Reasons why prices of some vintage cards are going kinda CRAZY????

[jasonc]

Nice thread going here. I Definitely agree, top T206 HOF's Cobb, Wajo, Cy Young are shooting way up in price lately. Even when I want to buy a group of commons either individually or in a lot, if they're nice looking raw cards, they have gone up in price.

Even a low to mid grade, raw group was $15 to 20 per card now has become $20 to 25 per card, even higher.

When I restarted buying T206s over a year ago, I tried to focus on the big HOF's first, I got some of them at the time, which was to my advantage.

[SAllen2556]

It's just easier to take a chance on something like baseball cards right now because....what the hell. I'm not gonna earn money putting it in the bank. If you have cash, what's the point of buying a 6 month cd? Interest rates on savings accounts are basically zero, and have been for years. Interest rates on Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth > 0.

....until the next MLB work stoppage, that is.

People are also buying classic pickup trucks right now too. Unfortunately, I don't have enough room in my garage. I wonder how coins are doing?




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[Snapolit1]

Definitely a significant herd mentality. People start chasing cards that they hear other people are chasing. Jackie's Bond Bread a year or two ago. Shouldn't really be surprising. Human nature. People do it with stocks, real estate, cars, vacation homes, vacation destinations, colleges. Figure others know something you don't and you jump on the bandwagon.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Definitely a significant herd mentality. People start chasing cards that they hear other people are chasing. Jackie's Bond Bread a year or two ago. Shouldn't really be surprising. Human nature. People do it with stocks, real estate, cars, vacation homes, vacation destinations, colleges. Figure others know something you don't and you jump on the bandwagon.

totally agree that this occurs!

[Throttlesteer]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

totally agree that this occurs!

Now that you both said it, me too.

[silvor]

Originally Posted by SAllen2556

It's just easier to take a chance on something like baseball cards right now because....what the hell. I'm not gonna earn money putting it in the bank. If you have cash, what's the point of buying a 6 month cd? Interest rates on savings accounts are basically zero, and have been for years. Interest rates on Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth > 0.

....until the next MLB work stoppage, that is.

People are also buying classic pickup trucks right now too. Unfortunately, I don't have enough room in my garage. I wonder how coins are doing?




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Sure, at your local bank they will likely pay you near 0%.

You can get ~2.4% for a 6 month CD at a place like Schwab, Citi etc. Keeps up with inflation at least.

[Exhibitman]

I don't think we can group the Bond Bread Jackie portrait as a herd thing. i believe that the impetus for that card's rise was the research recently published that demonstrated it was a true rookie card. At that point a lot of collectors realized that a fairly difficult and somewhat obscure card was a very attractive rookie card of a major historical figure. Kinda like what happened when the evidence was arrayed that photo-matched Joe Jackson into a T202 action image.

Now, in terms of postcards and Exhibit cards, people are waking up to the fact that attractive career-contemporary cards of the greats can be had for a fraction of the price of T or R cards, even now when there has been some price rise.

[AGuinness]

Originally Posted by SAllen2556

It's just easier to take a chance on something like baseball cards right now because....what the hell. I'm not gonna earn money putting it in the bank. If you have cash, what's the point of buying a 6 month cd? Interest rates on savings accounts are basically zero, and have been for years. Interest rates on Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth > 0.

....until the next MLB work stoppage, that is.

People are also buying classic pickup trucks right now too. Unfortunately, I don't have enough room in my garage. I wonder how coins are doing?

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This is a good point, I think. I'm not sold that a herd mentality would be the biggest factor in prices driving up - and in particular, that's because the herd mentality didn't work very well with the Koufax rookie market manipulation a couple years ago. If a herd mentality is all it takes, that card would have stayed at the inflated prices. And FWIW, the fact that that manipulation didn't seem to have a long-term impact makes me think that the hobby is probably in a healthy place.