Returning Member from 2019, Wanting Experts Advice

[Bagwell-1994]

Hello All,

I have always adored vintage and pre-2000 baseball cards since I was little turd in the 1980s. In 2018, I started building a collection which eventually grew to approximately $60K value by 2019. It was beautiful.. T206 Portraits..1933 Goudeys.. 1948 Leafs.. 1952 Topps.. so many beautiful HOF and rookie cards.. I even had a 1952 Topps Mantle PSA 2!! I ran into major life issues and decided to sell my prized collection of vintage HOF PSA graded cards for lawyer fees to fight for custody of my son. I won the case, so that's awesome, but I've dearly missed my cards ever since.

Now, I'm in a position where I want to start slowly building a collection again, and I see the prices on Ebay are 3x or 4x what they were when I sold my cards! Covid did an absolute number on the collecting world, evidently.

My questions: Is this current market a bubble that's going to pop? Will the prices dip? Is this a good time to start trying to buy? Where are the best places to buy outside of the insanely overpriced Ebay (which I used to use for buying and selling)?

I've seen PSA 2 1952 Mantles selling for $60K to $80K when I bought mine for $15K in 2018!

I simply cannot afford to buy into the current market, as seen on Ebay at least.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I am a lifelong lover of the game and admirer of the history and vintage cards and something feels incomplete and missing in life until I can have a collection again.

Thanks for your time,
Shain

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[Peter_Spaeth]

Don't try to time the market, and don't listen to anyone who thinks they know where it's going.

[Carter08]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Don't try to time the market, and don't listen to anyone who thinks they know where it's going.

A rare agree! To answer the question about where to buy, people seem to be doing well on Facebook. I thought myslabs would become huge since it took eBay fees pretty much out of the mix but inventory has been limited. The BST section here is always good.

[JollyElm]

I can't even remember the last time I bought a card off of eBay, so I'm with ya!

My advice is to find local shows in your area, where you can wander the floor and see if there are cards worth shelling out your greenbacks for. Plus, the somewhat-regular-priced and discount bins are always cool to dig through.

Maybe just being back in the collecting environment itself, checking everything out, will help you ease back in to the hobby in a more happier way, without the dark cloud of 'What in high heck happened to the cost of cards??!!' hanging over your head.
We've all been there.

[Bagwell-1994]

Peter, Carter, and Jolly, thank you for the recommendations!

One more: is vintagecardprices.com still the best way to gauge accurate market values?

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[raulus]

While you can’t time the market, you can always decide that current prices aren’t cool with your psyche or your budget, and so decide to focus on collecting more reasonable alternatives.

For me, that means a much bigger focus these days on my childhood heroes from the last 40 years, rather than buying a lot of vintage.

Could be that means some of us will never be able to buy the stuff we want, at least as long as prices stay this high. But that’s life!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Bagwell-1994

Peter, Carter, and Jolly, thank you for the recommendations!

One more: is vintagecardprices.com still the best way to gauge accurate market values?

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Yes great site. I also look at PSA's website for completed auction prices.