Heritage prices are revealing of market (already)

[sushihotwings]

I think part of the reason post war cards are outperforming pre war is name recognition. A lot of people prefer to collect players they have seen play or at least are still alive and making appearances here and there generating buzz about their legend and accomplishments. Unfortunately I think pre war collectors are a smaller group and enjoy collecting stuff that is really old and significant to their origins of the sport. The names of the players from 1900 mean absolutely nothing to 99% of people. This reflects somewhat in pricing and demand. I am just starting to get interested in pre war as I get older and enjoy the historical aspects. Most young collectors are more interested in who's hot right now. If you have been dead for a century there is little you can do to get on that hot list🙂

[glchen]

I don't think the CJ Wojo card is a good comparison for the Reggie Jackson card in this card. I think the one of the keys these days is that the Rookie card market is completely taking off, and surprisingly, this is even including prewar cards. In the past, prewar rookie cards usually didn't get much of a premium for a particular prewar player because the player often had multiple prewar cards in this rookie year, and most of these were obscure regional issues so that collectors didn't know which one was his "best" rookie card. However, I think collectors are becoming more and more educated on this, so they are able to pick out the best card.

So, in this case, I think you should be comparing Wojo's T204 Ramly rookie card to the Jackson RC. And the Ramly just closed at nearly $71K in PSA 6, which look pretty healthy to me. (Same card sold for ~30K in Oct 2013.)

[BBB]

Originally Posted by glchen

I don't think the CJ Wojo card is a good comparison for the Reggie Jackson card in this card. I think the one of the keys these days is that the Rookie card market is completely taking off, and surprisingly, this is even including prewar cards. In the past, prewar rookie cards usually didn't get much of a premium for a particular prewar player because the player often had multiple prewar cards in this rookie year, and most of these were obscure regional issues so that collectors didn't know which one was his "best" rookie card. However, I think collectors are becoming more and more educated on this, so they are able to pick out the best card.

So, in this case, I think you should be comparing Wojo's T204 Ramly rookie card to the Jackson RC. And the Ramly just closed at nearly $71K in PSA 6, which look pretty healthy to me. (Same card sold for ~30K in Oct 2013.)

Absolutely agree it's about the RC. It's just crazy how far that goes. I figure it's getting more severe as guys like me (35-45) who grew up in the error when rookies went nuts reenter the market. Now those kids are grown and can afford to buy RCs of the post war players their parents probably told em about. I'm sure the bottom will fall but it won't fall near what they went for a year or so ago. Too many will hold I think.

Interesting factoid on the Ramly!

[irv]

Originally Posted by sushihotwings

I think part of the reason post war cards are outperforming pre war is name recognition. A lot of people prefer to collect players they have seen play or at least are still alive and making appearances here and there generating buzz about their legend and accomplishments. Unfortunately I think pre war collectors are a smaller group and enjoy collecting stuff that is really old and significant to their origins of the sport. The names of the players from 1900 mean absolutely nothing to 99% of people. This reflects somewhat in pricing and demand. I am just starting to get interested in pre war as I get older and enjoy the historical aspects. Most young collectors are more interested in who's hot right now. If you have been dead for a century there is little you can do to get on that hot list🙂

I agree with this.

When I was young, I loved baseball and loved playing it, but I only ever recall hearing about Ruth, DiMaggio, Shoe less Joe, just to name a few.

When I read some of the postings in the Pre-War section, some of the most sought after players by collectors (HOF's), I have never heard of before.

[Danny Smith]

Originally Posted by sushihotwings

I think part of the reason post war cards are outperforming pre war is name recognition. A lot of people prefer to collect players they have seen play or at least are still alive and making appearances here and there generating buzz about their legend and accomplishments. Unfortunately I think pre war collectors are a smaller group and enjoy collecting stuff that is really old and significant to their origins of the sport. The names of the players from 1900 mean absolutely nothing to 99% of people. This reflects somewhat in pricing and demand. I am just starting to get interested in pre war as I get older and enjoy the historical aspects. Most young collectors are more interested in who's hot right now. If you have been dead for a century there is little you can do to get on that hot list🙂

I totally agree with this. I love prewar and enjoy set collecting but it is pretty awesome to pick up cards of players I loved as a kid, or I've met, or my dad idolized. For example I got to hang out with Whitey Herzog, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Red Schoendienst in a suite at the cards game last night and now I'm totally hunting their high grade rookie cards because they were so much fun to talk to. And I'm not even a Cardinals fan. This has been a recent phenomenon, but I really enjoy the connection. Maybe it's things like this that are driving prices and maybe it's not but it is pretty awesome to collect the cards of guys that I have seen and love.