Weigh in: Why the current t206 back craze--and will it last?

[prewarsports]

Simple anwswers.


1. Who the hell knows, its weird!

2. No it wont last!

Rhys Yeakley

[AMBST95]

As already mentioned, the collector is just a lot more educated on rarity. There are a lot of 30-40 somethings coming back to card collecting and they all got hosed in the 90s as kids. As a result, they are more inclined to purchase a hard to find rare back over a more common one. The information available online now really helps to empower the buyer to make smarter choices than they may have in the past. This is why you are seeing the prices blow up. This should continue for awhile, as this generation of collectors start amassing their collections. Eventually as the hobby as a whole starts to decline, these values will come back to Earth, but I'm talking 20 years from now when today's kids want nothing to do with cards in general.

[lharri3600]

Unless the world ends tomorrow, this craze is here too stay!

[Shoele$$]

Nothing in life lasts forever. Yes eventually the craze will settle down just like everything else. Everybody thought rarer candy and bakery cards were going to continue to skyrocket as well....we saw how that turned out. Guys that paid $8-10K for a Fair condition Tip Top bread Wagner 5 years ago are completely hosed right now as prices are litterally half that for that grade range right now. Happens all the time.

To be honest, the outlook is grim as hell for all overpriced cards these days, as most guys in their 20's and 30's have absolutely NO interest in vintage baseball cards. 20-25 years from now, I can see a MAJOR hobby crash due to a complete lack of interest from the next generation.

[nolemmings]

I think the back craze will be around for awhile. Although I don't collect T206, it seems there are so many t206 in circulation that completing the "basic" 520 is just a matter of money. I'm somewhat guessing but I believe many are becoming more intrigued with collecting subsets of particular backs, which may explain why the medium backs are doing so well, as they present a more challenging chase. I either know collectors or have seen posters here who have focused on Polar Bears, Tolstoi, Sovereign, Cycle 460 and EPDG. And then of course there's Ted

A long, long, long time ago on this board I posted scans of three different backs of Chief Myers in a thread, and a couple people said that looked cool. I wasn't by any means the first and take absolutely no credit for player back runs but I note that the number of people who began posting their own has grown dramatically since. I wonder if the members here who have posted their back subsets have helped inspire others to begin collecting that way too.

[Jlighter]

People here keep predicting the demise of the hobby, but these claims are highly unfounded.

In 15 years we may have fully autonomous cars, making manually driven cars obsolete and superfluous. Yet we still see cars selling for high prices.

In the coming decades we may see coins being taken out of circulation for Plastic or even electronic forms of payment. Yet we still see coins selling for high prices.

The amount of mail being sent is dwindling by the day, the next generation of children may not be aware of what a Stamp is. Yet we still see stamps selling for high prices.

People like to collect things, people WILL collect Baseball Cards.


To regress to the original question. I think HOFers with rare backs will at least maintain value if bought for an appropriate price. But when someone buys a rare back common for 10X actual value, that is excessive.

[auggiedoggy]

Originally Posted by Shoele$$

To be honest, the outlook is grim as hell for all overpriced cards these days, as most guys in their 20's and 30's have absolutely NO interest in vintage baseball cards. 20-25 years from now, I can see a MAJOR hobby crash due to a complete lack of interest from the next generation.

One reason why lately I have become more of a seller than a buyer. I'll stick to upgrading two of my completed ITC lacrosse sets. I'm still a buyer of mid to high PSA grade C46s. Other than that I tend to keep away from the insanely priced T206s. I have lots of shinny, over-produced crap from the 80s and early 90s hiding in my wine cellar. Perhaps I should start selling that to the new generation collectors.