Derrick Thomas was one of the best players in the history of the Chiefs. He was a dominant player and a HOF inductee that changed the face of the position. He also died very early on in his life, and has a lot of die hard fans. As a result of his shortened longevity, he has very few autographs and very few memorabilia cards. The guy is the definition of a ghost in this hobby, no pun intended.
2011 National Treasures is one of the first sets to have a memorabilia card numbered over 25 of Thomas. Previously, there have been a few cards here and there, but they were always low numbered, and they were rarely patches. In this year’s NT, the first patches from the product are selling at prices that are usually reserved for autographs, and on top of that, autographs of good players. Hell, Thomas’ memorabilia cards are outselling Walter freaking Payton!
Check out some of these prices:
Derrick Thomas Emblems of the Hall 3 Color Patch /25
Derrick Thomas Emblems of the Hall 2 Color Patch /25
Derrick Thomas Emblems of the Hall 3 Color Patch /25 – #2
If the hobby had maintained the insertion ratio of patch cards as they were in the early part of the 2000s, I could easily see prices like this being the standard for everyone. Now that the patch cards have flooded the market in the last few years, its sad it takes a player like this to achieve these types of prices. Derrick Thomas is almost the football equivalent of a player like Shawn Kemp in basketball, whose jersey cards were breaking triple digits back last year. Even the basic inserts are selling for more than any other base card in the product
As the hobby becomes more about over loading products with jersey cards that dont break 2 dollars on the secondary market, there will need to be an adjustment in the way products are built to prevent box prices from overshadowing value return even more than already do. Derrick Thomas should be the rule, not the exception to the rule, but overproduction has taken that away from the collecting base. Color me extremely disappointed.
i completely agree. card companies obviously have not learned their lesson of the mid to late 80’s & early 90’s. waaaaay toooooooo much product that is being billed as “high end” has been reduced to common card status. when you fill every box with “relics” & “threads” you miss the mark of creating rare “hits” that ALL of us collectors seek. On a further note, when you include autograph cards of players that simply will not play or make any kind of difference in their respective sport you kill the over all value of pulling an autograph. for example: when you pull an autograph “hit” from a pack and realize that the player featured was drafted in the 7th round near the “Mr. Irrellevant” area, you then realize that the rediculas price you paid for the box has failed to return at least a ” break even” value. I say eliminate these worthless “hits” and replace them with rare find gems of players that either have made a mark or are expected to eventually make one.
his leaf certified patch cards were doing 300+ and the emerald /25 did 500-800… the base jerseys sold over 100