Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian
So my question for you guys that have picked up sports or non-sports cards overseas: did you get them at a fraction of the price you'd pay here? In other words, are pieces of cardboard/cards in general under-appreciated as a whole outside of the US?
What about Einstein cards--or cards of other "figures" with global importance, like Marilyn Monroe? I would bet they are more valued and are listed on eBay with those inflated BINs.
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I live in Japan and basically just collect Japanese cards.
Prices used to be way cheaper here than in the US and to a certain extent that is still true, but there has been a lot of convergence in prices over the past few years.
With vintage stuff I think this is mainly the result of American buyers rather than Japanese ones. Various developments (translation software, proxy services, etc) have made Japanese online auctions way more accessible to US buyers than they were a decade ago, and prices on stuff has shot up accordingly as they've been able to bid on stuff.
One example would be the 1929 Shonen Club Babe Ruth. A few years ago I could find copies of that for 100-200$ here. Today its rare to find one and they always go for over $1,000. Demand from Japanese collectors hasn't increased at all in that time period (the existence of the card is barely known in Japanese collecting circles), its all been driven by American buyers scooping them up and driving the price up.
It creates a bit of tension here (just a bit, not much), some Japanese collectors do get annoyed by rising prices attributable to gaijin demand. Not many are after that Ruth card, but for Sadaharu Oh cards in particular (which they have a bit more interest in) the prices have shot through the roof.