![]() |
Gone from the Blue-Collar Guy
In general things are way too expensive with all the cards that I want to collect. I collect Exmt-Nrmt/Mint Cards. As a regular blue-collar guy with a family of 3
I can no longer pay these numbers. Spending this kind of money on some of these cards you have to consider it an investment I don’t want that with cards. That’s what my nominal brokerage account and ira are for. I would love to continue to collect as I have for years but it’s gotten out of my league. I’m gonna be blessed and happy with what I have and step away from buying for my collection. Collecting lower grade is not my thing. Hopefully things will correct a little down the road, my gut says it’s only going higher and higher. |
There are still some things you can collect. You just have to be more creative.
. |
As a WC/MC collector myself I feel your pain. It helped me to build a list of my collecting goals and stay true to that list as much as possible. I find it helps when I'm focused on acquiring a big card that I curtail making any smaller purchases and keep that money growing in a pot until I can make the big purchase. I have about a dozen more cards to acquire on my list and I feel that I'll have built a respectable collection. Of course those cards are a bit pricey so it may take me awhile.
Frustrating for sure, I hope you can find some part of collecting that keeps it enjoyable for you. |
Psa 7-8 early willie mays cards arent exactly blue collar cards??? I agree prices have gotten crazy and ive accepted that in order to get some cards i want i have to part with others. Life goes on!
|
It is a challenge for us all.
|
My New Year’s resolution is to fund this year’s purchases entirely with sales. Going to be a real challenge I think but will allow me to still be active in the hobby while not costing anything. I’ll revisit next year but kind of relishing the challenge for now.
|
I share your sentiment. The market has priced me into grades I wouldn’t have even looked at five years ago. However, there are surprisingly some exceptional looking low grades out there. These are the cards I now collect, but it takes a little more patience. I’m also thankful I obtained what I did when I did.
|
It's a challenge for all of us with varying collecting needs.
Starting in February, as I had some last minute expenses come up this month, I'm going to start putting a little money aside each pay check, in hopes that by the end of this year, I can afford a significant pickup in my Mantle Run. I know it's very easy to look at the past through rose colored glasses, but I'd kill for the prices of five to ten years ago. |
Other hobbies like photography, gardening, computer gaming, playing sports, etc,... are more about techniques and skill rather than money. There are some expenses to them of course, but not to the degree of as this hobby has become. We low end collectors need to find other aspects of this great hobby that gives us happiness, enjoyment, and fulfillment.
|
Quote:
I feel it’s gone for good the investor Speculator pushed it too far I just don’t see it coming back at least not on the graded cards and conditions I collect. |
Seems to me Johnny M and Jewish Collector are correct, as are everyone else.
What were our expectations? As a 10 year old kid buying a pack of cards, I wasn't thinking about future value at all. And the same for buying my first T206 in the mid 80s. I just liked seeing a card from some player's playing days. Have I ever thought about an increase in value? Yes. Although I think the value doesn't change, the value is nominal; what changes is the dollar amount at which buyers and sellers are willing to engage in transactions. I've bought graded cards, and for years whenever I bought them I cracked them out. The last few years I've left some of them in their slabs. Is that a tacit decision on my part recognizing that I'm gonna sell that card one day? I mention the slab cracking to help folks see 2 perspectives: I'm buying this card to collect it because of the player, what he did on the field, the set and it's history, and the visual image of the card; vs I'm buying this card because it's going to increase in value. The 'buying to collect' folks get frustrated and thwarted with rising prices; while the 'investor' guys depend on that price increase. Seems to me that in one way it sorts out the collectors and the investor/speculators. If the cards I'd bought as a 10 year old were still worth pennies I'd be ok with it. |
Ya i remember and long for the days when nice t206 cobbs and goudey ruths were somewhat affordable. I missed the boat on 1-200 babe ruth strip cards noone seemed to want at the time. I also missed the bot on apple stock in the single digits.
Do i stop buying apple stock? No…i buy less. I buy more raw cards for my binders now than I ever have since I was a kid. Its quite enjoyable. If the cards you buy have to be PSA sevens or eights and there is no deviation you’re in this more for the investment than a hobby. Invest elsewhere. |
A suggestion
I’ve had success going for whatever is out of favor…. skip chasing what everyone is after! Not that I’m looking for more competition but oddball stuff, programs, display items, the kind of stuff Gray Ghost sells…. It’s great and makes the hobby fun. It may or may not go up in value but if you love it who cares! The more narrow your focus is , the more likely you will miss some really cool items that not many have. Of course by my method you will end up with one heck of a bunch of crazy boxes and displays …. but it makes the hobby fun !! Don’t quit keep looking around…. expand your horizons! This is my formula for my epic estate sale one day…..
|
Plenty of cool things to collect other than high end Goudeys. Photos. Tickets. Programs. Just have to be on the look out for the unusual and overlooked.
I bought a postcard on BST last year of relatively obscure 1900 black pre-integration player George Wilson. Have spend a lot of time researching him and seeing what I could find. Honestly has given me a lot more satisfaction than lobbing yet another psa entombed graded card into my safe deposit box. The fact that so few people know anything about him makes the researching aspect of it very satisfying And don't cost anything to research an obscure player. |
Take what the defense gives you.
Everyone ignoring oversized cards? Maybe pick those up. SGC slabs sell for half the price of PSA? Consider snapping up the discount. Non-mainstream cards being offered at a fraction of the cost of set registry darlings? Get the oddball item. |
Quote:
|
It is a challenge and sadly will always be a challenge but alot of forum members have given some great suggestions.
But in the end do what is right for you and your family. Just do not give up what you enjoy if you do not have to. |
All of my purchases are funded by sales of cards - so no new money going into the collection. low grade / mid grade / nothing much high grade. It's all good to me.
All of us have our condition requirements. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
I'm not rich but not poor, either. I cannot afford the prices that pre-war and many post-war cards that I might like to have command these days. I am very thankful for what I have. I had a lot of help (well-documented throughout this forum, and a lot of help from folks actually on this forum) to get here. I also made some foolish, never to be repeated mistakes in the past. All I can do now is trade. But I do not want to do that, as all the dupes and cards I would trade have already been traded. That being so, I am stuck in limbo, replying to threads like this occasionally. Maybe something will come along, maybe things will change. One day at a time, they say...
|
I guess it all comes down to the big question of "what makes you happy?!" If you are in it to get the best of the best, and only mint cards will do, you had to know at some point, even in normal times, the market would push prices higher. If you can't afford to get what you want, and won't bend on condition, then it's probably time to take a step back, re-assess and find a direction that excites you.
For me, condition doesn't matter, I have built sets, picked up cards here and there, and have a BLAST on the hunt. I have run into better cards than what I usually collect, and if the prices are right I will snatch them up. I never looked at the hobby as an investment, and maybe (probably) I am horribly naive, because I could move a bunch of my collection and make A TON more than what I have into it, but I enjoy it all too much to do that. Will I ever buy the 1933 Goudey Gehrig that I have chased, probably not. I have a tough time "paying up" for cards, I think I saw the light when I bought a George Brett rookie card for $2 at Mall Show in Ithaca, NY. I quacking un-velcroed my wallet and paid for it, running from the table like I had just snatched up the holy grail. It was beat to hell, but the price guide said it was worth $40, so I just made money in my eyes. That approach is still active to this day. Find the things that bring you joy, if it has become a transaction, find something new! |
As others have said, I think you can still enjoy collecting low and mid-grade cards, rather than just higher grade ones. However, saying that, what I've learned personally is that you should always enjoy what you collect. If you find that you're not happy with your latest pickups or what you're collecting or spending to get what you want, then take a break from that. The entire point of a hobby is to do something we enjoy.
|
I've found that whether your budget is $10, $100, $1,000, or more, the collector's dilemma stays the same, there are still cards you really want that are *just* out of reach.
For what it's worth, I've found it helpful to identify the cards/sets I like and ask myself 1. what's the minimum grade I'll be happy with, and 2. What will it cost me to get the set now in that grade? I used to start projects, find them overwhelming, and get frustrated that I couldn't complete them. This approach has saved me countless frustration. If the answer to question 2 is "more than my current budget", I ask myself if I would be comfortable adjusting my answer to question 1. If the answer is no, I move on to other cards/sets. There's so much out there to collect, across all budgets. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
One of our local dealers who always has a mixed bag of 'stuff' told me once that he always looks forward to seeing what I might buy from him as he has no idea what will interest me. My response was :Neither do I". :D |
Quote:
|
The amount of money coming into the hobby right now is crazy. Are baseball cards for Main Street or Wall Street? In the last 10 years (and really the last 5 years), people looking at cards as an investment vehicle has exploded. We have moved into a new phase, treating cards like gold or some other commodity.
At the last card show, collectors walking around with bags full of cards, most for trading or trying to get the best price. It looked like the NYSE floor to me. I guess this is the future. |
Quote:
I think the OP is probably like most of the "real" collecting community. I'm at the point where I am really considering dumping a lot of my stuff because it's about the right time. Time will tell. |
Quote:
|
I get the idea of being kind of stuck in your ways and it being hard to adapt, but to me it feels pretty natural to adapt to new niches as I get priced out of some. T206 is still my favorite set to collect, but my dollars go a lot farther elsewhere and I have about 10 other sets and certain type cards that I'm always happy to add when they show up, and those buys always feel like a bargain to me.
I know we all have our condition preferences, but limiting yourself to just graded cards with big numbers on the label seems a little extreme. To each his own obviously, but if I ever got to the point where a crease or a rounded corner made me not want an otherwise nice card, I'd have to ask myself if I really like cards, or if I am a perfectionist who used to like cards. If everything I like shot up 20x tomorrow, I'd start working on that matchbook set from 1935 and collecting team issues and photo packs from the 40s, etc. There's always something out there that's underappreciated and underpriced for how cool it is. |
Quote:
|
1 Attachment(s)
Every thread needs a card.
_ |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
It's healthy to walk away for awhile every now and then. Stay off the forums, ebay, ah's and put the cards away. Come back with a new perspective. It's just a hobby and just cards. Fills a void sometimes, but I always realize I can live without most of what I have.
|
If ebay listings dry up real quick, then that reduces supply. Assume demand stays the same, then you have increasing prices. Increasing prices as in more spendy than the last year - oh, boy, up up up go the values yet again ?
Forget nice condition pre-war, forget PSA 7 & 8 the 50's & 60's HOF star cards, now all I can afford are 1970's stars in PSA 7 and splurge on a PSA 8. Or heck with it all and buy raw Steph Curry & Giannis cards, call it good. |
Quote:
However, be advised these payment platforms are not stupid, and monitor and keep record of all payments through them, including friends and family ones. So don't be surprised if they suddenly see someone incurring ongoing transactions and activity for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars using their friends and family option, especially when there was no such previous F&F activity or history before, and investigating it themselves, or reporting it to the pertinent authorities (like the IRS). They certainly aren't going to take a hit for someone using their payment platform and trying to get around the tax laws. Remember the old saying, pigs go to market, but hogs get slaughtered. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I often feel as others do, that the hobby has gotten beyond me financially. I don't sell it all in frustration, though. I selectively cut back on my collection instead. For example, I stopped collecting boxing sets and focused on types instead. I have only one complete set of vintage boxing cards and that is only because I got it in a collection I bought. |
I work in the hobby but no longer collect and have sold everything. I am finding so much satisfaction in new hobbies though. I have gotten into genealogy which is incredibly satisfying and I also collect records which is so much less expensive than sports memorabilia. Plus you get to listen to cool music.
|
We are at the peak of a once in a lifetime asset bubble. Don't like these prices, give it some time. Air is coming out of all asset classes I follow and with QE being wound down, no stimulus in sight, and money about to get a lot more expensive, there will be a day relatively soon when all the things we can't afford today will become slightly more affordable.
Thing is, will you or I, in that environment, be willing to part with cash to buy this stuff. If you stock portfolio is down 20 points, your HELOC up 2% and your RE down 15%, you may have a hard time pulling the trigger on a 10K card that used to be 18K. I'm not sure what's coming will be good for the retail investor / blue collar collector. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Traditionally, the next few months often see an uptick in demand and prices. Many auctions houses have spring time events, the weather starts to turn better, spring training baseball starts .. do we see a hobby pop this year ?
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
I am optimistic we have spring training, but might be delayed. And by pop, yes, I mean higher prices. Do you folks also consider spring to be a robust time for the hobby?
|
Quote:
I think about this every day.... |
Quote:
I think in graded HOF Super Stars we are entering, not there yet but a long period of Stagflation in Prices. How long will it last Idk...it's my belief that Prices will remain high because people paid too much and wont let them go for 20% lower and or cheaper. Auction Houses may dry up people won't come off their prices unless we have a recession which I don't see happening anytime soon. People have a lot of money because the economy is super strong they won't give in easy on lowering their prices or take a big loss. Just me I could be dead wrong. |
"The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets."--Baron Rothschild
If you believe we are at peak then it is time to sell, bank the cash, and wait for the downturn to get back in. |
Taking a break helps I think. I took a break from collecting sports cards for almost two years (this was when prices really took off) then started collecting again in late 2020. During my break I switched to work on my other collections... action figures... skateboard cards... non-sports cards... etc. Now I dabble a little bit here and there without laser focusing on one thing.
|
While it's heartening to see that I'm not the only one concerned about some of this run-up, this is nothing new. I've been a collector for close to 40 years now, and complaints about rising prices in the hobby have existed in some form or another for almost as long as I can remember.
A lot of good advice here. Cast a wider net, re-evaluate if you have strict condition requirements. When I got back into the hobby (this time...) as an adult sometime around 2014, I basically had to rule out most prewar because it had simply gotten too expensive for the amount of resources I wanted to devote to the hobby. I could have a nice but very small prewar collection - or I could have a more extensive collection of postwar stars that were also in nicer shape. Since I tend to gravitate towards postwar anyway, that was an easy decision for me. Just here recently, I've had to backpedal on condition requirements. I remember getting nice, EX-MT-ish examples of cards like a '56 Topps Hank Aaron back 20 or so years ago for what F/P condition copies of that card go for now. So anymore, I try to go for cards that have flaws, but still present well. Recent examples would include a G range '55 Topps Mays, and an SGC 1 Diamond Stars Lefty Grove - a card I had always wanted. These are cards that I wouldn't be able to afford at all if I had insisted on my former condition stringencies. So to me that's an easy decision as well. I will agree that the run-ups on individual cards have in many cases exceeded what I tend to think of as reasonable some time back as well. In the past few years, I've occasionally sold from my collection to put together scratch for a new card. And then a few days later it's like did I really just spend like a grand on a piece of cardboard? Though I could afford it in many cases, that kind of spending in general on hobby luxury is just not where I'm at in my life considering the big picture right now. It's also just stress I don't need. I can see where it would be easy to get frustrated with the process and just quit, but I love cards too much still to do that. I think there's a pretty big middle ground right now between being priced out, and still finding things to enjoy - so that is where I try to play. Maybe I pickup some raw, G-VG condition remaining 50's stars instead of PSA graded EX or better. Maybe I start looking at some Kellogg's and Hostess cards from the 70's that I've always been interested in, instead of having to have graded Topps base cards. Yes, it can be frustrating, but I'm not giving up yet. |
Quote:
Some big companies missed earnings this week, lots of value evaporating from equity markets past couple days. Crypto been melting down since Oct. Have to believe that card prices will follow. |
Quote:
Hey crypto just got endorsed by Google… still not in my wheelhouse- no interest. |
Last time around card prices lagged the start of the troubles by about a year and lagged the rebound accordingly.
This thread really bugs me, in a good way, because it points out some real issues for dedicated collectors that don't have ready solutions. Either we stop collecting a wide variety of cards we are priced out of or the economy craps the bed. Not pleasant choices either way, frankly. I think I am just going to stay the course with my long-term plans for my collecting and just wait patiently for the right cards to come up at the right prices, and if not, fine. Anyone consider reprints or tribute cards? I knew I wasn't going to pay what it costs to get 1952 Topps stars so I filled in the space in my binder for the Mays with a 1983 Topps reprint. In the 1970s TCMA reprinted a variety of prewar cards. Or collect the various collector issues. They are inexpensive and can be quite fun. I have or am working on 1959 and 1960 Nu-Card, 1960 and 1961 Fleer, 1961 Golden Press, 1974 Fleer Pioneers of Baseball, 1974 Laughlin Old Time Black Stars, the small 1970s TCMA sets, etc. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
I’m July 2021 this card, see link below 51 Bowman Mantle PSA 8, sold in Memory Lane For $498,000. 6 months later it’s now up for sale again in Leland’s what will it sell for now?
True collectors don’t do this on big Cards, These people don’t care about the cards they care about making money on fools,its been a big Game. Doing this on high grade eights in Mickey Mantle Rookie‘s 51 Bowman its driven every grade price to the higher level pushing it up in all grades. The money is being made by these guys on the lower grade cards based off the sale and many others like this. The 51 Bowman Mantles in 3’s and 4’s should never sell for $20k like they did last year, it’s been very interesting to watch See pics and Link Below ….investors set the price is this market. How long will the investor stay in the this game ?? https://auction.lelands.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=107698 |
9 Attachment(s)
Shifted to these for the moment. OT in it being post-war.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
No the dealer is basing his price off what the investor is pumping/pushing it for in these auction. The dealer, he is basing his price off auctions realized sales which imo have been manipulated they’re playing musical chairs! We all see it. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk |
That's a great Paige photo, Brian. You're not alone in going towards photos, judging from some of the prices lately.
|
There will always be plenty of stuff for all of us to collect. When I started I was a kid with a paper route, then a teen working in a grocery store, then I took a huge pay cut and became a guy touring with bands nobody had heard of, which gradually turned into gigs that made it possible to have bills to pay, and get paid. That's all pretty blue collar.
Throughout that entire time I collected. Throughout that entire time there were things I couldn't afford (like a $500 Wagner, hahaha). Throughout that entire time it could be argued that "investors" were "ruining the hobby". There was nothing I could do about it then, there is nothing I can do about it now. Only being able to collect stuff you can afford might not be "fair" but to quote a recent president "it is what it is". Doug |
Quote:
Every thread needs cards ... hot cards: https://assets.lastdodo.com/image/ld...5056945a4e.jpg https://assets.lastdodo.com/image/ld...5056942d16.jpg https://assets.lastdodo.com/image/ld...50569446fe.jpg |
Quote:
|
|
Quote:
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk |
Another one going to the Next Level Out of my Reach Now
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144369802131 Probably the Second Hardest Regular Issue Topps Willie Mays Card to find in high grade after the 53 Topps |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:46 PM. |