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

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk