New and Shiny - Market Manipulation

[todeen]

While the game has changed a little, it doesn't seem to be any different than what I grew up with in the 90s. In the 90s, the new hot items were inserts. Donruss Elite. UD Piece of History 500 HR Club relics. Autos. Some of these were stupid expensive then. I remember reading Beckett as a 12 yo in 1998/1999 looking at top sale prices and believing I'd never see one of those cards let alone have the money to purchase one. Have you seen 90s relic card prices today? They have tumbled from their heyday.

In 1996, Topps did the Mickey Mantle inserts. I bought and bought and bought packs, hand collated the set. But I never pulled a Mantle card. It was stupid.

I also remember trying to obtain a 1989 Upper Deck Griffey RC. I could afford one, but I always wanted to pull one. For as many packs as I bought I should have hit one. But I never did. His RC climbed in value and got to about $150. Then it plummeted to $50 when he started getting injured.

These experiences led me to stop buying modern. The mystique of collecting kind of wore off too.

Prices for packs and boxes have increased due to inflation and demand. But nothing has changed in the modern game. Today there are just different sellers, and different avenues of selling, but the odds remain long of pulling special cards. And just like in the 90s, when you got an insert it often was of a player you didn't care to obtain.

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[rjackson44]

The loses on the new stuff is scary. Never understood folks buying cards for 100 k and then selling them for 30 k ,just insane