Before and After
 

I have read many "pandemic threads" on here, and it's usually the same comments being posted repeatedly. So, I want to do something different here by examining popular cards and seeing how much they were worth before the pandemic, and how much they are worth now. You can choose any card that you like from any sport, and also, it can be any grade. Show us how much it was worth before this madness started, and what the recent sales were. Okay, I will start:

Soccer:

1958 Alifabolaget #635 Pele

PSA 2 sold for $1,674 US on Nov, 2019.
PSA 2 sold for $62,730 US on March, 2021.

3,647% increase!! A winner?

Hockey:

1979 O-Pee-Chee #18 Wayne Gretzky

PSA 9 sold for $33,999 US on Dec, 2019.
PSA 9 sold for $259,501 on April of 2021.

663% increase!!

The 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken F Face error

Pre Covid $60-$100

Now from $500-$1000

Many of the junk era cards have gone crazy.:D

Not sure of the exact prices but T206 Red Cobbs in lower condition have gone insane in prices.

Three years ago I bought my 51 Mantle SGC 10 for $1,600. Now it looks like you've got to shell out 10 grand.

Going the other way though. I bought a Houdini signed letter for $800 7 years ago. It's currently up for auction and bidding has stagnated at.....$847.

Leaf Jackie Robinson RC PSA 7

December 2019 14k
March 2021 402k

I bought this signed Jordan for $460 in November of 2018

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This one sold for $5,300 in February.

IMO in soccer we've seen a synergy of a general market upsurge at least in rookie cards, and a soccer boom. If certain sales can be taken at face value, I have a few cards that have gone up by 10x, 20x or even more since I bought them mostly 2-3 years ago.

1976 PSA 8 Walter Payton (R)
Jan 2020 - $630
April 2021 - $1850

Of course I unloaded several the Summer "before" and felt good about it at the time. Not sure what to think now other than thank goodness I had not sold a Mint Gretzky back in Dec 2019.

Collecting is finally paying off.
 

Sounds like allot of people on here are going to do pretty well with their pre established collections. So enjoy it.

How about one with a qualifier?

1972 Topps Wilt Chamberlain PSA 9 OC:

1. January 2019 - $179.50
2. March 2021 - $759

Attachment 451187Attachment 451188

On a bit of a side note, the 1/19 sale was probably/definitely(?) before ebay started collecting sales tax, so another 60+ dollars would've accompanied the 3/21 price.

1960 Hemmets Cassius Clay PSA 9

7/15/2019 $13,791.05

2/27/2021 $210,000.00

Only counts if you sell 'em. Otherwise it's just good talk over drinks.

Pre-Covid and pre-accident, Kobe 1996 Topps Chrome PSA10 sold for $1930 on January 11 of 2011. Latest sale was $60,000. That's over a 3100 percent increase.

A 1422% increase and it's not even a freaking card! :rolleyes: More boxing:

1986 PANINI SUPERSPORT ITALIAN #153 MIKE TYSON

PSA 8 sold for $404 Nov, 2019.
PSA 8 sold for $9,000 Feb, 2021.

2127% increase!

1999 WORLD BOXING MAGAZINE #143 MANNY PACQUIAO

PSA 9 sold for $1,225 Aug 2020 (during pandemic!)
PSA 9 sold for $20,200 March 2021

1548% increase!

How many of these reported sales are PWCC?

My cards have tripled in value

My stock portfolio has tripled in value

My House has quadrupled in value

I'm Rich!!

I don't think so.. Gotta end sometime right??

Pele was sold by Goldin and Gretzky by Lelands. Tyson was not sold by a major seller and Pacman was PWCC.

Congratulations. You are paper rich. I think most of us can relate.

I won an auction for 4 of the UK Traditions Lionel Messi cards last February for $48 (total) and auctioned them off individually over the last last six months for an average of $1000, so from $12 to $1000 each, which is an increase of 8233% if my math is right.

Where are the wrestling card guys? Oh right, they're probably busy counting their cash!

1994 MIAMI/BUMBLE BEE DWAYNE JOHNSON

PSA 10 sold for $900 on Apr, 2020 (during pandemic!)
PSA 10 sold for $45,100 US on Feb, 2021.

4,911% increase!!

1982 WRESTLING ALL-STARS SERIES A #2 HULK HOGAN

PSA 7 sold for $599 Mar, 2020 (during pandemic!)
PSA 7 sold for $3,494 Feb, 2021

483% increase!

1982 WRESTLING ALL-STARS SERIES A #27 RIC FLAIR

PSA 8 sold for $205 Dec, 2019
PSA 8 sold for $3,272 Mar, 2021

1,496% increase!

Meanwhile while my perfect-looking Lebron rookie has been waiting for PSA to play catch up, the PSA 10s on eBay have dropped from a peak of $14,000 to $6,000 since February. Not that $6000 isn't far more than I paid for it raw a few year ago, but a lot of key modern cards have cooled off pretty dramatically since February.

I bought the complete set with the Clay panel slabbed as a PSA 1 a couple of year ago. I think it was like $500. Sold it on eBay recently for $8200.

1986 Monty Gum Randy Savage I Paid $5.24 in early 2018 on COMC. Currently listed for $147.77-$213.50 on COMC. Listed on Ebay for $209.99-$850 ungraded.

His Topps Chrome was 2k before COVID peaked at 40k+ now 23k. Still a huge profit. The problem with LeBron is his injury and the Lakers going from preseason favorites to about the 5th best team. If the Lakers happen to repeat, his cards will go back up.

I'm going to assume that LeBron's main cards haven't gone down yet. By this I mean his SP Authentic, Exquisite, Ultimate Collection, etc. Am I right?

And I'm impressed with some of the money you guys have been making on here! Keep up the good work!

Nice! Might have to get mine over to PSA, er, nevermind.

I don't think you can really go too far wrong holding onto early Clay cards if you got into them several years ago. It isn't like he's gonna tear up his shoulder or beat his wife...

1985 O-PEE-CHEE #9 MARIO LEMIEUX

PSA 10 sold for $10,899 Nov, 2019
PSA 10 sold for $78,000 Feb, 2021

615% increase!

1951 PARKHURST #66 GORDIE HOWE

PSA 6 sold for $4,602 June, 2019
PSA 6 sold for $25,684 Mar, 2021

458% increase!

1911 C55 #38 GEORGES VEZINA

PSA 6 sold for $7,926 Sept, 2019
PSA 6 sold for $17,652 Feb, 2021

123% increase!

Come on, guys! Start posting some vintage baseball or I will do it! :)

1934 Goudey Hank Greenberg

My PSA 2 was $225 in 2015. Rose to about $350 by 2019.

Now comfortably selling for $800-1000

A guy here on the BST board has one for $1295. Wow!

Great thread idea!

By the way, I find that the price increases in the 2010 decade are now so underrated compared to what happened in 2020.

That card was always undervalued. Same with the Diamond Star. Still not too bad.

Haha - I agree! When a card went up by $200 US, people would say "screw that sh*t! I ain't buying that!" And now that same card has gone up by $20,000 US! LOL! :D

Here are some key vintage basketball cards:

1948 BOWMAN #69 GEORGE MIKAN

PSA 8 sold for $50,100 Sept, 2020 (during pandemic)
PSA 8 sold for $132,000 Feb, 2021

163% increase!

1961 FLEER #8 WILT CHAMBERLAIN

PSA 8 sold for $33,659 Sept, 2020 (during pandemic)
PSA 8 sold for $144,544 March, 2021

329% increase!

1972 TOPPS #195 JULIUS ERVING

PSA 9 sold for $3,999 Dec, 2019
PSA 9 sold for $59,040 March, 2021

1,376% increase!

Throw in the 57 Bill Russell PSA 8. $20K-$30K pre covid and now over $300k.

Must be those fractional shares!


Puuuuump it up home boys

Either that or Jeff Bezos entered the hobby.

TIME TO PLAY BALL!!!

1909-11 T206 PIEDMONT 350 PORTRAIT-RED TY COBB

PSA 4 sold for $4,080 Dec, 2019
PSA 4 sold for $9,400 April, 2021

130% increase!

1933 GOUDEY #149 BABE RUTH

PSA 4 sold for $7,800 Dec, 2019
PSA 4 sold for $34,353 March, 2021

340% increase!

1951 BOWMAN #305 WILLIE MAYS (SAY HEY!)

PSA 5 sold for $6,000 Aug, 2019
PSA 5 sold for $32,100 March, 2021

435% increase!

I think this is the greatest money laundering scheme ever!

There have been a lot of great specific examples, but speaking personally just for midgrade postwar HOF'ers - it seems a lot of the cards that I bought in the $150 range in the last 5 years are now $250-300 cards, and some cards that I had thought of as $500 or so cards have now doubled or more in value. I have no plans to sell the large majority of it, so it's kind of a situation of sitting back amusedly and watching - but yeah. Been that kind of year.

An SGC 1.5 closed for $3195 this morning. That's roughly 3x-4x where a card in that condition from a major TPG was before the price surge.

A 52T Mays #261 PSA 6 just sold for $17k on ebay last night, a pretty nice one too. The last two PSA 6's sold for $25k each.

wholly schniekies, what a beautiful Messterpiece.:) Nice!

The 2 at 25K had the mays death tax built in when Aaron died.

Mays is healthy as a horse and will live on forever so it should continue to drop. I'm looking to pick up another 51 Bowman for a song as It's SGC and off center. Nobody likes or wants it cause it's not "PSA" or "Dead Centered". ;)

Can somebody do the numbers for 1952 Topps Jackie? I think it went up about 10 times...but only if PSA and centered. All others are losing value I think?

Not on my watch. This card is high on my wantlist and never pulled the trigger. Still looking and getting more depressed by the day.

1952 TOPPS #312 JACKIE ROBINSON

PSA 2 sold for $1,256 July, 2019
PSA 2 sold for $7,200 March, 2021

473% increase!

PSA 4 sold for $3,000 May, 2020 (during pandemic)
PSA 4 sold for $16,450 April, 2021

448% increase!

PSA 8 sold for $16,800 Feb, 2019
PSA 8 sold for $168,000 Feb, 2021

900% increase!

With all these examples of huge price increases who is doing the buying? Is anyone on here paying these new prices? Is it collectors or has vintage cards become the new game of hot potato?

I have switched over to mainly memorabilia because I haven't noticed the huge price increases there yet.

It seems to me a combination of the two. Investors and speculators appear to be driving the prices, but some collectors have the means to keep collecting. All in, though, it seems speculators are driving much of the pricing at least on big names.

Although primarily a post-war collector (and pre-war Japanese cards), I've recently switched my focus to photos for the same reason. There has been an increase in price but it hasn't been prohibitive so far....

I haven't bought anything. I think it is new blood being given advise to buy no matter the cost. I wonder what the guy who paid 738k for a PSA 10 Jordan RC is thinking about them selling for 420k now? I am waiting it out to see if other cards settle back down close to where they were before the hype began.

Yeah, this type of market is so unpredictable that it constantly amazes me. That said, every time I buy a bitcoin and it then goes down, my friends get a good laugh. Over the longer term, though, maybe the asset holder get the last laugh....

The popular stuff? I've been buying and flipping it and putting the profits into more obscure stuff for the "permanent" collection. I'll get burned at some point, but it's working so far.

3 year eBay sales trending analysis
 

Some vintage baseball card eBay sales trending analysis below, albeit limited sample sizes:

2018 sold in cards: 14.2% Gross Return
2019: 18.7
2020: 49.6
2021: 51.5

2019 sold in Mick cards: 36.9% Gross Return
2020 Mick cards: 58.7
2021 Mick cards: 114.5

2019 sold in Mays cards: 20.3% Gross Return
2020 Mays cards: 60.0
2021 Mays cards: 87.5

Which players, sets, or genres have yielded you the best ROI?

I've been buying some bigger cards over the last year. I don't think I overpaid for any of them though. My pandemic buys:

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https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8d631be36e.jpg

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If I can find mainstream cards for good prices I will pick them up. O/W I am a net seller right now. If I find rare cards I just plain pick them up: if I've had a card on my want list for years and it pops up, I grab it and don't ask questions, unless the seller is being ridiculous about it. Those cards tend to sell regardless of anything else, though, so the surge in pricing hasn't changed their market per se. That said, it is tempting to be reckless, especially when the funds I hold for card purchases swell due to the sales I am making. I've got my eye on a card right now that the seller has overpriced by at least 50%, and with each sale I make it is tempting to say WTF and buy it. It falls into that category of very scarce but not rare, so there is a respectable pricing history to review and consider.

Such an underrated point. I think the above helps prices rise for another card. If I sold a card for 3x what I paid I am more likely to overpay on something else.