AFL Cards: A Collector's Guide to Footy Cards

AFL cards are the footy cards Australians actually grew up with: the team sets, the Brownlow predictors, the young guns, put out by Select and TLA each season. If you have only just started looking into afl cards, the good news is that this hobby runs on local rhythms — the card fair, the hobby shop, the mailbag from an Australian submission service — not on whatever the American market tells us to chase.

What are AFL cards?

At its simplest, an AFL card is a licensed card featuring AFL players and clubs. Select and TLA hold the licences that matter, and each year they put out sets built around teams, draft classes and milestones. The structure will feel familiar to anyone who collects nba cards: you get a base set, then the inserts, the parallel versions, the signature cards, the numbered chase cards. The difference is that the names and the demand are ours.

That Australian focus changes how you collect. An American collector chasing a basketball star has to think about Panini and a global market. A local collector chasing a first-year midfielder is reading the same team sheets the card company read. You can pull a future Brownlow winner from a standard pack, and so can the bloke next to you at the card fair.

If you have dabbled in nba basketball cards as well, the big difference is the market. The good AFL sets move through the local community, and the people who buy and sell them live in the same suburbs you do. That keeps prices honest — most of the time.

AFL footy cards: how the hobby works

If you are new to AFL footy cards, the yearly rhythm takes a bit of getting used to. A release drops, the base cards fill out the bulk of the box, and the chase cards are the ones that get people talking. The smart collectors I have met do not chase the latest shiny thing. They build team collections, they hoard young players they reckon will be guns in three years, and they wait.

One thing that separates footy from the American side is that the community is small enough that reputation still matters. At a card fair you can put a card under a loupe, ask another collector what they would pay, and get an honest answer. That is worth more than any spreadsheet.

Rare AFL cards and what makes them rare

People always ask which are the rare AFL cards, and the honest answer is that rarity is a combination of factors, not a single number you can chase. Print run matters, obviously — a card numbered out of 50 is rarer than a base card that came a thousand to a box. But demand matters just as much. An ordinary signature card of a legend is rarer than a base card of a flash-in-the-pan, and yet one sits at the bottom of a box while the other gets the folder treatment.

Things to keep an eye out for:

• Numbered inserts — cards stamped out of a limited run. The lower the number, the louder the bragging rights.
• Signature cards — especially retired legends, Brownlow medallists and coaches. These are the ones serious collectors frame.
• Error cards — the misprinted name, the wrong photo, the missed stat. Footy has had its share, and most collectors will admit the mistakes are half the fun.
• Milestone and theme cards — 200-game players, premiership wraps, best-and-fairest runs. They do not always cost much, but they are what a club collection is built on.

If you want to chase the rarest afl cards, the most useful skill is learning to identify a card before you buy it. Know the set, know the numbering, and check the condition as if your money depended on it — because it does.

Condition is where most sellers and buyers disagree. Corners and edges are easy enough to judge, but centering takes practice. If the borders are visibly lopsided — 55/45 or 60/40 instead of the even 50/50 the graders want — the card slips a whole grade, sometimes more. When in doubt, run the numbers through a centering calculator before you pay a premium.

The fuss over AFL Select cards 2020

If there is one recent release that comes up more than most, it is the AFL Select cards 2020. That year was a mess for footy: the season was interrupted, games moved, crowds disappeared. What that meant for cards was a strange, quiet collecting period — boxes got opened at home, and a lot of packs went to people who had not collected since they were kids.

The 2020 Select set is talked about for a different reason, though. It sits right at the point where the hobby started to tip. After years of footy cards being treated as toys, suddenly collectors were checking print runs, looking up what cards sold for, and treating the good ones as something worth grading. If you are buying into that set now, you are paying for that turning point. Buy it because you like the players, not because someone on a forum told you it was a sure thing.

Where to buy footy cards in Australia

You have three main places to buy, and they each suit a different mood.

• Card fairs: the best way to learn. You can hold the card, check the corner, and ask the seller how long they have had it. Nobody is in a hurry, and that is the point.
• Hobby shops: good for fresh releases, boxes and bricks, and the shop owner usually knows the local collectors by name.
• Online: the biggest range and the quickest way to overpay. Auction sites and Facebook groups are full of photos that flatter a card.

The rule of thumb I have landed on: do your learning at a fair, do your buying from people you can talk to, and go online only when you know exactly what you are looking for.

Grading AFL cards: the postal reality

If you collect seriously, at some point you will think about grading. The process is the same for AFL cards as any other: you send the card off, it comes back in a slab with a score, and the good scores carry a premium. You can go direct to the American services or use an Australian submission service to handle the postage and the paperwork.

The catch is the one collectors rarely talk about up front: postage and turnaround. Cards leave the country and come back months later, and in between you are checking tracking like it is a grand final replay. That is why I only grade cards that genuinely deserve it — a card you would want slabbed for the signature or the rarity, not a base card that might come back at a nine if you are lucky. The PSA vs BGS vs SGC comparison covers the differences between the big services, and it is worth reading before you commit.

Keeping your collection in order

If you collect more than a few teams, a sorting system is not optional. I sort by club first, then by year, then by the card's role in the set — base, insert, signature. It sounds simple, and it should be. The collection you can find instantly is the collection you actually enjoy.

A quick checklist I use when a card comes in, whether it is from a fair, a shop or the mail:

What to check	How to check it	Why it matters
Corners	Loupe or bare eye under a bright lamp	A ding can knock a card out of the top grade
Edges	Tilt the card against the light	Whitening hides here more than anywhere
Centering	Compare the borders front and back	Lopsided cards miss the premium
Surface	Tilt and look for roller marks	Print lines and scratches wreck the look
Seal or authentication	Check the pack seal or the slab	Fakes exist, even in footy

From there, track what you own somewhere you will actually update it. The guide to organising and tracking your collection is a good starting point, and you can browse the card catalogue to put a name to what you have pulled.

Frequently asked questions

What are AFL cards worth? It depends on the player, the print run, the condition and what someone will pay on the day. The quickest way to find out is to look at what similar cards have sold for, then discount that by how confident you are in your own card's condition.

Are AFL cards a good investment? Collect them because you love footy, and treat any value as a bonus. Most cards never go up in a meaningful way, but the rare, the numbered and the signature cards of genuinely popular players tend to hold interest.

How do I know if my AFL cards are rare? Check for a printed number, a signature or a small run, and identify the set before you assume anything. Cards that were handed out in bulk are rarely the ones worth chasing.

Where can I buy AFL footy cards? Card fairs, hobby shops and online are the three main places. Fairs are the best for learning and checking condition, while online is the easiest place to overpay if you are not sure what you are looking at.

Should I get my AFL cards graded? Only if the card is worth enough to justify the postage and the wait. Grading confirms condition and authenticity, but it will not turn an ordinary base card into a treasure.