Types of Baseball Cards You Can Collect

There are four main companies that produce baseball cards: Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer and Donruss/Playoff. The most popular and easiest cards to find in stores are those made by Topps and Upper Deck. Each of these companies sells sets of cards. You can either purchase a full set from a baseball card store or show or you can put together a set by buying enough packs of cards to collect each card in the set. The basic set put out each year by each company is made up of 500 or more cards. Cards feature posed pictures of Major League Baseball players as well as action shots. Within the basic set, there are several subsets that each has a special theme. For example, a card set might have a special subset of homerun heroes within the larger basic set they sell that year. If you buy individual packs of baseball cards to build your set you’ll have a chance at getting insert cards. These are special cards that are printed in limited quantities and are inserted into packs. Insert cards are usually worth more money than basic cards because there are fewer of them produced each year.

For serious baseball collectors there are premium and specialty cards available. Premium cards come in sets and are printed by the main baseball card companies. These cards are more expensive, but feature extra perks. For example, parallel sets of premium cards are the same as the basic set, but are fancier. They might have bolder colors or special borders. In addition to premium sets, serious baseball card collectors like to collect rookie cards. A rookie card is a player’s first baseball card. The year that the player is placed on a team’s roster he becomes a rookie. Rookie cards become very valuable when the player goes on to have a successful career. Autographed baseball cards are another great find for devoted baseball card collectors. There are two types of autographed cards: those with autographs signed on the actual card and those with autographs cut from other sources that are glued onto the card. This second type are known as cut autos. Cut autos are usually created for players who are no longer living.

A new type of baseball cards has just come out in the last few years and may totally change card collecting in the future. Digital baseball cards are now available. These cards don’t come printed on paper like traditional baseball cards. Instead, they are purchased and stored on the Internet. One of the major companies, Topps, has already had great success with their line of computer-based cards called eTopps.

Whatever type of cards you choose to collect, you’re sure to find hours of enjoyment in with your new hobby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_card

According to information in the selection, which of the following would a serious baseball card collector be most likely to own?