I have been creating handmade greeting cards made from my very own football and baseball card collection since January 2021. It’s been a lot of fun for me, and I honestly enjoy that one of my cards might make someone’s day. In the beginning, it was a way for me to continue enjoying my old card collection and find a new use for cards that were worth a lot to me but aren’t necessarily worth all that much today. You can check out the Matty Wax origin story here.

As far as I can tell, I’m the only one doing anything like this, and I recently expanded to making basketball cards, hockey cards, NASCAR cards, MMA and wrestling cards, and even individual player cards. The great thing about Etsy is that pretty much anyone with a unique idea has a place to earn a little cash from their creativity, and this blog started as a way to promote other creative individuals (check out my latest post about awesome ideas for anniversary gifts). And definitely click on our affiliate links and support creatives all over the world!

Now for this post, I wanted to take a look back and see which cards have been my most popular. I can say with one hundred percent certainty that the Pittsburgh Steelers are the number one best seller because I made so many Pittsburgh Steelers Valentine’s cards. I actually ran out of Steelers cards and needed to reach out to some fellow collectors to resupply my stash.

There are also a few surprises here. Notably, there are some surprises for teams that are not on this list. Judging by the fan bases, I would have expected to see more New York Yankees cards or more New England Patriots cards sold. Alas, neither of those teams is on the list.

So without further ado, here are Matty Wax’s most popular handmade greeting cards since I launched my Etsy shop last year!

Pittsburgh Steelers Birthday Card

As I mentioned above, I have sold more Pittsburgh Steelers greeting cards than any other team across all sports. I can’t say for certain why this is. It could be because the Steelers fanbase is huge and there are Steelers fans pretty much everywhere. It could also be because one die-hard Steelers fan posted his or her card on social media and influenced other die-hard Steelers fans to place orders. I have hypothesized that the Etsy algorithm might have something to do with it, and that the more orders a listing gets, then the more likely the listing is to show up in individual searches. But the truth is, I have no idea why the Pittsburgh Steelers greeting card ranks number one. I do know that I actually ran out of Steelers cards, which is something I thought would never happen after only one year of making these cool greeting cards.

Custom Baseball Greeting Card | “I love you more than you love the _______”

I would have thought that the two “choose your own team” options I have for baseball greeting cards and football greeting cards would have been the top two best sellers, but as I just mentioned, the Pittsburgh Steelers card currently sits on the throne. The original Matty Wax baseball custom greeting card ranks number two overall.

Baseball season is a big time of year, especially for mothers and wives and daughters searching for cool greeting cards for their husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, cousins, friends, and on and on. Baseball season extends from March until October, so you get all of the summer birthdays, Father’s Day, and graduation, so it’s no wonder that the custom baseball greeting card is as popular as it is!

Chicago Bears Birthday Card

Chicago is a great sports town, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that the Chicago Bears greeting card is my third most sold card. Sales in early 2022 spiked for these nostalgic greeting cards, and my algorithm theories churned. I’m not sure what caused the Chicago Bears card to outperform other teams, but one thing I am sure about is that there are Bears fans everywhere, and they are big, big fans of “da Bears.”

Regardless, the Pro Set series used in the pictured Chicago Bears birthday card is one of coolest handmade greeting cards I’ve made.

New York Mets Birthday Card

The 1987 Topps baseball set is absolutely one of my favorites, and I have to say that the Mets orange and blue look great with the wood grain borders. Before I started working on this little roundup, I knew that the New York Mets birthday card would rank in the top five best sellers in my Etsy shop. I would venture to say that one out of every four baseball greeting cards I create are Mets greeting cards.

In addition to this, I also make a special Mets Valentine’s Day card / Mets anniversary card / Mets love card that is very specific to the Mets. The caption goes a little something like this:

Exterior:

Life was pretty good, I guess.

Interior:

And then I Met you.

Get it? I laugh every time, haha. To take a look for yourself, you can check it out here: New York Mets Handmade Valentine Card For Him

Buffalo Bills Birthday Card

It didn’t surprise me at all to learn that the Buffalo Bills greeting card ranked in the top ten among all cards in my Etsy shop. Buffalo Bills fans — or the “Bills Mafia” as they affectionally refer to themselves as — are about as die-hard as the Steelers fans (if not more). The Score football cards series shown in the picture is the first of the line and one of the most famous, and they have been in my collection since they debuted in 1989. Well, those cards, in particular, are no longer in my collection, but it brings me great joy to know that I might have made someone’s day.

Minnesota Vikings Handmade Greeting CardS

I sold a good number of Minnesota Vikings birthday cards in the very beginning, and the sales have since leveled off a bit but are still steady. For whatever reason, most of the handmade greeting cards that I have for this team have come in the form of Minnesota Vikings Valentine’s Day cards. Maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day comes right after football season, Maybe it’s because Vikings fans love a cool handmade greeting card. Or maybe it’s the purple that goes so well on a Valentine card. Whatever the case, these Vikings cards are definitely a best seller.

Custom Football Greeting Card | “I love you more than you love the _______”

I am a huge fan of customizable gifts, as I made clear in this groomsman gifts post. Similar to the customize-your-own baseball greeting card mentioned earlier, this is another surprise to me. The original Matty Wax custom football greeting card allows the customer to choose any team and customize the text. The reason I think these don’t sell as well as, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers Valentine’s Day cards or the Buffalo Bills birthday cards is that I believe you awesome Etsy shoppers are searching by team name. Still, folks do find this cool greeting card listing and place orders the way I imagined many would.

Las Vegas Raiders Birthday Card

Speaking of die-hard football fans… I live in California, and no matter where you go, you will always see the notorious silver and black on the backs of Raiders fans. Even though the franchise has moved to Las Vegas, this Las Vegas birthday card is still very popular among Etsy shoppers in California — and all over the country. Interestingly enough, I have made more Las Vegas Raiders greeting cards during the football offseason than any other team. Raiders fans are year-rounders.

I love you more than you love Ben Roethisberger Handmade Greeting CarDS

As an example of one of my top-selling player cards, I present the widely popular “I love you more than you love Ben Roethlisberger” greeting card. If I count this card towards the total Pittsburgh Steelers greeting cards sold, then the Steelers might account for nearly half of all cards sold. I think. I’m not a hundred percent sure on that. At least a third. How do I know this? Because I had to find and purchase about a hundred of the same Ben Roethlisberger football cards to fill the demand. I can theorize on it, but I think the big driver of sales came at the end of 2021 when ben Roethlisberger decided to hang up his cleats and retire. Matty Wax is going to miss you, Big Ben.

If you are interested in a particular player card or if you have some ideas of your own, definitely reach out and we can collaborate!

San Francisco 49ers Birthday Card

Round out the top ten, and well-deserved is the San Francisco 49ers birthday card. The interesting thing here is that when I take a look at what is most popular by search phrase, the term “San Fransisco 49ers card” is number one. I highly anticipate the 49ers may crack the top five by the end of the 2022 football season, and I will definitely circle back to do another roundup similar to this one down the road. It’s also worth noting that the baseball counterpart — the San Francisco Giants birthday card — is also among the top sellers. Those San Francisco fans don’t mess around!

Honorable Mentions

There are a few listings that get a lot of attention and I see many orders placed, so I thought I might quickly list off some honorable mentions:

• Dallas Cowboys Birthday Card
• Detroit Tigers Birthday Card
• Chicago Cubs Birthday Card
• Green Bay Packers Birthday Card
• Seattle Seahawks Birthday Card

While I started with baseball cards and football cards, I now offer pretty much every team in the four major sports in addition to other cool greeting cards. Between the baseball greeting cards, the football greeting cards, the basketball greeting cards, the hockey greeting cards, the MMA and wrestling greeting cards, and the player greeting cards, the Matty Wax Etsy shop has more than 100 listings to browse. If you’re looking for other types of handmade greeting cards, then Etsy is definitely the place to go!

Be sure to check out my other blog posts for more awesome gift ideas for men! And for more great content, check out Matty Wax on Facebook and Instagram!