Skyrocketing Card Values Lately - Theories?

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White collar men ages 30-70 make the vintage baseball card market. Most are gainfully employed or comfortably retired and many have more cash than places to put it to work right now. You can’t get much ROI in bonds or real estate. Stocks are trading at historically high valuations. So alternative investments like vintage baseball cards are attractive. That seems unlikely to change for a while.

Sure, the vintage baseball card market could crash for a host of reasons. But I heard many of the same arguments in 2008-2009. What happened then is that the market in “commodity” vintage baseball cards (i.e. low- to mid-grade commons) got soft for a couple of years before roaring back. Hall of Famers never dipped much at all. I will add that I have personally sold quite a few mid- to high-grade T206 cards to young professionals in the last couple of years. There is fresh blood in the hobby—and with this fresh blood comes fresh resources.

No doubt current prices are strong. But I think prices are more likely to plateau than drop precipitously. Heck, prices may even continue their relentless ascent. Aside from David Hall’s rare backs, I have not seen a lot of quality T206 offerings come to market recently. Or offerings in other sets for that matter.