Last week I found myself unencumbered for a couple of hours so I headed to Tim's Sports Cards, my local card shop (LCS), or at least the closest one to me, at about 30 minutes away. I picked out a few cards and some packs, and headed home/back to work. One of the cards I picked up is a 2014 Topps Strata Davante Adams base RC. I paid $.75 for it. Now, I absolutely could not believe that a Davante Adams rookie of any sort would sell for that little, so you bet I snatched it up. And then I did a little homework.
You see kids, once upon a time there were several card manufacturers who had licensing rights from both the NFL and the NFL Players Association, so they could make real, complete sets of cards with player photos, AND team names. Since 2016, though, the only company to make full-line NFL cards in Panini, and there's nothing wrong with them, but I like choices. And I'm not really counting the weird stuff you get from Leaf with lots of airbrushed-out logos or whatever.
Though perusing Ebay and Beckett, it certainly does not seem like the Strata sets, like the Adams I have, have held their value well which is a shame. I do know that Strata is a lower-end set, but it does have good characteristics. I don't know if Topps super-produced them like during the Junk Wax Era, or they weren't super appealing to collectors, or that they didn't retain value when Topps lost their license, but they're pretty cheap, and in my opinion undervalued.
Let's look at the card:
Admittedly, I have strange taste in a lot of things, but I think this card looks pretty good. a big action shot of the player, minimal bordering that doesn't detract from the main image, design colors that match up well with the team colors, a hint of foil, and a pretty cool artistic, abstract background design. The cards are printed on a really nice, thick slab of cardboard that seem to be about 25% thicker than the average card, which is nice in the hand, but makes it tough to put into a top loader.
Beckett lists this card for $1.50, which is the sale price on the penny sleeve. I got it from the half-off bin, so all good there. They also show nine variations of this card, not counting the printing plates: Black, Bronze (/150), Emerald (/10), Gold, Quartz (/1), Sapphire (/50), Topaz (/99), Retail Base, and Retail Purple.The difference between the retail and hobby cards is the thickness. The hobby cards are significantly thicker, and the hobby base is valued at about $.25 more, according to Beckett. So there are nine variations here to collect, again, not counting the printing plates. There is one plate available on Ebay right now for $199, but I'm a hard pass on that until I assemble the rest of the cards.
With a limited number of variations, low price point, and one true Grail card (the 1/1 Quartz), this seems like it ought to be a pretty fun Epic Quest. Let's think of this as the Seven Shard Quest from Ernest Cline's Ready Player Two. In it, Parzival and the rest of the High Five have to find the Seven Shard's of the Siren to...well, it's a new book, so no spoilers. Anyway, it should be a cool challenge to undertake.
A search of Beckett Marketplace shows one Gold and several Base Retail variations for sale, and Ebay shows a couple of Gold variations as well as an "Orange" #'d 1/99, which has to be Topaz, but has a Beckett value of $6, but the seller is asking $299.99 (!!!!!). I'll DM him and see if I can talk some sense into him. At least now I have somewhere to start...off we go!
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