AFL Footy Cards: Bring 'Em On! Quiz

Answer: Scanlens

Scanlens footy cards - the pride and joy of any youngster growing up within the period. Cards from the first set in 1963 are extremely rare, and any card, even in poor condition, can fetch hefty sums on the open card market.

Answer: Stimorol

Although producing several card sets of quality (for the time!), Stimorol remains better known for their chewing gum, than their short dalliance with the collector card markets in Australia.

Answer: Darren Bewick

Bewick Enterprises created a set of cards called "Quarters", in which each players' picture was made up of four separate cards. Although an innovative concept, the poor packaging and box collation of the cards (as many as half the packets in the box would contain cards of the same player!), was a deterrent to collectors.

The AFL also barred Bewick from using any official logos on the players' guernseys on the cards, leading to the farcical situation of team uniforms appearing as mixtures of colors only.

Answer: Select

In 1993, Select brought in two subsets; one featuring 20 "platinum players" (although the print run of these was the same as for the common cards), and a "platinum signature series", consisting of one hundred or so autographed cards of about five or six different players.

The failure of Select to list either the actual numbers of signature cards released, or the names of players who actually signed the cards was a deterrent to collectors. The fact that the signature cards differed in no way to the unsigned platinum cards (obviously excepting the signature!), led to a flood of forgeries and a huge decrease in the value of the authentic cards, although in fairness to the company they did not make the same mistake again in subsequent years.

Answer: Tony Lockett

This particular Tony Lockett card was released in 1999, and is the single most valuable card in circulation. It was released to commemorate Tony Lockett's record-breaking achievement of kicking the greatest number of career goals (1299 - long held by Collingwood's Gordon Coventry), when he kicked his 1300th goal playing for the Sydney Swans against Collingwood in 1998. Plugger (as he was affectinately known) finished his career in 1999, having kicked 1357 goals.

He made a surprising (but unsucessful) comeback in 2002, playing three games and adding only three goals to his career tally.

In case you were wondering about the clues, Lockett was born and raised in Ballarat, was forced to wear guernsey number 46 in his comeback, after Ben Mathews refused to relinquish the number 4 guernsey Plugger made famous, and of course was the first player to break the magical 1300 goal barrier.

Answer: 700

The TeamCoach concept was very poorly received by collectors, although personally I am highly in favour of the idea. The card series consisted of 100 common, 100 silver and 100 gold cards of each of the 100 players featured. The somewhat confusing "game" asked players to create a team, featuring only player cards within their collection (containing limited numbers of "bonus point" gold and silver cards), and submit it via the internet.

The weekly winners would receive a 100 card embossed set, featuring either the common, silver or gold cards, bringing the number of cards in the set to 600.

However, a promotional set also existed, featuring the 100 common cards, but with a different back to the standard common set, thereby creating a huge 700 card set.

Answer: Chris Judd

A bit of a trick question! The rookie cards of Koutoufides, McLeod, and Cousins were all commons, in the "dime-a-dozen" years of 1995, 1996 and 1997 respectively. The total production runs in these years were so large, that hundreds of unopened boxes remained unsold, a classic situation of supply grossly exceeding demand.

In contrast, the rookie card of Chris Judd was an insert in the short-print run of 2002, in the so-called "Draft Pick Signature Series", where a highly popular concept, the first 16 or so players drafted the previous year each autograph a limited number of cards.

These cards are released before the players make their debut in the AFL). This card, being both initially valuable and of limited edition will be highly prized regardless of the impact Chris Judd may have on the game (although all indications are he will be a star).

Although the other three players are all champions of the game, the abundance of their rookie cards will always detract from their value.

Answer: 50

Although there are only 16 AFL clubs, in 2001 both the West Coast Eagles (Ben Cousins and Dean Kemp), and the Fremantle Dockers (Shaun McManus and Adrian Fletcher) were led by co-captains, leading to a limited print run of only 900 Club Captain Autograph Cards. Because only 50 cards of each player were printed, this limits the total possible number of sets in existence to a maximum of 50.

When the amount of single cards held by card shops, traders and individual collectors is taken into account, there can be no more than a very, very small handful (if any) of complete sets in existence.

Answer: 1998

The top 20 players picked up in the national draft of 1997, were asked to sign several hundred cards each, which were later randomly inserted into packets of Select's 1998 "Signature Series" trading cards. Players who were featured on thise first-ever draft pick cards (remember this was before they had even played one game of senior AFL football), included such champions of today as Chris Tarrant, Brad Ottens, Travis Johnstone, Dean Solomon, Trent Croad, and Chad Cornes. All 20 players featured have played senior football, making 1998 the only year thus far from which all of the featured draft picks have made their senior debuts.

Answer: Ultra-Pro

Ultra-Pro make very high quality 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 12 pocket pages, and also supply individual card sleeves, deck protectors, screw-down card-holders and other products required to maintain a collection of cards in mint condition. I hope you enjoyed the quiz!