I was out of the hobby for a few years.....
 

I started my collecting journey back in 2003, and had a blast with this hobby. I met a lot of great people, and saw/purchased some amazing cards and memorabilia along the way. Wagner, Cobb and Joe Jackson were always my favorites.

Leon, Joe T, Terjung and Scott B were always my go to people for when I had a question. I'm glad to see that I still recognize some familiar people on the board from years ago.

In 2017, I kind of lost interest and sold off my collection. I needed the funds to help with my wedding and the purchase of our house, etc.

I just recently saw some unbelievable prices realized for a lot of cards I either chased or owned. About a month ago, I went with my brother to a local card show. After walking around, I kind of got the feeling that I want to start collecting again. It brought back good memories of the past. I'm planning on starting my collection 2.0.

I haven't been around for a few years, and I just logged in and saw a few PM's I had from a while ago that I just responded to.

So tell me, what have I missed in the past few years?? :)

Tony N.

Well, if you didn't get married until this year, my guess is the appreciation in the collection you sold could have possibly turned it into a bigger house and/or wedding. :p

Prices have gotten a bit interesting. I buy a few things here and there but the overall hobby experience has turned more financial than actual fun chasing down cards you've wanted and wished you'd purchased a few years ago.

It's still dead guys on cardboard, but the cardboard costs a little more these days.

...same
 

I'm in the same boat. (not married though!) Got out of it in 2018. Got the "itch" during Covid, so started re-building my 1970-1999 rookie collection. Then just this summer, got back into vintage.

My mind was blown when I saw what my collection would be going for now. I still have it online, along with "collection #2". I cry a little from time to time, when I go back and look. haha

((sigh))

https://www.collectorfocus.com/collection/Coach

In fall 2019 the hobby started to gain a lot of new interest after nearly a decade of stagnant prices.

When I say a lot of new interest, I mean a whole lot of new interest. People were raiding stores in 2020+ when blasters/boxes were being stocked. Junk wax that sat for years doing nothing was not only selling again, they were fetching prices not seen since the 90s. Vintage interest went up and while things are getting a lot more sane in many areas of vintage, the prices are still way up compared to pre-2019 prices.

Money is still flowing heavy through the hobby even if the peak seems to have passed. It's not a peak and crash as of now, it's more of a peak and new normal.

In 2015, I jumped back in starting collection 3.0. Initially I focused on Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Paige, etc. But within months I landed back at my roots - t206s. By 2017 I was buying all the Wagner, Cobb, and Plank items I could. By 2018 I added Jackson and Ruth to that list, as well as classic cards of Young, Mathewson, and Lajoie (Rose Co PC, Cracker Jack, W600, E107, etc). Aside from a few sets, my focus remains rooted in 2017-18 endeavors/players. However, I began selling stuff last year. This was because the appreciation was too impactful.

In my experience, most Wagner and Cobb items are 3-5x more today than what they were in 2017. Almost everything I bought before 2020 is up at least 3x. Things have come down somewhat in the past year compared to highs in 2022, especially Cobbs, but the major players are WAY up from pre Covid levels. Prior to that, these items had slow be consistent appreciation since 2012+/-.

My suggestion is to get a subscription to VCP (vintage card prices.com). It’s a very useful site. You can see the trend in sales over the past almost 20 years.

My gut is that, barring a major recession, prices will not go down, and they will flatten and stay stagnate for a while. Even if we have a major recession, which I believe is coming, I think many of these items will retain most of their value - the demand is real and the supply is limited.

I started collecting initially in the 1960s, and put several Topps complete sets together from packs, with my parents blessing.

Then I got older, lost interest in cards and moved out of the house. When cards were later deemed valuable, my mother had given my cards away, as I had told her go ahead and do. She asked me many times after I had moved what did I want to do with them, as my old bedroom had become a guestroom.

Then I got back into the hobby while I was in the Navy, and even in the late 1980s/early 1990s could acquire such things as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Goudeys cheap, and many others I acquired from relatives leaving the hobby, friends leaving the hobby, etc.

Next, I foolishly sold some valuable cards for a fraction of their worth at a time when I was strapped for cash. I vowed to never do that again, and haven't.

Then I got back in again just before Covid and managed to put together a complete 1953 Bowman set, 1962 Topps set, and acquired a bunch of great cards from various pre- and post-war sets which I will keep, and when I croak my family knows what to do. Some of this in a safe deposit box.

Now, the so-called hobby has turned into investing in graded cards, that people perspire about and even with my 3 pensions I cannot afford, and frankly don't want to.

So I am out again. I read this forum, and like doing so. I lead the charge on raw cards, which are basically extinct here. This forum, and Blowout as well, is a country club for graded card investors. That's all fine, but make no mistake, baseball cards is now a hobby for very wealthy people, which I am not. I live in retirement in a very nice upscale Florida neighborhood comfortably. But I do not have the disposable income to drop thousands of dollars on pieces of cardboard and frankly, I don't want to.

With me, it's quite simple.
To sell all of my Mantles now, when they will only just keep getting more and more valuable over time, to pay for a wedding is a no-go.
I'll never be able to replace my Mantles, but my girlfriend? A simple night out at the bar and I'll find another one. :cool:

Priorities!!

Amirite?

Not sure I land in the same spot, but I suppose we each have our own valuation metrics for the relationships in our life that make life worth living.

Tony - Here you go you old geezer, you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhzzAUaOzsk

Welcome back, Tony! Good to see you!