Yahoo Finance - cards booming
 

Today, Yahoo Finance put out a segment of the booming card industry during this pandemic. Interesting, claims of a lot of 20-40 year olds coming back into hobby, driving prices up. Said 80% seeking the modern stuff, 20% going for vintage - which is also shooting up quite fast. I think eventually many young adults will start to gravitate to true vintage thus pushing prices up even further. Most of the info we already know, but cool to see anyway.

I've posted it before, I'll post it again, I think prices start to normalize when a vaccine comes out and people are able to spend their disposable incomes on Traveling again. It wouldn't surprise me as well if the people who bought their cards during the pandemic, and don't have a permanent interest in staying in the hobby start to sell off what they have.

If both of these are true, then the modern market would bear the brunt of a correction when the time comes.

I think it’s part secular, not everyone will leave the hobby some will get hooked. I would be extremely worried for modern card basketball holders though. I bought some vintage basketball but I do think that is secular too.

Yes to all of it.

Certainly there will be some funds going elsewhere when there is other stuff to do. I have saved five figures on traveling this year off our norm but full expect to hit Kona, NYC and Paris the year after this ends. Plus the National of course.

Some people who started with cards are going to stay with it because it is fun. I know if I try something new and enjoy it I don't just drop it when something else comes along. I may do less but once bitten...

Not sure, but think I saw a T206 Cobb Green PSA 5 recently top $30.k ? And looks like the other 3 Cobbs in PSA 5 are around $10.k each, or more ? I don't have VCP access.

This is possible. But its also possible that the pandemic is altering people's behaviors in ways that will persist after the pandemic is over.

Most definitely a lot of people will start spending their money on travelling again, so I think there will be a drop from what is going on now. But probably there will also be some people who have gotten a lot more "into" the hobby than they were before and will maintain that interest after, so I think the market will likely remain bigger coming out of the pandemic than it was going in, even if it prices go down a bit.

Ah, Yahoo Finance. Always the last to the table.

A green Cobb in REA's last auction went for $31.2K. Another auctioned by Heritage went for $16.8K in July.

The new stock market

Mile High’s t206 Wagner sells for 1.17. Million Dollars a gain of 560k over the last sale. It is not just modern that booming.

Mile High's Wagner could have gone higher but Goldin's Wagner takes some of the spotlight. Many people who are Wagner PSA-1 hungry didn't bid heavy on Mile High's Wagner for sure since there's a next one just around the corner and don't need to wait for years again.

We will see. The Goldin Wagner looks to be in slightly better condition with less heavy creasing but one of the corners looks torn off. Is there a third person willing to pay a million plus? There can't be that many people with a million dollars to spend on a baseball card. If there is, I would expect it to go even higher. What is Ken Kendrick's Wagner now? 20-25 million?

One estimate says there are nearly 15 million millionaires in just the USA alone.

...and when everyone and their neighbor is citing how easy it is to make money buying and selling cards, the top has passed. Oh I hope the trend continues, but I've seen it too many times in sportscards, housing, etc

If you have a long-time owned home in a major coastal urban center and a small retirement nest egg odds are you have a million dollars in assets


...but you sure as hell won't feel like a millionaire.

Is it safe to say that the unreal appreciation of modern basketball cards has been lead by the Jordon rookie card? I don't really follow basketball much, but I did see that the Bill Russel rookie card just went for a juicy number so I guess vintage is prospering, too.

John, it is all flying off the shelves: vintage, modern, vintage-ish. I sold a 61 Russell, a 72 Erving and an 85 Magic all for extraordinary prices...that have since been eclipsed. And there are a wealth of other cards that just leave me shaking my head. Any major player's RC in virtually any condition is moving briskly. A PSA 3 Russell RC sold for over 10K. it is just nuts.

The Vintage market I somewhat understand though. Russell, Dr.J , Magic, Wilt, etc, are the premier names in the history of the game. What I find absolutely insane are the prices of modern cards. I've made a similar statement about a few of the modern baseball cards. Cards of players like Doncic and Giannis are hitting absurd prices. All for cards that are a producted of manufactured scarcity.

Getting back to vintage, I'm glad to see prices going up to a certain extent because it means the hobby's doing well, but I fear that we will eventually hit a point where the regular, every day person will be priced out of the hobby, at least when it comes to certain cards. I'm more of a collector, I'll like buying something and holding onto it. I'm going to be faced with some tough decisions going forward though, If I want to eventually get the cards that I've always had my eye on.

Sometimes it makes me wish I was older or had a time machine of some kind. What I wouldn't kill to have the opportunity to purchase decently priced tobacco, or gum cards of the Stars of the game. Hearing about times when 33 Ruth's were obtainable for a couple of hundred bucks does make me very envious. It is what it is, I guess.

I work for Huggins & Scott Auctions which is attached to a card shop owned by Bill Huggins named House of Cards. Business is absolutely booming. The modern card market has brought in numerous twenty somethings and even an influx of African-Americans and women. This isn't just a middle age/baby boom hobby anymore and that is a good thing!