Negro League Baseball Collectibles Update

[bcbgcbrcb]

I wasn't sure whether to resurrect the below Net 54 thread from 5 years ago or start a new one so I decided to do the latter and just reference the old link:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...+league+prices

I would like to ask for opinions/insight from those in the know as well as anyone interested in this segment of the vintage baseball collectibles market. While interest and prices in the market were soaring just a few years ago, it appears to me that both have fallen off significantly over the past year or two.

Since I am still an avid collector of Negro League material myself, I can say that I have closely watched all major auctions over the past couple of years and found an extremely limited number of top-quality items. I do collect only photos, postcards, cards, basically anything picturing the players so no autographed baseballs, contracts, etc.

My logic being that an extremely limited supply of something over time would drive up the prices of the few items to come to market but I don't see that happening at all. Next question logically then is, what happened? A couple/few major collectors who jumped in a few years ago already gotten out, but then where did all of the top-quality items go that they bought? Maybe long-time collectors no longer actively buying?

I would love to hear everyone's opinions on the subject so fire away........

[Leon]

Hey Phil
As someone who has collected a little of everything obscure I can tell you that even though the pieces should be worth more, relative to other things in our hobby, the demand side is always the most important in determining values. Maybe 3-4 of the top collectors took a hiatus? It happens often in our hobby. And if that happens and there were only 10'ish higher end negro league collectors to start with, then the prices can fall. It has happened with a lot of things I collect. It's all about "demand".

[Scocs]

Part of the problem might lie in the fact that prices for Negro/Cuban League cards have literally remained frozen over the past ten years in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards. Does the book publisher ever take a look at auction prices over time?!

[bcbgcbrcb]

If collectors stopped buying the guide each year due to all of the info being stagnant, that might get things to move thanks to new research and updated price info. Otherwise, it's obviously easier and cheaper to just reprint the same thing year after year.

I can tell you that I've stopped buying several years ago after seeing very little change over 3 or 4 years.

[Kenny Cole]

Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see too many really desirable negro league items selling any more. Every so often, but not nearly so much as they used to. The Merkin stuff is pretty well done, and the rest is kind of catch as catch can. I think that people who already have those items, who by this point are probably best characterized as core (or HOF) collectors, are holding onto them. I know that I am. I would also suspect that there are a ton of private sales that aren't reported simply because they are among the core collectors. That probably doesn't explain it all, but I certainly think that's a large part of it.

[Shoeless Moe]

These 2 both recently sold on Ebay for a nice price:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Orig-Photo-N...vip=true&rt=nc


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-c1908-C...vip=true&rt=nc