With trading cards, these details are crucial for later value in the millions

• Trading cards highly coveted by athletes in the USA
• Most expensive trading card sold for $12.6 million
• Jürgen Schmieder: His son collects trading cards

MY SON IS HERE on the trail of something really big; but it took a huge shock to get there. He decorated his room with hockey player trading cards and was proud of it – until a friend pointed out that there was an Auston Matthews rookie card hanging there, second row above the headboard of the bed. In excellent condition, it’s worth $2,500. Glued to the wall, of course: almost zero.

The initial shock also subsided when it turned out that it wasn’t the Young Guns Rookie PSA 10, but only the Marquee Rookies, which is only worth just under $100. But: $100, anyway, and since then my son has used the accumulated knowledge of a hockey fanatic eighth grader to earn his first million before the age of 14 – by buying and selling sports memorabilia.

That’s why Tading Cards are a mega business in the USA

If you think the Germans are collectors, you have no idea what’s going on in US sports. If you said trading cards are like paninis, you could also say that Tom Brady is something like Blake Bortles (also a former NFL quarterback but in a completely different league). For example, a hockey ticket doesn’t get much more value just because it’s rarer or because the player signed it. Some cards even contain a piece of the player’s jersey, which is then already sealed in a plastic box.

It is not only decisive whether and on what occasion it was worn, but also: which piece, in which color. White or the club colors are not worth much because most of the area of ​​the home (club dark colour) and away (white) kits look like this. The order otherwise: different colors of sleeve or collar, crest, number, name, captain’s mark – the most valuable is the NHL logo, which is placed on all jerseys at the tie knot.

Mickey Mantle’s trading card sells for $12.6 million

It’s not just a passion for collecting, it’s also: business, the ten most expensive cards in history have been sold in the past three years. First place: 1952 baseball player Mickey Mantle; auctioned in August 2022 for $12.6 million.

Important for my son, because he is unlikely to come across one of these particularly valuable cards by accident: the trading cards of active players are sometimes worth millions; you just need the rarest possible one from someone who, perhaps a little surprisingly, has a mega-career.

Because he plays in the youth of the Los Angeles Kings, he sometimes catches Kings players or injured players of the respective opponent after practice. If they sign a card when they come off the ice, the college treasury should soon be well stocked. That’s his theory.

Son of Jürgen Schmieder big fan of Franz Wagner

Only: To ensure that he always has the right card with him, he needs a large number of cards, until Moritz Seider’s rookie card is included, for example – which is why he could now paper his room four times with NHL professionals and in the money store it’s more empty than a gold doubloon bathroom is hip. It doesn’t matter, he says, at some point the golden Willy Wonka ticket will be there; then he wouldn’t have to play for his college scholarship; but as a trading card mogul I can only study for fun.

And he has another ace up his sleeve: The German basketball star Franz Wagner got along so well with Finnie during a visit to LA that he gave him an Orlando Magic cap, which he had given him on Draft Day received – and signed it. Not only since then has he been the biggest Franz Wagner fan (he is, of course, also the biggest Mo Wagner fan); but of course he’s proclaimed that no matter what happens, he’ll never, ever, ever sell that hat. Good boy.

To person: Jürgen Schmieder is a columnist at Sports Illustrated. He has played soccer at the University of Michigan and with Jahn Regensburg. The correspondent for the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” has lived in Los Angeles since 2013.

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