[Bram99]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I love my vintage cards, but some of those shiny modern cards look pretty cool as well. So, I decided to do a little bit of research and hopefully pick up a few cards of players who are active today. Now I know that the Bowman Chromes are the most popular, but it doesn't end there. There are Chromes, Chrome Refractors, Blue Chrome Refractors, Blue Wave Chrome Refractors, XFractors, Red, Purple, Orange, Green, Gold, etc. Now the AUTO ones seem to be very popular, but again, there are Blue AUTOs, Blue Wave AUTOs, Black Wave AUTOs, Red AUTOs, Green AUTOs, etc. And wait, there's more! I found some MINI cards as well! So, everything I wrote above can be found in the MINI size as well. So, MINI Blue Refractors, MINI Blue Wave Refractors, MINI AUTO Purple Refractor, and so on.

I find this very, very, very concerning. Why? Because card companies are starting to become greedy again. They are flooding the market like the way they did back in the early 90s. And you know what ended up happening, right? Now they might not print a trillion copies of one card, like what Upper Deck did with the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie, however, what they are doing now is pretty bad. As much as I hate to say this, both vintage and modern markets are tied together. If modern cards tank one day, then vintage cards are going right down with them.

Give me your thoughts on this subject.

I am not concerned because I only collect vintage. I cannot keep up with all of the issues and permutations of current cards. Perhaps that's because I grew up with really only one brand available for current year cards until I was near my 20's.

If I were a current day card collector I'd be worried that the current hot card would plummet due to either over-production, a demand shock (downward), the player getting injured or released or taking a precipitous fall in performance and therefore demand/value (think Gary Sanchez).

I just feel more safe with vintage. Many of the factors above are off the table. Certainly demand can lessen due to less people being interested in vintage cards. But the rest of the factors are not in play. I am sure I might be missing a chance at enjoyment or future appreciation but the modern market currently looks like a Powerball lottery ticket market or a pyramid scheme to me. You have to be careful you are not holding a Mark McQwire Team USA RC with a lot of $ into it when the music stops. And for most modern cards at least, it will stop.