces of hockey jerseys fused within or autograph cards were the high end ones, but now you can get those in just about every pack you buy.
The newest thing card companies do is make what are called “Swatch” cards for autograph and jersey cards. Cards now have eight or 10 different pieces of jerseys or different autographs collaborated on just one card, but are numbered so there’s only a limited quantity produced.
“Sometimes it’s an investment, but most times I do this as a hobby because you’re never going to get rich selling cards,” says Claude Menard, a collector from Calgary who came down for the show and has been collecting since he was eight years old back in the ‘60s.  
Menard buys and sells card collections mostly to expand his own, but also does it to help friends and family get rid of collections they don’t want anymore.
He says the business is like a big family, especially at card shows.
“You watch out for each other. When we do a show, if someone steals a card off your table, you got quite a few guys that are ready to go after (them).”
He says by the time the police get there the thief will be gone.
As a collector dealer, Menard says you have to be careful how you sell to people, since it creates a bond with customers. If you mistreat or try to rip someone off, word gets out and no one will want to deal, adds Menard, who’s been selling cards since the 90s.
“That’s the most rewarding thing with this hobby, it lets me give things to people that I enjoy dealing with.”
However, Menard doesn’t just sell his collectables. He loves to give away some merchandise just to get a reaction out of people, since he has no kids to pass his collection onto.