Is the Ebay market for '60's and '70's....................
 

.....sets and lots drying up?

For the last few years I have been working on completimg sets of all '60's and '70's issues. I also have dabbled in earlier issues during this time frame and have noticed a drop in sets and lots available across the board this year. This drop off has been particularly stark for items from the '60's and '70's, where there is only a tiny fraction of what was available at this time last year. This drop seems much more significant than what followed the September of 2008 crash. Despite the reduced availability, winning bids are down.

Are sellers simply waiting it out in hopes of better times? Is it the budgetary issues and the looming threat of a double dip resession? Or perhaps the lingering/accumlative effects of an economy largely stagnant for 3 straight years?

I do know that interest in collectables tend to rise during times when financial investments are down and in prolonged down economic times this interest wanes.

And lastly, is it the long predicted downward trend for items mostly of interest by the aging babyboomer segment of the market?

I sure haven't noticed the price decrease while working on my '61 Topps set. Here are a couple of raw $4 commons I got outbid on this week. I think I could have bought graded cards cheaper than that.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEDWX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEDWX:IT

This isn't the 60's or 70's (sorry!) but I've decided to pick up the key rookies from the 80's and early 90's that, for some reason, I never got when I was a kid. The good thing is, they're all pretty much readily available, but I can't believe I got outbid on 2 1983 Topps Traded Darryl Strawberry cards. lol Both raw - one went for more than "book value." What the heck!? These cards are supposed to be "junk!" Sorry if I strayed too far off topic!

Fees
 

I think the fees have hit the smaller dealers pretty hard, especially if you are referring to $1, $5, or even $10 cards...You used to be able to dump $1 cards in your eBay store for $.03 cent and now it's $.20...

I think there is a softening of prices for mid-grade single cards but high-grade vintage still gets decent coin, jmo