Anyone Else Feeling Marooned on Vintage Collector Island??
 

(Forgive me for sounding like a sharer from a Card Collectors Anonymous meeting.)


This is a perfect metaphor for my current collecting 'journey'...

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I can't remember the last time I saw something on eBay that was a combination of both great and affordable. There's nothing. Everything I look at is even more stupidly priced than before, despite people (who knows what fantasy world they live in) claiming that prices across the vintage board have dropped. I even used to love picking up things with qualifiers at nice prices. Wow, dem days are over!!

I find myself beached aground at the lowest of low tides, without even a chance of a rising current sweeping in to lift my collecting ship once again. So depressing.


Anybody else??

Great way to put it Darren love it

And yes eBay does that to you.

Many of my wishlist cards are on there and have been for years. yes I said years and the prices keep going up even though they never sell.

They are way to overpriced or someone would have bought them by now.

It gets a little tedious
 

Waiting for crazy prices to come down a bit, while watching them continue to shoot to the moon.

Luckily, there are plenty of other places to redirect your efforts, most of which are almost as satisfying.

I’ve been mostly focused on picking up nice pieces of my childhood heroes from the 1980s-2000s, which can still be had for a relative bargain. And every once in a while, a rare vintage piece that I can’t live without will come along and I’ll spend all the money I saved by passing on everything else.

Time to channel your inner Miley Cyrus and focus on the climb. Even if it seems like the pace is glacial sometimes.

Most ebay fixed prices are not real, just ignore them. There are still a fair number of ebay auctions, and of course tons of other auctions.

oddball may be calling you
 

I have branched out into odder versions of collecting and can still find a few things to buy at a reasonable price...... but it seems even the unusual and off beat items have gone up too so it is getting kind of rough to find a quality piece at anything close to reasonable on price. Looking at prices from even a year ago a lot of things get priced at double or triple and you cannot really negotiate. Cant blame the sellers if they can get it.... Id like to know however why a recent auction price for an item sets the floor at which it can be sold.... shouldnt it be more like the maximum rather than a minimum?

These are my last two bigger purchases. Neither came from eBay. First was from a fellow board member who reached out to me, and the other was an antique store find. The Topps Now cards I buy are on subscription. So while I like them, I'm more of a memorabilia guy. Before these, my big purchase in May was from ebay, a Tucker Barnhart hat he was issued for Wade Miley's no-hitter. That was a lucky find, and the last good deal I would say I found. I posted it on a Reds thread, and the guy who owned the Barnhart jersey reached out to me if I would sell it to him, disappointed he missed it.

I often feel that photos have become over priced on eBay compared to what I was paying pre-COVID.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6cbb64c591.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...957d6bd36a.jpg

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I've made some pretty great ebay pickups recently, of course I collect stupid sh*t that few others care about, so that helps.

Doug

It happens; at this point, if I can make one pickup a year for my signed 1953 Topps project, I'm happy. In the meantime, I inevitably find side projects to keep me busy.

Great way to put it. I feel the same way, dead in the water. I have decided to re-group and put together a 1975 Hostess set and see if I can wait it out.

So I ran into the same feeling (probably 1 year ago) and ventured out into the FB Groups and I gotta say all of my transactions (both Buy & Sell) have been flawless.

I can give a positive recommendation for both

https://www.facebook.com/groups/t206cards

and

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2235724183379176


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Me too, Doug, as we've discussed. My stuff is the Festival of Bric-a-Brac.

Darren, you're not marooned, you just need to change ponds. I don't see a shortage of stuff with the bajillions of auctions nowadays. A lot of the more modestly-priced items you crave have migrated from eBay to some of the AH's online catalog offerings since they sell cards singly starting at ten bucks a pop. I know I shifted my selling from eBay to REA's Encore auctions when eBay started raping me on sellers' fees after a few double listings landed me in "Below Standard" purgatory until next May. While I'm in eBay's clink, what I list on eBay is stuff I am trying to get rid of. It is good for that, at least.

Four years ago, I was pretty much a 50’s through 70’s baseball guy.

Three years ago, I really started to get into pre-war baseball.

Two years ago, I didn’t want anything to do with non-sports cards.

A year ago, I thought baseball pinbacks, postcards and pennants were cool and all that, but I had no interest.

Now, I can’t stop buying this stuff. It’s a sickness, I tell ya! Maybe try to vary your collection. Expand into other areas of the hobby where you'll still get your collecting "fix" but where prices may be low. That's what I did above and I have a way cooler collection now.

Sounds like great recommendations! Since I'm newly back to the hobby, I'm interested in learning about various buying options, would you be able to clarify what the AH online catalog is that you referred to? I checked out REA Auctions as well, great stuff, but the 20% buyers fee seems a bit high, is that standard with these sorts of auctions elsewhere?

Thanks!

yes, 20% is standard. a lot of buyers on this site routinely state to work the buyers fee into your projected budget. but, if it's a one of a kind piece you must have..... Otherwise the extra 20% will destroy your budget.

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Don't forget to work in sales tax, if applicable, too.

I keep waiting for reality to sink in and affect the pricing of cards, memorabilia and the like. Ha! Wishful thinking. So with that in mind:

Thank heavens for what I already have, because I can trade. I ran out of the duplicates a while ago. Now, I have to part with something I like to get something else I want.

Buy low grade. But that's hard, because many others are now competing for them. If something low grade and reasonably priced gets posted to the B/S/T now, you'd better act fast or be lucky or both.

Scrapbooks. For a while as everything shot up into the stratosphere, scrapbooks stayed reasonable, $15 to $20 or so. But then the sellers saw what cards and everything else was going for, and went crazy with the prices of scrapbooks. They don't sell, if you look at completed items, but these sellers keep hoping some sap comes along. But every now and then, something slips through the cracks. Reference my score of a couple of weeks ago; a big find for $20.

I may be wrong, but I attribute the phenomenon OP describes (as far as I've experienced it) more to sellers' obstinacy than to an across-the-board rise in prices.

IMO there are still deals to be found, but they just aren't coming from eBay or the big AHs.

I guess I am in the minority here, in that I am not well-heeled. My Navy retirement and what I make working out here in "the world" allows me to get by. I don't have the spare money to buy thousand-dollar and up cards or attend conventions. Am I envious of you folks that can do these things? Sure. But as I state in my post above, trades, low grade and scrapbooks is how I participate in the hobby these days.

Happy to be selling into strength.

It's only stuff, but can translate into 1s and 0s that are accepted anywhere. My worry would have been if I passed away or needed to sell, the market wouldn't have cooperated. It's one less worry for myself and my family with the bulk of it sold.

I think reality is already priced in when it comes to vintage blue chip items. The reality is that career-issued Ruth cards and the like are no longer the purview of budget-conscious collectors. The prices on them are not going to revert to the prices of 10 years ago or more. I expect that they will beat inflation over the next 10-20 years even after the high returns of the last 3-4 years. The holders of these items have better access to information and sales channels and lots of wealthy buyers, so they don't need to cater to budget-conscious collectors. Also, with all of the data and opportunities out there, anyone knowledgeable isn't going to fire sale anything good. You either have to find it in the wild, get very, very lucky with a sale that falls through the cracks at an auction house or a mis-priced item at a show, or correctly anticipate the next area of growth, get in there now, and then use the appreciated items to trade into cards and other items.

I sold a number of blue chip cards several years ago for what I felt was a very high price at the time; today, they would be worth anywhere from 5x-25x what I got for them and I wish I had them back.

I personally think there are still a lot of good deals for collectors out there. I have purchased a number of rougher pre war Hall of fames recently for an affordable price

For example a few months ago I paid $80 for a raw e90 Eddie collins

I agree with Adam's comments that you're in the wrong pond. Ebay dried up for me sometime around the end of 2021. I recall actively searching for most of 2022 with very little to show for it. Though there were still the occasional auctions, 90+% of what's left is BINs at unreasonably high prices with sellers who won't negotiate. I know, I've tried.

Like many of you, I've seen the same card for years just sitting there, with a seller that makes sure the card is always 50% above market whatever that may be. I haven't looked at Ebay in 2023 at all. I'm sure that I've missed some reasonable auctions, but I decided that it's just not worth my time.

Adam, I think you made a wise move to Encore auctions, I shifted almost all of my buying to the AHs (as well as net54 BST).

EDIT: Edit to add that if you're talking about prices overall, well I'll have to agree with you on that. I've accepted the new reality and punted on a number of collecting goals, consigning cards that I liked but didn't love to further fund the addiction (thanks Lee Behrens).

Remember this sports card & memorabilia hobby that so many of us love is very much about acquiring these things with money. Other hobbies (like sports, gaming, gardening, fishing, etc,...) are more about skill & technique. Sure, there are costs associated, but not like there is in this hobby. This hobby is supposed to be a way to reduce stress from your day job. The problem is the hobby becomes as stressful, if not more than your day job. :(

Agree. People forget that with the exception of the Cobbs/Aarons/Mantles/etc this is all an extremely illiquid market. One sale here and there becomes the anchor data point for the next. Prices won't go down without forced sellers, and I am not sure there are too many out there.

Even those of us with cash to burn are feeling a lot poorer these days, as our cash doesn’t go very far. Even if you can afford it, you have to ask yourself whether it’s wise to spend 5 or 6 figures on it. All that cash could buy lots of other exciting stuff!

And even when you decide to parlay serious cash into cardboard generally, you keep asking yourself if this specific piece in front of you at the moment is really what you want to buy, or whether you should wait for something even higher on your wish list to come along.

Auction houses are reaping insane profits with the rise in card values. If one of the majors, say Heritage, dropped their BP to 15%, I am certain their sales volume would more than make up for the lost income.

Or index funds or the equivalent.

Well said. I agree with this 100%

To stick with your boat analogy, prices saw a titanic shift in the last few years. If they come down, it won’t be for a while til sellers realize the market wont support said prices. 40-70 year old white guys aren’t typically known for their brain elasticity or quickly adopting new prices in the downward direction,, so it’ll take some time to “right the ship”. Either that or things never go down, and everything is at its new justified FMV.

I for one have pivoted to Japanese cards and and having a blast. There’s always another niche. Even the niches have niches!

I’m feeling a little marooned also. Not just because of prices, but because I had narrowed my collecting focus and material just hasn’t been available. Time to refocus.

Good one, Connor. I guess we all need a few ketamine trips to reset the ol' brains.

Raulus, spot on. I saw a grail card come and go tonight because I just could not justify the outlay. My last (inadequate) bid was painful.

Even the oddball vintage which the mainstream of the hobby would not sniff at years ago....and even the lower tier HOFers....has gone off the rails.....

Case in point, I was keeping an eye on a 1921 Exhibits Burleigh Grimes that was listed on the recent REA auction......it ended up selling for $2400 (plus the 20% buyer's fee + taxes and shipping....when all said and done, about $3000). I know that it is a pretty scarce card...and it is his rookie, but $3000....I passed. Just crazy....

You can still find reasonable prices at smaller regional shows (not the national)....if you run into the right dealer.....

I'd really love to get a breakdown of where all this money is coming from. Auction honchos could tell me, if they wanted, but I'm not sure I've ever asked. It's not us here on Net54, that's for sure, unless we're cashing in something we bought years ago when things were more affordable to buy something today. I'm guessing some pure investor and investor groups have noticed the dependable 50-year track record and ROI of this asset class and come in with guns blazing. And how about these tech billionaires and wealthy boomer lawyers, doctors, and other professionals who basically have the wherewithal to pull the trigger on anything they see in auction catalogs as often as they feel like it. And they can do it with the reassurance of the above mentioned track record. There is so much money sloshing around out there now, so many fortunes that would have been unimaginable in my youth when there were a few old-line fortunes known by name and that was about it. Venture capital? What the heck is that? Don't get me wrong, I have no complaints. I'm very happy with my little house in my beautiful little town and my fabulous old Highlander and Martin D-35, etc., and I have some cool stuff grabbed in the old days in niches that not many others cared about, but I can easily understand how frustrating it must be for ordinary schmucks who just love old cards to now be faced with choices like replacing the beater second car or moving forward with their collection. Frankly, the financial profile of the average Net54 collector must be in the top 99% of the country to even be able to play in this sandbox at all. For that group, who has gotten used to having pretty much whatever they set their sights on, this must be a very tough time to be in the "hobby."

I love the REA stuff. I just hate the 20% buyers fee and 10% tax, LOL. Whatcha gonna do though?:)

If there was someone who was on the autograph card craze early, it was you! Whewwwwww:eek::D

Thanks for not including 70-80 year old white guys.

I can attest that Frank's brain is as elastic as anyone's. :)

From the monthly pick up thread, where anything I pick up is ignored, there are most definitely a number of upper 99% and some 1%ers who make up the country club of net54 and all the other high-value card forums. Just look at the monthly pick ups, and the congratulatory pats on the back from the other country clubbers, the shiny beautiful people who can easily afford Wagner, Mantle, Ruth and Cobb and all the others. Pocket change. Nothing more than trinkets and geegaws when you have that kind of change burning a hole in your pocket.

Maybe, but there's a whole bunch of middle/working class members here who scrimp, save, and sacrifice to add to our collections. I for one am happy to see members pick up cards for their collection that I could never afford. A lot of them are hobby friends, why wouldn't I be happy for them?

I'm skeptical that there's a lot of hedge funds, venture capital, and alternative investment pools with millions or billions dedicated to buying cardboard running around out there and buying up a significant number of vintage pieces. Maaaaaaybe a few here and there, but not enough to move the market on their own. Obviously the fractional ownership promoters are losing their shirts and liquidating their pieces, but even for them when they were in acquisition phase prior to their ultimate fall, it's not like they were buying more than a handful of high-end pieces here and there.

For those of us with the cash to swim in the semi-deep waters, I'm guessing that no small number of us here fit the profile of successful professionals or business owners. I'm inclined to suspect that some of our peers who left the hobby in our youth have come back to it during the pandemic, and are willing to spend a fair amount to get back into the game. I suspect that this is the biggest source of support for all of the cash running around and buying up 5 and 6 figure pieces.

I would guess that you're right that some part of the cash is recycled from collectors selling pieces and then rolling it over into new pieces. While some gets recycled, there are certainly some collectors who have decided that they're ready to sell and move on to other adventures. Or death or divorce resulting in liquidation of some collections, with the proceeds not coming back.

In the end, every little bit helps to support these prices.

My collecting has essentially ground to a halt. I've tried to shift my focus to more underappreciated players in the hobby. Players like Duke Snider, or Zack Wheat are two that come to mind.

I have to face the facts that what I want to collect, just simply isn't obtainable for me at the moment. I still enjoy talking cardboard, going to shows, and the occasional lower level pick up. My income cannot keep up with the meteoric rise, of the vintage I want to collect, and I cannot live in a house made out of my cards.

I still enjoy the hobby, I enjoy looking at my cards, and responding/making posts on here, but it's hard as a twenty-something.

Thank you, thank you, I've been on the wrong side plenty as well!

Well, can you share some of that love to some of us who post up what, to us less fortunate, is something meaningful, so as not to be totally ignored? Kind of takes the wind out of the hobby when the only thing that gets noticed or a pat on the back is the latest Wagner, Mantle, Ruth, or Cobb.

James - maybe I interpreted it differently, but it sure seemed like you got plenty of congratulations with your 62 Topps complete set.

But perhaps that was an exception to the general rule of your pickups being overlooked?

Less high-powered or elitist crowd on the post-war side of the board. :)

+1 on that!

Tell me about it!! I do cartwheels every time I post another Gregg Jefferies rookie card that I landed in the 'new pick-ups' thread, yet there's not a single back pat to be found anywhere. But if any 'Mick' card from any year gets posted, that member gets a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade level of excitement thrown his way. :)

Collect for the fun it brings you, not the accolades from investors. Or, Invest for the returns it will bring you, not the accolades from collectors.

If one is collecting or investing for approval from other people, one might want to consider a change.

Yes, it is no doubt a mix of investors and collectors of different goals and resources that is driving the current trends. I never included large Wall Street types in my question, by the way, and only mentioned venture capitalists as an example of relatively new and lucrative professions providing the disposable income to enable those with the collector gene to satisfy their cravings. But surely there are some individuals and investor groups out there who have heard and seen verified the age-old advice of speculative wisdom succeed generation after generation: "buy the best cards in the best condition of the best players you can find," and have and are investing heavily in this market accordingly. Put this mix together, and, as the OP laments, the days of the guy or gal making a nice six-figure salary, or even multiples of that, who used to be able to indulge in the hobby with relish, actively and successfully, is pressed harder and harder now to finish their sets, upgrade their sets, expand their type cards, etc., as they could just a few years ago. That was the point of the original and succeeding posts, and it is quite amazing to ponder a situation where many of those populating this board, sporting wonderful financial profiles at the very top percentiles in the country, are being frustrated at virtually every turn now on their attempts to keep up. Things have changed, that's for sure.

I do collect for the fun it brings. I'm simply saying "the good old boy" club, the same people over and over, practically fall all over themselves to pat on the back the latest "pick up", with, as Jolly says, a virtual Macy's parade. For "picking up" the latest 5 or 6 figure card. While those who collect for the fun of it get 100% ignored over and over. If that is what card collecting is, then I very truly might want to consider a change.

To each his own, but I can't imagine caring that much about whether people comment or not on any card I might post? What does that add to anything?

I won't claim poverty or anything, I'm very privileged to be able to spend some coin on cardboard pictures just for fun, but I do low grade on a budget too. I gather you don't do so much non-sport or minor sports as I gravitate too but we seem to be collecting the same exact baseball stuff.

I don't think it really matters if people ooh and aah over a pickup, I get the card because I need it for a set or I like it (and it's nice when a pickup thread leads to an email or call about another card in the set and creates an opportunity to add more I need or serves as a springboard for research or knowledge sharing I didn't know). The most desirable items will get the most comments and tend to be the most expensive items as that correlates strongly to desirable. Groups will definitely primarily respond to other members of that subgroup, but there's nothing stopping other low grade collectors from posting. High grade $100K card collectors primarily post and respond to high grade $100K cards, boxing cards tend to respond to boxing cards, T206 collectors tend to respond to T206 collectors. If you're bothered by subgroups and cliques, and I don't mean this in a negative way, I'm not sure there is any hobby for which this will not be the same. It's human nature, people gravitate to those like them who have the same or similar focuses that intersect. There's plenty of fellow low-grade collectors who share your interests (clearly, or I'd win all the auctions!)

Well, I can't contradict anything you say, sir. I get it. I just blow off steam every now and then. You do seem to be the voice of reason.

Your complaining is beyond old. How about some accountability yourself. You never compliment any “good ol boy” cards. You just complain. Nothing is stopping you from starting a monthly thread to post pickups under a certain price, or of certain type of cards. You have as much control over what is posted as anyone else, yet instead of doing anything you just complain.

I am sorry you can’t afford what you want, sincerely. And I understand how it can be frustrating to see posts and discussions about things you can’t get. But I don’t understand why you begrudge and demean people who can have what you can’t. I took huge risks and worked my fucking ass off (and had some luck) to be in a position where I can buy six figure cards; part of those risks includes buying cards that are now six figures when the then-five figure price seemed nuts.

Anyway, if it’s so painful for you to see people get what you can’t, then this likely is not the place for you. Or maybe it is, but you just need to create your own niche and start threads that appeal to people with your collecting means and interest.

I wish you well and good luck. I do. And I don’t care if you don’t feel the same about the Good’ol boys. But it seems to me that this site and hobby causes you more pain than pleasure, considering a change is probably a good call.

Ryan Hotchkiss

Very well said

2017 was my last year of really enjoying myself. Money was good and items were reasonably priced. It continued a bit into 2018, but then I noticed a change. Yes, values were going up on the cards I owned, but I would have rather the values stayed the same, and the purchases continued to be reasonably priced. I've mostly been in a holding pattern with my T206's, and maybe add a new card every few months, instead of every few days. I collect coins also. So I'm not completly lost. But the fun has decreased. There are days where I feel lost with no purpose. Many things have changed in the last 5 years of my life, and I'm trying to find my way back to the reality I once enjoyed.

As the rules state, post your name. Otherwise, your comments mean nothing, no one cares.

If you don't like what I say, the truth hurts, as they say. Go buy another Ruth or Cobb.

I edited my post to add my name (even though it’s pretty much there already). What is the truth, that I can buy Ruth and Cobb and I don’t give you kudos on a pickup that I don’t care about? Man that Hurts a lot; what an insult - “Go buy another Ruth or Cobb”…

I am done here. Good luck to you.

I think none of us should complain about our budgets. There are all sorts of kinds of budgets- there will also be someone with budgets greater or less than ours.

I'm a high-schooler without a job, and I can tell y'all it's pretty hard to go through the pickups threads and drool over the amazing cards. I'm only able to get good cards if I get a great deal. I have very expensive card tastes without much capacity to fill them.

But on the other hand, I have a good friend who loves collecting cards. He's part of a family significantly worse off than mine, and has probably about 2% of the number of vintage cards I have. If I'm so much better off than him card-wise what right do I have to grouse? The same goes for y'all.

You didn't do a very good job updating your profile. And still, no one cares. As they say, b-bye.

On the left is how this thread began. On the right is what it has devolved into...

Attachment 584552


In other words, it's just like every other thread ever. :)

Anyone Else Feeling Marooned on Vintage Collector Island??
 

One of the things I realized fairly quickly upon getting back into the hobby after a dozen years or so in 2015, is that the whole "Keeping up with the Joneses" game with vintage cards wasn't something I was going to be participating in. As I recalled from earlier stints in the hobby as an adult, back to the time I was hardcore into it as a kid - the general rule seemed to be that there will always be someone whose collection will blow yours away - but if you are paying attention - you will notice that you are often far more fortunate / accomplished than many others in what you are trying to do yourself.

I don't, as a rule more or less since this last run of adulthood collecting, do much with prewar vintage cards. I just don't. I think they are incredible, but the value proposition isn't there for me and my budget right now. I can get one lower grade second-tier T206 HOF'er for the same price as I could buy an EX or higher 1950's or 60's Aaron or Clemente card in most cases - and for that, I'll take the latter every time. Postwar vintage was my first love as a kid in the late 80's / early 90's - and those players, mostly those of my parents generation - remain the most relatable to me. So that's where I play. Technically, could I take my budget and current assets and turn a very nice, midsize postwar collection into a much smaller but more elite collection of 5-figure and higher cards that are older? Sure! But to me it's a hobby first and foremost, and I don't really see myself making that move without turning it into something more than just a hobby - so I'm happy to continue to live in my playground, at least for the time being.

As some here have pointed out, the postwar board here perhaps isn't super popular compared to the main board - but whatever. I'm happy to show off my pickups there, and hang out with Jolly and a few others. Heck, back when I first got interested in old cards there was no camaraderie the likes of social media and what we have today - so who knows, maybe I'm just used to kind of following the beat of my own drummer. Things may change one day, they may not - either way is ok with me.

James, I hope you can find some peace with it. I think every collector here - even those who do eventually finance what some of us would consider insane $ cards - have had that feeling of not measuring up and not being able to do what we might want to if money were no object. I don't know though, I find when I ignore that noise and just focus on what I like - there are still plenty of things I can buy within my budget that make me happy. I could conceivably continue to buy postwar stuff I don't have for the next few decades, and still not cross everything off my list. But that is just me.

You are not collecting for the "fun of it", if you are upset about the lack of pats on the back your getting. Just sayin..;)

This. +1

No Card Posted Since Post Number 6 ??
 

My thoughts on the initial topic of this thread:

I definitely have had to change my collecting focus a few times over the last few years. Luckily I got back in to vintage a couple years before the "covid boom" and was able to pick up some cards my 10 year old self would never have imagined I would have (my first Ruth, Mantle, Mays, Jackie, etc.). It would take me a lot longer to save up for those cards now.

I completed a set in my favorite grade (a 1952 Bowman in an average EX range).

But as prices rose I started shifting. I started looking for more non mainstream sets from the 1930's. But as prices started rising on those, I shifted down on my condition requirements (now I'm fine with "collector grade"...i.e. cards that probably took a few turns through some bicycle spokes).

And recently I've been poking around sets from the 70's. Picking up lots of cards from 1975 Topps has been a lot of fun. It's from the year I was born and contains the rookie card of my favorite player (George Brett). And I should EASILY be able to complete a decent set for about $500. I could probably save money and just buy a complete set, but that's not NEAR as fun as buying lots, sorting, and maybe posting my duplicates for trade on the BST in the coming months.

I still have a small fund that I add to every month for another bigger card (I still want to own a Cobb, and Gehrig, and Aaron some day. And I will.) But I can also have fun putting together cheap sets too.

There always was and always will be cards I would like to own but understand I never will. But I'm blessed to be able to have enough income to be able to spend some of it on old cardboard with pictures of baseball players.

Life is good and collecting cards is fun. Reading and posting about cards on this forum is fun too.

Onward.

John

Sometimes the best response is music, in this case, the great James Brown from Drive That Funky Soul:

You don't miss nothin' you never had
But you miss so much you wish you could get

It is a weird zeitgeist when card prices boom. On the one hand, we (purportedly) celebrate unfettered capitalism and individual wealth building, and we love to see the value of our stuff go up, but there is also a ton of vitriol unleashed on rich collectors who use their money to buy the most expensive toys, like the T206 Wagners that we mere working stiffs cannot afford. I get that feeling; I really do. I wanted to extend a double-barreled middle finger to the hobby in the early 2000s when it became apparent that I could never hope to finish certain prewar baseball sets I was into, especially the T206 HOFer portrait run. Before that, I could theoretically add a Plank or even a Wagner to my collection, but the meteoric price increases on those and so many other vintage cards pre-2008 just buried me and the pandemic price run dances on my grave.

Seems to me you have two choices when you feel like that: get out or find something else to pivot to in the hobby and enjoy what you can. I started collecting oddball cards and ephemera and Exhibit cards. As prices on those rose in turn (who’d ever have thought a Jackie Robinson anti-prejudice blotter would be a four-figure item?), I pivoted to other stuff, like inserts, premiums, Wheaties and matchbook covers, cards from other sports and even some non-sports cards and ephemera.

Ryan is one of the nicest guys you'll meet in this hobby and truly passionate about collecting. He is fortunate to be able to amass great stuff, and is great about it. No reason to hate on him, James.

Look, I get it, I get envy and jealousy. When someone else scores a great card, you wouldn’t be human if there wasn’t some envy or jealousy rearing its ugly head. I get cranky. For a minute. Then I congratulate my friend on his good fortune and move on. We’re (nearly) all human, after all, so I am good with a little green envy goblin skittering across the mind’s eye for a moment. More than that is unhealthy and unproductive. I don’t hate on people who have the resources to amass a great collection, unless they are dicks about it, in which case it is hate-on, but because they are dicks, not because they have the resources to collect large.

It should be "fun". Whether that's find an error in a $1 bin (doyle please) finishing a set, or buying a wagner. You shouldn't have any remorse as to paying too much or not selling at the top. If you do, or think you might, just reevaluate your situation. It's only stuff!

Are you putting you family in peril by spending, alternatively spending too much time away from them trolling eBay for deals? After all, it's only stuff, and we just rent it, until the time comes it passes to someone else.

I can't fathom the increase in prices in some cards. They've been around 100 years, and now people think they are great investments. Aside from t3s (Hi Connor and Mark) which I always felt were completely undervalued, some of the other oversized "rookie" cards were never as popular as candy and gum cards. This is going back since the hobby started. T206s and 33 goudeys were filled in every auction house over the last 30 years (yes I started vintage at 16) and more people.held onto Ruth and Cobb cards/ephemera than commons. This evident from the photos, cards and mid-week pictorials than even as fragile as they are, still survived paper drives and in great condition.

The opinion seems to have changed. But I really think the "greater fool theory" is bound to happen eventually. It's fine if you don't have to sell and don't care about the value of your cards, but for some it will be a rude awakening. This happened in the late 80s and 90s when I started in the hobby. I was one of the only "kids" collecting vintage. The bottom fell out from speculators and over production and now the "kids" are selling there 1990s stuff at yards sales for pennies and never came back to the hobby. I see a lot of similarities and while history may not repeat itself, it certainly does rhyme.

There are still great cards to be picked up.....some oddball issues, lower tier HOFers.....items that don't get as much hobby love....but great items nonetheless.....

I recently picked up the entire 1957 team issued set of photos of the Cincinnati Redlegs.....with the original envelope, which happens to have Frank Robinson in it.... technically a rookie year issue...and I got it for around $200...in great shape too.

I picked up a nice 1923 strip card of Eppa Rixey in a PSA 6 for $120...

A Tom Barker Game Grover Alexander rookie in a 6 for $300....

A 1906 Fan Craze Bobby Wallace in an SGC 8 for a few hundred....

So there are cool cards to be had....but if you are looking for the BIG boys, yeah, unless you have a large trust fund or are killing it on Wall Street, those cards are out of reach....the days when you could pick up T206s of stars for $40 are long gone.

Speaking from the perspective of someone who returned to the hobby as an adult in 2019, then spent a year or so researching, learning, observing, and finally figuring out what my main collecting interest was by early 2020 (pre-WWI baseball cards), the whole of 2023 has been, for lack of a better word, exhausting. Don't get wrong, I love collecting. I love seeing all of the cool cards posted in the pickups threads and all over the board. Knowing I'll never be able to afford 98% of them doesn't bother me, I'm happy to see others completing their goals, just as I have my own goals I'm working toward.

The exhaustion for me stems from a couple of places. First, as Darren said in the original post, finding the combo of appealing and affordable outside of the B/S/T boards and FB groups has become nearly impossible. As avenues for reasonably priced cards dry up, more and more people flock to the few remaining good ones. As a result, as James has pointed out, you have to be fast or lucky or both to snag from what's posted. What's even more disappointing is there have been several times when I've seen cards on the B/S/T boards or FB groups get scooped up within a few minutes of being posted, then I find them on eBay a week later marked up 40-50% of what they bought it for. I totally understand that there are many who buy a deal to sell higher than they paid so that they can fund other cards they want, I get that. It's just deflating as a collector that would have loved to buy a card to keep forever, but missed out because I wasn't glued to my phone all day long. At that point, I have to either hope I get lucky that another is posted and I'm in the right place at the right time, or I overpay on eBay. Or, as has been my case for most of 2023, I buy nothing. Also, I'm always finding myself debating whether to overpay for something now, knowing it could be my last shot before it becomes forever unattainable, or continue waiting in the hopes that the price will eventually drop to a reasonable level. In short, the hunt is part of the fun of collecting for me, and it always has been. The mental hustle that it feels like it's become, however, is truly exhausting.

I collect by Luke Lyon's philosophy of love every card you own, which has helped me the most when deciding whether or not to buy a card, especially in deciding whether or not to overpay. As prices somehow keep climbing though, the result of that philosophy for me is that my collecting goals continue to substantially shrink. What I would have spent three years ago on five cards total that I loved, I now spend on one card that I love. As others have pointed out, I agree that there are other niches and corners of the hobby to move to, but for me it goes back to the philosophy of collect what you love, and for me that is baseball cards. I do enjoy collecting some pre-WWI soccer and boxing cards, but I'm definitely not as passionate for those as I am baseball. I'm not just going to collect something for the sake of collecting, I want to genuinely appreciate every piece I buy.

Sorry for that long-winded Debbie Downer post :D I intend to stick around and continue collecting what I love, I guess I just expected things to be somewhat back to normal by now, and I'm tired :)

One a month ...
 

I've always been a low budget, well-loved card collector. The prices of these items have also gone up. I chose not to stop collecting, live in angst on something I can't control, or to increase my budget; I just decided to buy no more than one card a month. Once the card is purchased, I don't shop for anything else. I still have fun ... the collection just builds slowly. And I continue to research and document what I have on my website, which costs nothing but time.

And I go fishing more :)

I hear you. I think we’ve all felt that way to some degree at some point. While FOMO is a real thing, my real life collecting experience has taught me that you have to take that last shot, always. Having prices soften on a card you just bought is a way easier pill to swallow than watching one sail away into the sunset of unaffordability, never to be attainable again. Paper losses come and go. Cardboard losses haunt you forever.

I am pretty well convinced that the run up on tasty pre-War cards is, at least partially, due to the trillion or so passed out by the government for Covid relief, whether fraudulently or legitimately obtained.
And while I agree that Ebay is not the hunting ground it used to be, deals of interest still pop up. For example, last night a nice group of T206 commons, all mid grade 5's were on offer. The average closing price was about $300 with no bp but taxes. I picked up a couple and was very pleased.

A good rule of thumb.... Try to focus on what you DO have vs. what you don't. You will be a much happier person.

There will always be someone with more money and better "stuff". There are lots of people on this planet.

And if you just can't get past the envy, perhaps switch over to memorabilia... Whether it's vintage photos, tickets, ad signs, scorecards/programs, pennants, autographs, or game used uniforms/bats/hats, you can still find an endless number of pieces that display beautifully while celebrating the game just as nicely as cards (but at a fraction of the cost).

I totally get the appeal of cards, but this.

Absolutely. I veered into that area in the early 'aughts and while it too has gone up there are still myriad backwaters and eddies where you can define a niche for your collecting wants. I like Cubs on Catalina Island baseball stuff, like this snapshot of some players doing their best Seven Dwarves impression, Gabby leading the way through Avalon:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Catalina.jpg

Or Gabby at the spring training facility on Catalina:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Catalina.jpg

:D:D
534. Kiblitzer (Yiddish)
Someone who seemingly has a front row seat to every thread in the B/S/T, and rushes in to buy up everything before anyone else has a chance to even view it.

Exactly what I said. There's tons of great stuff out there.