What would you do with a damaged base card?
I’m sure we’ve all been faced with this decision. What do you do when you have a current year base card that is damaged. It’s not a rookie card, memorabilia card, autograph, or even an insert, just a plain base card.
I was sorting a box of 2008 Press Pass Eclipse when a Tony Stewart card must have gotten loose in turn 3, and ended up on the floor. I continued sorting the cards and didn’t even notice he was missing, until later when I discovered that I had rolled over it with my chair a couple of times. It’s a $2-$3 card, but yet I can’t seem to muster the strength to throw it away. If you look at the scan, you can see the damage. It has a couple creases from the top right corner to the bottom left, and then across the middle of the card.
As a collector, I can’t bring myself to toss any cards.
What would you do?
March 12, 2008 at 2:44 pm
If it is a player I collect, I use it as a bookmark (I currently have a “Die Cut” Victor Martinez, another V-Mart and a Yzerman inserted into three different books).
Any other ones I toss…I know it is tough, but what are you going to do?
March 12, 2008 at 3:00 pm
A card is a card, damage or not it’s still worth something. From a diehard collector, I have over 3,000 plus cards and I know that atleast 3 of those cards I have bought damaged. I’d keep it in the collection even if it was a Kyle Petty or Mayfield card, a true collector keeps all cards, mint or not.
March 12, 2008 at 3:43 pm
If it were me, I’d throw it in a box of commons that will be leaving my possession in a bulk deal. (All non-HOF, stars or RCs go in there — along with any off-condition stuff.)
March 12, 2008 at 3:59 pm
are you bored? throw it away, you probably pulled 2 of them anyways.
March 12, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Please tell me where you can get $2.00 to $3.00 dollars for a base card of anybody……and toss the card!!!!!!
March 12, 2008 at 4:41 pm
since all tony stewart ever really does is whine and cry about stuff, i would call him and tell him i ran over his card with an office chair and that the tires/wheels on the chair were really good and he should try them on his car next week. he is the worst of the worst of millionaire athletes. a second place finish and all he can do is gripe about tires. he cant even thank is fans or pit crew. that card deserved to be run over by more than an office chair.
March 12, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I use them to create fantasy careers by blending them and then by some way or another get to decide wich of the cards in the actual pile gets to be my next season, then adding up career totals etc. Pretty good when life is at a halt.
Fredrik
Gothenburg, Sweden
March 12, 2008 at 5:56 pm
In the bin unless it is for my personal collection. Maybe clothespin it in the spokes of my bike?
March 12, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Put aside your damaged cards and at the end of the year donate them with any other unwanted cards to a children’s hospital. It will give some kids something fun while they are in the hospital, plus you can use the donation as a tax deduction.
March 12, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Toss it, base cards are a dime a dozen and usually end up being given away, or garbaged.
Throw it in a shoe box to entertain the kids when they come to visit.
March 12, 2008 at 6:49 pm
THROW IT AWAY! i’m sure that there is another base card somewhere like it in that same box. there’s always extra base cards in a box. either that i,m sure you’ll come across another one somewhere. “GO throw it away GO”
March 12, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I would throw it like a chinese star.
March 12, 2008 at 7:05 pm
id run over it in my car so it had tyre marks on it then sell it on ebay as a 1/1 sp “car used”
March 12, 2008 at 7:47 pm
They make racing cards?
March 12, 2008 at 8:36 pm
NASCAR is a Sport? and Drivers are Athletes? What’s next, Chess as a sport? Bloggers? Speed Typers are Athletes?
March 12, 2008 at 9:11 pm
yes unfortuntly it is ,so is horse riders and bull riders,and crickets
March 13, 2008 at 4:33 am
put it under the back tire of your car and do a burnout! could also be clothes-pinned to your bike rim to make that claketty-clak-clak sound like I did with my Nolan Ryan rookies when I was a kid. Jeez, I wish I had all those cards back *sigh*
March 13, 2008 at 7:48 am
I would toss it. I have done that very same thing several times. My daughter sat on a game used once that was sitting on the edeg of my bed and I sleeved that one right after. Damage was minimal but it is still damaged. Couldn’t bring myself to toss a game used though.
March 13, 2008 at 7:59 am
I agree with OC.. I say if its something I can do while sitting it is not a sport.. I mean we can all make left hand turns. Spped up and slow down. But can we all hit a baseball, dunk a Basketball. NASCAR is not a sport…. As my Friends have a saying Non Athletic Sport Created for All Well I do not want to offend anyone with the rest
March 13, 2008 at 8:09 am
THROW AWAY ALL BASE CARDS, they are a waste of cardboard.
March 13, 2008 at 9:45 am
if it was me i would send it to Upper Deck explain and they will probably send you a new one. I put a 1/100 card through the wash by mistake, and I sent it to Upper Deck and they replaced it.
March 13, 2008 at 10:44 am
For those that don’t NASCAR is a sport, just try to drive a car into a corner at nearly 200 mph without loosing control and crashing into a wall when is 100+ degrees in the car, you’re wearing a firesuit and heavy helmet. And do that 1000 times.
Base cards are not a waste of cardboard. Good grief, grow up. Between the photography, the stats, and personal information, they are wonderful. Card collecting is not all about autographs and jersey patches.
As for the Stewart, I’d either give it to my wife (a Stewart fan) or toss it if it’s damaged. If you’re opening a box, you probably got another, although if it’s the only one you got, you might include it as a placeholder in your set until you can upgrade.
March 13, 2008 at 12:23 pm
racing is not a sport
March 13, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Any card, even if it is a rookie or insert along with the base cards get put into a “damages” box and then given to kids in an elementary school where my cousin teachs. It’s a private inner-city schhol and most of the kids still don’t have a lot. When they get these cards, damaged or not, they love it. I usually give her the box over Christmas break when she is in town. When school starts back up in Jar. they always ask if she got another box of cards for them. She gives them out usually on Fridays to them for good behavior. I also used to give them to a schhol where my Mother worked with mentally handicaped children with many having CP, but the cards made their day. I used to toss them, but now I have a good cause for them to go to.
March 13, 2008 at 1:42 pm
If it were a Jeff Gordon base card I’d use it as a target for darts. You could always burn the Stewart card and watch the smoke. Tony = Smoke.
March 13, 2008 at 4:45 pm
throw the card away..as far as those of you who say racing is not a sport, quit watching or attending soccer, baseball, football, hockey, basketball. who wants to sit and watch or attend pro sports games of overpriced and overpaid people who if they stump their toe on a crack because they are too illiterate to read, too stupid too to watch where they are walking, or shoot steroids when they know they are no good or almost washed up, or shooting, killing animals, doing drugs, stealing,buying whore’s or fighting in clubs over someone looking at their rented ho’s, cars, suits and flashy jewelry. if i stump my toe i still go to work everyday. i don’t sit at home for a week or two and whine and cry about it. do you hear about any of these problems in nascar? no because these guys are busy doing their jobs 7 days a week 40 weeks a year ( not including what they do when their season is over). nascar must be a sport because every sunday there is between 150,000 to 250,000 fans at a nascar race not to mention the millions watching it on t.v.. how many people attend football, baseball hockey, or basketball games on any given night? not that many.now when all your sports and sportsteams clean up their acts for 50 years then you have nothing to say about ” NASCAR IS A SPORT?
March 14, 2008 at 3:43 am
I toss base cards (I’d only consider keeping GU and short print cards) - nothing irks me more than opening a fresh pack of cards from UD and having them with creased corners, serrated from the pack sealer machine, or creased from the presses before they are even cut and placed in packs. I wish UD cared about the print and packaging aspect so I don’t have to throw away so many cards from a base box of UD product.
2008 UD should be called “Home of the Miscut cards”. I received 3 boxes of 2008 UD series 1 today. The very first pack I opened had 4 of the 20 cards miscut (and I could tell you in which order those cards are on a sheet since many of those matched up that you could tell). I hope the other 15 packs in that box are not that bad, wasting 64 cards as I try to build the set.
Maybe I should quit buying UD base set boxes to build the set and just buy a H-C set (it would be a lot cheaper, anyway than plunking down about $200 per series).
March 14, 2008 at 10:41 am
I say keep it. If your trying to build the set, or collect just the players cards, keep it till you find the same card in a better condition, or till you can trade it for something else.
March 14, 2008 at 10:43 am
And I have to say Nascar is more of a sport than golf is.
March 14, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Nascar is a SPORT! People that don’t believe it is need to go watch one in person. I bet your opinion will change. Not very many people would even try to drive a race car at 200 mph. There’s alot of people that can’t even drive 55. Plenty of people try to play baseball, football, basketball, etc. That’s about all I have to say about that!
March 14, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Evidently the wheel on your chair was made by GOODYEAR
March 15, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Do what I do, pawn it off to your younger brother. At least it will stay in the family, and if “Smoke” dies in a wreck, the card, even though damaged, could still bring a few extra bucks. Then you could steal it back from your brother.
March 16, 2008 at 6:47 am
Racing is not a sport. Just because it’s incredibly difficult and takes a ton of skill, it doesn’t mean it’s a sport. Please stop trying to correlate degree of difficulty with whether something is a sport or not. I’m sorry, but I majored in Recreation Management in college and you very quickly learn that a sport is determined by whether or not the competitor can be stopped from reaching his goal directly, or indirectly, by another competitor. In NASCAR, it’s indirectly because technically the cars are not supposed to be touching (unless it’s by accident). Same with Golf, Swimming, Bowling, Etc. In Baseball, Basketball, Football etc, it’s directly
and therefor those are defined as sports and the aforementioned activities are not, they’re competitions. It doesn’t mean they’re any less difficult, important, or entertaining, they’re just different.
March 17, 2008 at 11:32 pm
What are race cards?
Give it to a kid, along with some of your other cards & get them excited.
March 18, 2008 at 1:17 am
Put it on the spokes of your bicycle so you can have that cool custom sound as you race down the driveway to check the mail. LOL. Actually, I must agree with some of the previous posts. I would put it with some of my duplicates and sell them off as a lot. At least that way you’ll make something on it. Remember, something is better than nothing!
March 18, 2008 at 10:45 am
I’ve faced this problem way to many times. I honestly just stick it back in my “base card book(s)” and not worry about it. I feel like i should “put the card out of its misery” but i can’t bring myself to do it (even if its just a normal card with a average player from the 90’s).
K.B.
BaseballYakker.com
March 22, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Man, there are a LOT of idiots responding to this. NASCAR cards are worth WAY more than the other sports!!! Especially the base cards! In my collection, the average value PER CARD of NASCAR is over $2. Baseball and football averages are around 50 cents per card. NBA and NHL are even lower.
I would hold on to the card until I found a Stewart fan who wanted it anyway. Never put a card in your bike spokes–that is just stupid. You can get the same noise with a piece of plastic and a twist tie.
March 23, 2008 at 6:18 am
recycle it. Save a tree.
March 26, 2008 at 2:48 pm
My 2yr old loves to “collect” cards with Daddy. Cards like this are excellent for him since it’ll probably end up in worse shape by the time he’s done “looking” at it anyways. :o)