Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2502089)

I have never seen more activity in the hobby in 40 years. I go to card shows all over the country, and there are more people at shows than ever. I believe there are more participants in the hobby today than ever before, including the covid boom.

Originally Posted by cubman1941 (Post 2502426)

This is great but are they buying or selling? Maybe they are all looking for a modern card to grade in hopes of selling big or trying to sell a current modern star? Are they buying vintage?

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth (Post 2502101)

PSA subs and wait times should be a pretty good barometer.

Originally Posted by Rich Klein (Post 2502469)

Kids are very involved in this hobby in the DFW area

Come to any trade day/night in the DFW area at the local card stores and you will see a LOT of kids and I mean people like me over the age of 40 are well in the minority. And for those who are asking, my LCS does it's trade day/night from 3 or 4 to 6 on Saturdays which would not interfere with a lot of plans

The bad news is some of the kids collect and some are in it only for the $$$$. Worries me as what will happen 20 years from now when those kids return after the 3 C's (Cars, Cuties and College) and did not really collect as kids.

Rich

Comments about the new unopened world, well that's even more complicated

Originally Posted by homerunhitter (Post 2502066)

What is YOUR opinion of the current state of the hobby when it comes to modern cards? With the current economy, how is it at card shows? eBay? Etc?

Originally Posted by Rich Klein (Post 2502469)

Kids are very involved in this hobby in the DFW area.

Originally Posted by Rich Klein (Post 2502469)

The bad news is some of the kids collect and some are in it only for the $$$$.

Originally Posted by bnorth (Post 2502915)

It is great to see young kids in the hobby. My personal experience is they couldn't care less about the cards and are all about if they just made money or not.

I purchased a couple hundred factory auto and patch cards to go along with a ton of Twins cards. I am in Twins country. I would but together lots of 10 cards with 1 auto and 1 patch card in each lot. I sat up at 3 different Farmers markets selling produce. I bought the cards to give to the kids being drug to the market by their parents/grandparents. The first couple weeks all the kids wanted them. Then when I would see the same kid again they would say they didn't want any because they are not worth anything.

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2503137)

Trading Card Games?

:confused:

Originally Posted by maniac_73 (Post 2503133)

At a small monthly card show we have here in the bay area I've watched TCG's completely take over. About 2 years ago they would take up about 10percent of the space, the last show it was over half. I think TCG's are or have already overtaken sports cards in popularity.

Originally Posted by Exhibitman (Post 2504357)

It is not a unitary market. A 1983 Fleer is way different than a 1996 pinnacle is way different than a 2020 panini. I’ve been doing well selling 1980-1998 cards on eBay.

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat (Post 2504288)

Most of the grading card business now comes from TCG doesn't it?

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2502454)

I'm seeing tons of kids at shows. Sure many are trying to hustle for a buck. But it's no different than when I was a kid checking every Beckett for up arrows.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2502454)

Kids care about card values. It's natural.

Originally Posted by Kutcher55 (Post 2504468)

As others have said, part of it is increased popularity of pokeyman and all that garbage.

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2504476)

But any and all cards were considered just garbage back in the day! That's why almost all were roughly handled and then eventually pitched out in the garbage. And the very fact that they were nothing but cheap kid stuff when issued is what gives them charm today. ;)

What troubles me about the TCG cards issued since the mid-1990's is that they weren't considered absolute garbage when issued. Everybody including kids knew about card values by then. As a result there's not been much of a destruction factor. The rarities these days are therefore the manufactured rarities which I consider to be "artificial" somehow.

:(

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector (Post 2504551)

i notice that the chase cards for modern that go for 10-50 bucks for the current year people bid on ebay on but the next year they drop and keep dropping besides the ohtanis and witts....on to the next year chase.

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector (Post 2504551)

in the old sets we all loved every card in a set...now its just certain subsets...the level of love is much thinner.

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector (Post 2504551)

i do see that with pokemom cards that are played with and certain cards to them are like the 1950s mantles that we couldnt afford in are youth but some of us can and do pay. I can see certain pokemon cards that are $ 1000 or so now to buy that kids cant afford but will be paying much more than than 30 years later as they are cards of their youth and lore that that were playing with and not just chasing for a sub set for one year than on to the next

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2504465)

Well it's sure as hell different than when I was a kid. We never thought about values. We just opened the packs, dropped the wrappers where we stood, stuffed the gum in our mouths, looked to see who we got in each pack, shoved the cards into our pant pocket and then eventually flung them gaily at brick walls in winner takes all games.



I disagree. That's learned behaviour which has come about in the last 35-40 years or so.

;)

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2504613)

Human beings are born coveteous. The desire to have more than others has been passed down from Adam. You don't have to teach a kid to want the most valuable thing.... Like I said, it's human nature.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2504613)

Just because you didn't care about values of baseball cards doesn't mean no one did.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2504613)

As soon as cards were traded for value, some kid cared about that value.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2504613)

I promise you kids interested in card values pre-dates your life.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2504613)

You just didn't realize they had value.

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2504675)

Yes on those points I agree.



Why would anybody have cared about the "value" of the bubble gum cards we kids were buying from 1959-65 when they had no value at the time?



True. But that didn't happen until many years after I stopped buying cards as a kid.



I was born in early April 1952. While some adult somewhere may have been willing to pay a few dollars for certain select tobacco cards prior to that, I'd be very surprised if you could identify any kid at the time aware of any of these cards.



Those cards had no value because they had no value at the time! You can't transpose future values back into the past. That's a mistake. Any market participant will tell you timing is everything.

I was simply making the point that my/our experience back in the day was very much different than the experience/behaviour of present day kids (or kids since the late 1980's). We happily bought and collected bubble gum cards with no thought as to their value (primarily because there was no value). We did it simply because we liked baseball and the cards looked, smelled and felt cool. You can't say that my statement was incorrect because we would have paid attention to the value had there been any. We simply didn't. I said only that. Case closed.

;)

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5 (Post 2504681)

It's usually people who were kids at the time who were oblivious to that value.

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2504684)

That concession is sufficient to prove my point. Our childhood collecting behaviour back when I was a kid in grade school in 1958-65 was very much different than the collecting behaviour of kids these days.

You're arguing that our behaviour would have been different had we known about values. Maybe so. But that's beside the point I was making.

:)

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards (Post 2504936)

People who speak in broad generalities are always wrong...

Originally Posted by BioCRN (Post 2504112)

I'm personally amazed how well things are holding up for ultra-modern releases considering the cost of the buy-in.

It's been gambling for a long time. Hell, you can't economically put together a base set from packs for at least 10-15 years.

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector (Post 2504551)

in the old sets we all loved every card in a set...now its just certain subsets...the level of love is much thinner.

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2504962)

The card manufacturers themselves are to blame for that. Pre-1980 a baseball fan and card collector needed only to complete one (admittedly huge) set per year and he had basically from April to September to do it which wasn't really difficult because the cards were on every convenience store counter at basically affordable prices. And perhaps a food issue or two (e.g. Post Cereal, Salada Coins, Hostess, Kellogg's) which still wasn't that tough because a kid needs something other than bubble gum at times.

But since 1990 or so anyway the amount of product has exploded with several releases per year. And with all the manufactured scarcities, building a master set is generally impossible. In fact even defining a master set is difficult. Is a Jersey card with a red fabric an altogether different card than one with a white fabric? And Patch cards are all completely different of course. Moreover since when is every autograph exactly the same?

Therefore concentrating on certain specific subsets ends up being the viable fallback option for many/most collectors. Other fans resort to collecting only certain players although that to me seems bizarre for an adult anyway. It strikes me as hero worship.

:(

Originally Posted by Balticfox (Post 2504962)

In fact even defining a master set is difficult. Is a Jersey card with a red fabric an altogether different card than one with a white fabric? And Patch cards are all completely different of course. Moreover since when is every autograph exactly the same?