Are Event-Used Memorabilia Worth Anything?

[TRDouble]

Are Event-Used Memorabilia worth anything?

Not just in value, but personally, are they worth anything to YOU?

I was cleaning out some cards and ran across some UD Game Jerseys. I want to clean stuff out and as I flipped through them, deciding what to keep, I ran across a Glenn Anderson (with a weird red swatch), Lanny McDonald and Bob Bourne, both all white. I planned to keep those three, even the odd Anderson, then I realized they were Event-Used.

They felt worthless to me at that point.

I guess I can understand it for rookies, but these guys have played enough NHL games. I am sure I have at least a game-used Anderson in my ITG collection.

I think I will stick them in with other cards and give them away.

[Kessel_fan_87]

There second tier for me. Right below GU. and right above manufactured junk. Just my 2 cents.

[87sluggo]

I'm pretty sure the events those swatches came from were the Old-Timers Classics games, the retired guys vs. the local police team or whoever. If you've ever been to one of those games, and the tickets are super-cheap btw, then you probably had a great time watching all the shenanigans. Plus where else are you gonna see Bryan Trottier, Glenn Anderson, Billy Smith, Theo Fleury, Lanny McDonald, Jimmy Mann, Cliffy Ronning (#7 in your program, #1 in our hearts) and a bunch of other guys play "hockey" all on the same ice?

So yeah, to me the cards might not have any monetary value but they do bring back some good memories :)

[Tripredacus]

Honestly, I consider any jersey swatch in a card to be the same. Having the actual jersey would be so much better.

[piper1]

If you want to get sure fire Game Used Jersey pieces start collecting Glen Murray. I can almost guarantee that your next box of any Upper Deck Product won't disappoint you. They must own everything he ever wore.

[30ranfordfan]

Are they worth anything? Since the card companies keep making them, we keep buying products loaded with them, and they do sell for money on the secondary market..... I'm going to say "yes".

Rookie Cards - I'll add them. Ranford has (thankfully) had very few over the years. Just an SPGU set that contained them one time. I don't mass collect any other player... so there is no such thing as a "must have" jersey card, set, etc for me. That lets me be picky, and I have absolutely no interest in owning any (aside from what I've already mentioned).

Glenn Anderson is a great example. I don't have any real need to own a lot of his stuff, so I'm happy with a nice looking Jersey / Stick card from ITG Franchises. I could be convinced to "upgrade" to a nicer card, I guess, but I'd never go anything that came from a HOF game. I'd want a piece of a jersey he wore with the Oilers.

[Gallinator]

I wouldn't have a problem with event-worn jersey cards for rookies per se EXCEPT for the practice of having a player wear several jerseys at a time for a few minutes, then take them off and put on several more, rinse and repeat, etc...thereby taking any possibility of that jersey feeling "special" and killing it. So we as collectors generally assign a very low inherent value to these cards (as seen on the secondary market for cards with white swatches) and instead look at whether it is multi-colored, seamed, soiled, etc. in order to assign a value, if any.

I don't mind event-worn swatches for old-timers, as it was probably worn in a charity event as stated above and there is at least a reasonable expectation that the piece in question actually touched the player at some point.

[pwaldo]

I wouldn't buy them but if people were giving them to me for free I would take them

[mw83krk]

I try to stay away from event-used and personally don't value them too much.

[BGH]

They don't mean much to me. Luckily, most of the players I collect don't have memorabilia cards and those that do have low selling prices. If it was cheap, I might get it to have signed in-person. I think the madness with parallels outnumbering base set, cardboard touched by genuine athletes, nose-hair cards, genuine sweat-stained towel cards, etc. etc. ad nauseum ruined cards for me for 10 or so years. I no longer buy boxes. I am not even sure why manufacturers even pretend to make sets any more. Set of 100, box has 20 packs of 3 cards, etc. It looks very similar to what killed comic book collecting, toys, and any number of manufactured collectible hobbies. Again, if cheap enough and I could get it signed...sure. Otherwise I can buy jerseys for the price of a few boxes. I rarely go to card shows any more. First, I am a hockey collector living in a region that barely notices hocky. Thank you web! Then I see sparse tables, with a few boxes, maybe a few packs, and a case or two of Player X triple nose-hair braid, scratch-n-sniff armpit swatch, and owie-used band-aid. Maybe Toronto Expo might be different, but nothing near me is.

Anyway, I strayed a bit. No, they mean little to me...unless I can get them signed in person. But I also mainly collect people the hobby has left behind or who have retired. Maybe that is why I still collect...a bit. Finally, maybe with limits I set for myself, there is little for me to be overwhelmed by either in sheer numbers or variants.