Have sports cards become like clothing lines?

You know how sometimes you can see two similar or even identical articles of clothing at the mall, and one can cost $10 and the other can cost $100?

Sometimes it’s all about the tag on the item.

I’ve been noticing more and more that this is the growing case with sports cards too.

Don't get me wrong, all of us would take a sweet autographed patch from flawless over one from a lower-end product, but why is it that a player's autograph in one could be two to three, or even more times the cost in one product than the other?

It's still the same player's autograph (and it may even be a better piece of memorabilia in the lower!).

Have we let ourselves buy into this fancy branding? Of course, the higher end stuff ends up looking (mostly) better than the low-end, but it's funny to me that the same autograph can be valued so differently on two different pieces of cardboard.

I'm sure it isn't a huge price difference for the companies producing the different products, either, so the increases can feel a little outrageous.

I'm not even saying this is a bad thing, because, let's face it- we enjoy it, and we're still buying it.

It is however, a funny thing, and something to note.