What is happening with baseball card prices?

[Tyruscobb]

Originally Posted by campyfan39

I am in agreement with this in that card budgets will drop as people return to vacations, movies and concerts etc.

One other aspect though is people like me who have taken advantage of the spike and sold a few big cards that I wasn't too connected to. I now have a bigger card budget than in the recent past. So I think some of it will continue based on people like me liquidating only to infuse it right back in.

Two economic forces will concurrently operate to push down prices at some point.

First, as previously mentioned, the demand for cards will drop when Covid eases up. People will eventually return to spending their hard-earned money on vacations, concerts, experiences, etc. Their laser-focused entertainment budgets, which are currently just on cards, will splinter into many different directions.

Secondly, when Covid eases up, some collectors, who will now have more entertainment options, will grow bored and exit the hobby. They will no longer have the money or desire to continue collecting cardboard. When the drop in demand starts sending prices down, these collectors will panic and rush to sell their cards to lock in decent profits/prices. This will in turn increase the supply for sale..

Decreased demand and increased supply is bad news for prices, but good news for us true collectors that buy and hold. Although I enjoy seeing my collection’s value increase, it is moot because I’m not selling. The increased value is simply on paper and will remain there. I’m tired of being priced out of the cards that I want. I simply refuse to pay 3x last January’s prices for cards on my wish list.