What happened
The 113th Grey Cup is played today, Sunday, November 15, at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, with kickoff set for 6 p.m. ET. Ahead of the game, Sports Collectors Daily published a guide by Jeff Morris to the CFL cards it considers essential for football collectors.
The list spans seven decades of Canadian football cardboard. Early picks include Sam Etcheverry's 1952 Parkhurst, Normie Kwong's 1956 Parkhurst, and Bud Grant and Jackie Parker on 1954 Blue Ribbon Tea. The Topps CFL era is represented by Gerry James (1958), Russ Jackson and Angelo Mosca (1959), Joe Kapp (1960), Ron Lancaster (1961) and George Reed (1965). O-Pee-Chee entries include Margene Adkins (1968) and Joe Theismann (1971).
The JOGO years get heavy attention: Warren Moon and Condredge Holloway (1983), Damon Allen (1986), Doug Flutie (1990), and Anthony Calvillo and Mike Pringle (1994). More recent picks include Jeff Garcia's 1999 Collector's Edge Triumph rookie and Ricky Ray's 2003 Pacific Atomic.
Why it matters for collectors
Many of these cards are still affordable. According to the article, raw copies of the 1990 JOGO Flutie can often be found for under five dollars, and the 1959 Topps CFL Russ Jackson often sells for around $20 and up. High grades are another story: the article reports only five graded copies of the 1986 JOGO Damon Allen, all of them 8s. For the 1990 Flutie it counts one PSA 10 and five PSA 9s.
What Canadian collectors should know
CFL cards are a mostly Canadian market, and a lot of the supply sits in Canadian collections, shoeboxes and estate lots. Low population reports for some JOGO cards mean condition matters a great deal, so check centring and corners before you buy or submit. Grey Cup week usually brings a little extra attention to CFL cards, and you can buy and sell them on TCE in Canadian dollars.