Credit cards are one of the hottest collectibles of all time. This fact is overlooked by many people, including collectors in the hobby itself.
The pricing structure
To explain the opportunity this hobby offers, it’s important to start with the pricing structure of modern credit cards.
A Mint condition single purpose credit card has a typical retail value of $4.00. This means if you applied for a gas or department store credit card, that the day it arrived in the mail you could sell it to a collector for $4.00.
The next thing to understand is the way prices jump for modern Mint cards. Example: Diamond Shamrock issued a credit card in the early ’80s that had a picture of a blue sky on its front and a drawing of a leprechaun on the back.
Card variations
Next came a credit card with a blue sky front and leprechaun back, but this time a signature space was added to the reverse.
Then came the card with the blue sky front and signature space on the back, but the picture of the leprechaun was gone.
Then came the blue sky front with a signature space and magnetic stripe on the back.
Finally, Diamond Shamrock issued a card with a dark brown top and light brown bottom.
So basically, Diamond Shamrock has issued five different credit cards in the last decade.
The price of the current card is $4.00, but the price of the one that precedes it is $6.00. The price of a card jumps $2.00 every time there’s a major type or variety change.
Appreciation of value
Here’s the retail value of all five of the different cards as of today: (1) $12.00, (2) $10.00, (3) $8.00, (4) $6.00 and (5) $4.00. The pricing of single purpose credit cards basically just start with a $4.00 base and add $2.00 for each change along the way. .
As you can see, any collector who started collecting credit cards in the early ’80s has done extremely well by having a Diamond Shamrock account. Once the account was opened, the collector only had to use the account occasionally to keep the renewal cards coming in through the years.
The total retail value of one each of the cards, over a period of a decade, would mean that the set of five cards now has a retail value of $40.00.
Profiting from credit card varieties
Now, let’s take this a step further. Any serious collector should have additional cards on each account. Going back to the original Diamond Shamrock card, a serious collector would be highly likely to have four cards on the account. And since renewals would be coming in automatically, he would have four of the next one and the next one and so on down the line. He’s locked-in to getting four cards at a time.
To show the potential this hobby offers, let’s say the collector had four of the first cards worth $12.00 each. Those four cards are worth $48.00 today.
The next four would be worth $40.00. The next ones worth $32.00, the next $24.00 and the final cards would be four times $4.00 each or $16.00. So, if a collector had a Diamond Shamrock account ten years ago and kept it current and received four cards with each renewal, he would now have a total of 20 cards worth $160.00.
Keep in mind we’re talking about single purpose cards so the cost to the collector is nothing. That’s right, FREE!
Try to figure a percentage gain on the price increases of the Diamond Shamrock cards when you start with a base price of nothing. Amazing, isn’t it?
Leveraging numerous accounts
Now remember, we’ve only illustrated what the Diamond Shamrock cards have done. But serious credit card collectors have numerous accounts. What about the early collectors who had 50 single purpose accounts and four cards on each account that started at the beginning of the ’80s. As you can quickly see, this hobby has been very good to many collectors.
One person who started collecting in the early ’80s, who understood the potential this hobby offered, started his collection by saying, I’m only going to collect credit cards with no annual fees. I want to see if I can send my daughter through college by selling my collection.
When he started collecting, his daughter was just born. Today, this one collector has 2,000 Mint modern cards in his collection, all acquired for the magnificent sum of NOTHING. A collection of nothing but free single purpose credit cards! Today, his collection has a retail value of over $10,000.00!
Future potential of credit card collecting
What credit cards have done up till now is no indication of what they may do in the future. But, let’s be positive and open minded about the whole thing. It doesn’t mean they won’t.
The hobby still has potential for immense future growth. Maybe things could actually get better?
What if the price jumps between types and varieties of cards moved to being $3.00 a step instead of the $2.00? Just a thought.
No one knows what the future holds in store for our hobby, but one thing is certain, whatever takes place should prove to be quite interesting. Up till now, modern credit cards have been nothing short of amazing!
Copyright 1991, Greg Tunks
