Mood at the National of Buyers, Sellers
 

Been a bunch of threads as to buying, selling, prices, etc. I thought this was a balanced good piece. Bottom line: there will be big crowds but a lot of question marks. The post mortem will be very interesting.

https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/n...a-sales-values

I think the hobby is doing fine. Everything gets cleaned in the wash. In other words, it all works out. Attendance at the show will be fine.
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and a card.

Great article.

Attendance will be up, prices will be up, but I am not sure how much selling of higher end cards will happen there.

What I expect most is collectors/dealers try to trade their way out of card obtained over the last 3 years. 2023 has definitely become the year of the trade.

Yep, a lot of people trying get out of holes they stepped into at the top of the market.

But others are in the year of the trade because they spent more then they planned over the last few years because so many cards not seen in years have come up as many took profits from buying years ago.
As a result of buying more than we thought we would we exceed our budget or exceed the amount we allocated and as a result are not as liquid to buy what we want now.
Also because the prices have gone up we cannot buy as much as we used to. So not under water on cards just over spent, over budgeted and Enjoying every minute of it

Or cleaned again and rewashed until most cannot recognize it is the actual original (altered). :D

You may be right about the overall health of the hobby, but the hobby has changed enough to threaten what collecting was actually about before it became the lottery.

I'm not sure if many net54 members are on other FACEBOOK Sports Card Groups but the interest has been way down this year....not much in the way of talk or buying/selling going on.

Uh oh. Is this for modern, vintage, or both?

Vintage and Modern

I don't know that you can extrapolate from a particular social media site to the hobby as a whole. There are quite a few people who detest Facebook. twitter, etc., and don't participate. Auctions are still sizzling with very few passed lots. That's a better indicator of hobby health, I think.

Really special stuff kicking ass as usual. The sort of close to special stuff. . . not so much.

I haven't found the interest in good stuff to be down in the least.

Agree most of the stuff on Facebook is not the good stuff, it's meh average at best.

Good point Murph (I always have to call Murphys Murph in honor of the great SF Giants trainer).

As a pre war collector the market constantly forces me to examine my choices on what I want my collection to look like, these decisions are now big financial decisions when they may not have been in the past, when spending 5k or 10k on a card I better be damn sure that card fits my collection. For me it's a 1200 piece jigsaw puzzle, I've bought pieces that don't fit but every piece that does will remain until I die and my kids can do what they want with it.

There's still a few of us that ascribe to the old school collecting philosophy, it ain't as easy as it used to be though.

Just a guess, but I assume our friends who run auction houses are getting no shortage of calls from consignors who were disappointed in what their items sold for. Human nature … remember the height of the market …. Not the fact that you bought for 2k and sold for 5k …. But the fact that at the height of Covid shutdown the same card sold for 17k.

I did a few sales...not much....the prices were nothing to write home about.

I'm more on the autograph side of things, and the Facebook activity I've encountered in this regard is geared towards the lowest end of the value spectrum. Lots of $1 item sales ("I'll give you 10 cents."). If someone posts a Mantle autograph (value is in the hundreds), people in these groups OOOH and AAAH like they're witnessing the Shroud of Turin. I can imagine the card faction to be a lot like this.

I've dabbled in $100-$300 cards in FB via their auctions. Anything higher than that I would feel more comfortable doing a claim sale or DoND format.

I've been of the same mindset value-wise when dealing on FB. I research the seller's reputation, then if that looks good, I've stuck to a similar maximum price point. So many of them only want to be paid via F&F, Zelle, and the like. No, I'm not paying their PP fees on top. That's their problem.

Ever a problem ?
 

.. Does Facebook step up to protect you and refund your money ( like EBAY does ) if the seller keeps your money but never mails you the card ? Anyone ever have a problem ?


..

hi mike buy from people that are known in the group.pay goods .yes folks have been burned for not being smart

If you don't know the person, ask the group's moderator(s) to provide a reference for the seller before doing anything else.

Facebook offers zero protection for anything. Tread with caution. It can be done wisely, but always keep your guard up and do your homework before waving goodbye to your money. Personally, as already noted, I won't buy anything on Facebook over a predetermined ceiling price that I feel comfortable with.

My own increasing interest in trading is straightforward and reflects the larger effort needed to track buy/sell values for tax purposes and transaction fees at each stage of selling via pros. Trading ends up about the same market value and can create friendly relationships, if you do it right! I offer things for sale every so often and then the hassle sends me back to trading. :-)

I'll be there as a buyer, in a great mood :)

Love to hear it. Good luck, Conor!