Why prewar IMO will always be a better investment

[Snapolit1]

Heritage Sports‏ @Heritage_Sport · 50s50 seconds ago

Today we received another incredible raw 1950s card collection. Over 1200 cards, untouched since the 50s and in amazing condition. They should realize hundreds of thousands of dollars. On their way to @PSAcard now to be graded.

Imagine how many rookie Trouts, Michael Jordans, and shiny things of all stripes and colors are still sitting out there in boxes and binders ungraded.

[Dpeck100]

If this keeps up it certainly could be an issue for prices going forward.

Both of these Mantle’s have excellent centering too.

[glynparson]

Most people assume there are numerous collections sitting out there. People that don’t think so are foolish. For the record there are prewar finds yet to be made as well see the fairly recent sky dash, black swamp, and Cobb back finds for just a few examples. I don’t expect nor does any reasonable person that the population on a post war card like the dice game mantle is ever going to be exceedingly high. So it’s rough to make a blanket this era is better than that era statement. Blue chip players, I feel , are the best wether modern, 50s, or prewar.

[Snapolit1]

Sure there will be more "pre-war" finds. Many of them embellished with the usual dramatic tales of bogus grade A horse crap. But I think most Americans in the 20s, 30s, and 40s had more pressing and immediate needs than worrying about preserving baseball cards for some future generation. The depression. World Wars. My grand parents were likely far more concerned with hoarding apples and powdered oatmeal than baseball cards.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Just looked at a 50's "Find" today. there are hundreds of these finds out there and they will show up more and more frequently as that generation passes on or moves to retirement homes etc...

By find I am talking one owner new to market cards. No emphasis on size or quality. I have bought one of these already and the one I looked at today was a little bigger than that first one. Avg condition EX on both.

[Exhibitman]

I don't really believe that anyone can make a qualitative statement about what cards will be the best investment. It is all relative: how cheap you get in is probably the best predictor of how you make out, regardless of what cards are involved. One of the best deals I ever made was for two shoeboxes of 1950s-1960s cards. The condition was all over the place but mostly vg-ex, but I got in at such a nice price point that it was a great deal.

Collecting history is filled with stories of people who've thought they could predict what would be worth what in a decade and who've gotten it wrong. Look at postwar mainstream higher condition graded commons (6-7-8). I remember some rather vocal members here with a fortune in PSA postwar mainstream card sets. Whoops... Try selling a PSA 8 1950s non-high-# Joe Shlabotnick and you will see; if you bought it 12-15 years ago at market then you often can't even get your purchase price back. If you send common cards from that era in raw for grading, you pretty much have to pull a 9 or 10 to make any real money. The 8s are a break-even proposition and you will often lose money on the 6s and 7s that were a decent selling item a decade ago.

[Leon]

I don't think there is any doubt that the 1950s through 1970s Topps commons are becoming even more common.

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Just looked at a 50's "Find" today. there are hundreds of these finds out there and they will show up more and more frequently as that generation passes on or moves to retirement homes etc...

By find I am talking one owner new to market cards. No emphasis on size or quality. I have bought one of these already and the one I looked at today was a little bigger than that first one. Avg condition EX on both.