Prices

[Jersey City Giants]

My main hobby is game worn hockey jerseys and I have seen collectors complain about prices being far too high in auctions for years. But the auctions keep getting the prices. I can remember them complaining online about a lot I won and saying how "stupid" that collector (me) was for paying that much (I must admit I thought about admitting myself for evaluation after I won the lot). Yet I have been offered more than I paid by three other collectors post that auction.

I understand manipulation goes on but I think that part of it is the market going up on higher end items.

[steve B]

If prices were just going up "a bit" that would be normal.

The rise in some stuff is well beyond most of the previous booms I've seen since the late 70's when I started collecting more seriously than just buying packs.
The late 70's and early 80's saw some big jumps in price, mostly because the hobby was becoming more mainstream. It wasn't unusual to see a card double in price over a year or two, (Keeping in mind that pretty much anything from what today would be a solid 5 and up was usually called mint or near mint)

Some of the cards now are going well beyond that. The crazy price thread over in postwar shows a few with increases of 3-5 X in less than 6 months.

considering the prices overall around 1980 were pretty low and massive increases in the overall hobby there was more room and there still weren't price increases of that sort. When a card like a VG ish 57 Aaron goes from $3 to $6 from one year to the next that's pretty easy to see. When cards that are selling for $11K jump to $30K in 3 months that's very unusual.

Steve B