Gary Ablett Snr and Jr team up with signature trading card as collecting experiences renaissance
GARY Ablett Sr and Jr are among footy’s greatest ever players, making their autographs among the game’s most coveted. The two have come together to sign a limited number of trading cards that has collectors going gaga.
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REMEMBER the feeling of busting open your new pack of footy cards, popping the gum in your gob and then rifling through your haul for your favourite player?
There are plenty of collectors who do and, while many of the cards are too valuable to compromise with gum these days, the hobby is experiencing a renaissance.
At the centre of the hype is the chase for what is fast becoming one of the most coveted footy cards of all time, signed by Geelong’s legendary father-son combination, Gary Ablett Sr and Jr.
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Redemptions for the dual-signature card, released this month in Select’s Legacy product, are selling for more than $1500 on eBay as collectors scramble to own one of only 100 produced.
Select founder Grant Copley says the card, along with the Legacy collection, has helped stimulate the market.
“Gary Ablett Sr, over the years, has been a difficult signature to get hold of,” Copley told the Herald Sun.
“Gary’s been not that available for things like signing cards or jumpers, so we had an opportunity to get him to sign and we approached Gary Jr as well.
“It was a one-off, fortuitous situation where we got both guys together and they both agreed.
“Both are very popular and the number of signature cards in the marketplace for both of them is very limited, which has obviously helped the popularity of the card.
“It’s two of the best players of all time, from different eras, who just happen to be father-son.”
Copley isn’t a household name and that’s just the way he likes it, but hardcore collectors know the 74-year-old as the Godfather of the modern AFL trading card world.
He started Select as a magazine distribution company in 1983, before launching footy stickers in 1990 and then grabbing the licence to AFL cards in 1993.
Remember those sheets of footy stickers that were inserted in the Herald Sun in the early 1990s? The sticker book with Gary Ablett Sr taking a massive hanger on the front? That was Copley.
“With the Herald Sun, we inserted full sheets of stickers, about 12 on a page and we ran with that for three or four years. It was a really good partnership and we put hundreds of thousands of sheets of stickers in the paper,” he said.
“We had a really good relationship with the Herald Sun and it was a great promotion that helped both. It established the sticker market.”
With the mid-1990s emergence of NBA star Michael Jordan and the influx of basketball trading cards in the Australian market, Copley says footy collectors benefited.
“We released our first collection in 1993, It was a very basic collection, but we actually had a Tony Lockett and I think maybe Jason Dunstall signatures, we weren’t all that experienced with what we were doing in those days,” he said.
“It’s been quite a journey — we’re probably one of the longest serving licensees with the AFL, there’s not too many that lasted 25 years-plus.”
While Select celebrates its quarter century, Copley says Legacy wasn’t meant to commemorate the milestone.
“As it’s turned out, the title probably works out pretty well to mark the milestone. It’s a landmark collection,” he said.
He says the 1996 Hall of Fame product has stood the test of time as the most popular and sought after, but gone are the days of mass-produced cards, with Select listening to collectors to help protect their investments.
“We expect Legacy to sell out in the coming weeks and that’s good for collectors,” he said.
“These days, purely for the sake of the market and the investment, print runs are vastly reduced.
“You can’t overproduce anymore, if people are going to invest, you need to have limited supply of product.”
Copley says he hasn’t thought much about his own legacy, but he still gets a buzz knowing the hobby is something so widely enjoyed.
“There’s always been talk that technology for kids would kill the card game off, but it still holds a place,” he said.
“It’s one of those things that’s just endured.
“It’s still driven by people opening little packets of cards.
“A very basic product, but it’s just something that people have always enjoyed doing.
“It’s always a thrill to know that you’ve got a product out there that helps parents connect with their kids.”
GRANT COPLEY’S MOST COVETED AFL CARDS
2016: Patrick Dangerfield Brownlow Card
First booklet redemption card incorporating a replica Brownlow Medal.
Listed price: $600
2001: James Hird AFL Authentic Series
Features all AFL captains’ signature cards.
Listed price: $2700
1996: Dick Reynolds Hall of Fame Legend
Signatures of the first eight Legends inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame.
Listed price: $2200
2004: Autographed Triple Brownlow card featuring Nathan Buckley, Adam Goodes and Mark Ricciuto
Listed price: $3000
1996: Bob Skilton, Dick Reynolds and Ian Stewart Centenary Year special album card
This card featured the three living triple Brownlow medallists.
Listed price: $1500
1999: Tony Lockett autographed card
Commemorates Plugger’s goal kicking record in 1999. Limited to 66 cards only.
Listed price: $2900
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