The Truth About Patch Cards

Why Some are Legit 1 of 1s and Some are Not

Cover Image: 3 Patch Cards I Own in my PC (image created with canva.com)

This question comes from Nate Hunt on my YouTube channel, “aren’t all patch cards 1 of 1? It would be impossible for two cards to have the same patch. Am I wrong?”

Image: Screenshot from my YouTube Channel EDI Sportscards

This is a great question, and one of the reasons why I love my YouTube community so much is because you guys are so smart and think of the best questions. So here’s the answer.

Nate, you are correct.

All patch cards are 1 of 1s. You’re not wrong about that, but here’s the problem.

Not all patch cards are created equal.

And this is where a lot of collectors get themselves into trouble, especially long time collectors who decide to jump into collecting modern cards. And I am speaking from experience here, I did not fully understand this concept until I started to see the NBA Logomans go for big bucks.

That’s when I realized, “oh! my patch cards are not going to be worth that much money!”

Image: Three “Everything Else” Patch Cards (Matthew Tkachuck, Patrick Mahomes, and Gary Carter) (Image taken by author)

Why are Some Patch Cards Worth Lots of Money and Some are Not?

This is the secret to the sportscard hobby. And the minute you get this concept, you will take your collecting to a whole new level. And here’s why?

Not all patch cards are created equal.

I know that might seem obvious to some of you, but regardless of how you think about it, there are tons of collectors who get this concept wrong and because of that are overpaying for patch cards that will never be worth more than a few hundred bucks.

The Game Used Myth

Whether you’re new or old to sportscard collecting, there is a huge myth surrounding game-used patches. And here’s why? Old time collectors are not used to this patch phenomenon.

Back in the old days, a game used patch meant a game used jersey. Yes, the whole thing, not just a tiny little swatch that Fanatics cut up, in order to shove into a sportscard.

And this is the problem for old time collectors.

When we see a game-used patch inside a card, we assume that must mean its a valuable card. But that’s not true. There are two markets in the sportscard hobby right now, there’s the high end card market and then there’s the “everything else” market.

So while a game used jersey would be worth a lot more money than just a player-worn jersey that doesn’t mean a game-used patch is going to fetch thousands and thousands of dollars.

And that’s the myth.

Therefore here’s what you should recognize.

What about a game used jersey from a significant game? Or a game used jersey that commemorates a significant milestone in a player’s career? Would that be worth even more money?

And when you start asking these types of questions, that’s when you reveal the secret to understanding Patch Cards.

The Legit 1 of 1 Patch Cards

If you scroll back up, you can see a photo of three of my favorite patch cards in my PC. One is the Upper Deck Artifacts, Matthew Tkachuck game-used patch card, second is the Flawless Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill player-worn patch card and third is the Topps Gary Carter game-used patch card.

All three of these cards would be considered “everything else patch cards,” and none of them will ever be worth a lot of money, therefore they will never be part of the high end card market.

But why is that? What makes these cards so different than high end cards and thus they will all hit a ceiling in value?

And the reason comes down to one thing. None of these patches are from a significant milestone in the player’s career.

The Ah-Ha Moment!

Image: Topps Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch 1 of 1 (image created with canva.com)

Why is the Paul Skenes MLB Debut patch card a legit 1 of 1? Whereas all three patch cards I own are not?

And the answer is, the MLB Debut patch is a significant milestone in Skenes career.

Think about it for a second.

How many MLB Debut patches can be manufactured?

There is only one patch that was sewn onto Paul Skenes first ever game used jersey he will ever wear. That means the MLB Debut Patch is a legit 1 of 1. This isn’t manufactured rarity - this is legit reality.

And this is the mind shift that every collector needs to make.

Therefore Nate, technically you are correct. All patch cards are 1 of 1s, but unless your patch comes from a milestone in a player’s career, then its not a legit 1 of 1. And cutting up a jersey to make 15 patch cards is not the same as the “whole” MLB Debut patch.

The Future of Collecting

Fanatics has already announced that they are going to do the same thing with the NBA, where they make a debut patch for NBA players. And this is a brilliant idea. After all a broken clock is right twice a day, and sometimes Fanatics does get things right.

Unfortunately, I don’t think they were able to get a Debut Patch sewn onto Cooper Flagg’s jersey, so I don’t know what the most valuable NBA Debut patch card is going to be, but its coming soon.

What Should You Do With Your Patch Cards?

Here’s how I see the patch card market.

If you want to become a high end collector, then you need to start looking for patch cards that are from significant milestones in a players career. And this is very hard to do, since most of the patch cards in the market are simply manufactured to fool us.

And the sportscard influencers don’t seem to help that confusion.

I am a long time collector. I have been collecting cards since the 80s, so when the new patch cards came out, I was very confused. Player-worn, not guaranteed to come from any game or event, special relic, and of course game-used. There are so many variations that its hard to know what you’re buying.

And that’s the point.

Fanatics and Panini wanted to create confusion and subterfuge in the marketplace because that’s how you manufacture a global magic trick. And that’s what we are— we are the witness to a global magic trick. Fanatics and Panini are using slight of hand to fool us into thinking all patch cards are valuable, when the truth is they are not.

But this is why I decided to create the A.I. bot.

Which patch cards will be worth a lot of money and which patch cards will just be fool’s gold?

Are you starting to see the slight of hand now?

Yes, the truth is some big name collectors bought these patch cards. And yes some of those big name collectors got duped by the slight of hand.

And I imagine, when my A.I. bot starts exposing which patch cards are worth a ton of money and which ones are not, then some of those big name collectors will probably be very mad at me.

But can you blame them?

After all, this newsletter is going to take all the mystery out of collecting. This should be really good news for everyone. Right now, Fanatics seems to have full control over the magic trick and unfortunately they seem to think collectors won’t catch on to what they are doing.

But I have news for Fanatics.

Those days are over. Anyone that is subscribed to this newsletter is going to see the secrets behind the magic trick before Fanatics can even say, “pick a card, any card.”

Once the A.I. bot is fully operational, everyone subscribed to this newsletter is going to see the truth about collecting. You’re going to know which cards are high end and which cards are not.

That’s important if you want to stop overpaying for cards.

So the next time you see the hobby “ooohing and ahhing” over the newest patch card—you’ll know whether or not that “oohing and ahhing” is real or just part of an elaborate magic trick that Fanatics is playing on collectors.

But let me leave you with one final thought.

Just because a patch card isn’t going to be worth millions of dollars, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it or collect it. That’s not the purpose of this newsletter. The reason I started this newsletter and the A.I. bot is to bring more transparency to the high end card market.

As you can see from the three patch cards I own in my PC, I don’t care that they are “everything patch cards.” I own them because I want to own them, but I would be very upset if I found out later that I severely overpaid for them, when the truth is they won’t be worth a lot of money.

That is the purpose of this newsletter.

If you want to know know everything there is to know about the high end card market, then you should subscribe to this newsletter. But more importantly, if you want to stop overpaying for cards that will never be worth a lot of money, you should also subscribe right now

There is no reason why you shouldn’t by cards in the “everything else card market,” but the last thing you wan to do is overpay an arm a leg for your “everything else” cards.

So, I want to thank you for subscribing and I want to thank Nate for the question, if you have your own burning question about collecting cards or the high end card market, just leave a comment here or get in contact with me on IG or YouTube.

As always, this is Doc saying, I’ll see you in the next one.