Anyone Else Feeling Marooned on Vintage Collector Island??

[jingram058]

I keep waiting for reality to sink in and affect the pricing of cards, memorabilia and the like. Ha! Wishful thinking. So with that in mind:

Thank heavens for what I already have, because I can trade. I ran out of the duplicates a while ago. Now, I have to part with something I like to get something else I want.

Buy low grade. But that's hard, because many others are now competing for them. If something low grade and reasonably priced gets posted to the B/S/T now, you'd better act fast or be lucky or both.

Scrapbooks. For a while as everything shot up into the stratosphere, scrapbooks stayed reasonable, $15 to $20 or so. But then the sellers saw what cards and everything else was going for, and went crazy with the prices of scrapbooks. They don't sell, if you look at completed items, but these sellers keep hoping some sap comes along. But every now and then, something slips through the cracks. Reference my score of a couple of weeks ago; a big find for $20.

[BobbyStrawberry]

I may be wrong, but I attribute the phenomenon OP describes (as far as I've experienced it) more to sellers' obstinacy than to an across-the-board rise in prices.

IMO there are still deals to be found, but they just aren't coming from eBay or the big AHs.

[jingram058]

I guess I am in the minority here, in that I am not well-heeled. My Navy retirement and what I make working out here in "the world" allows me to get by. I don't have the spare money to buy thousand-dollar and up cards or attend conventions. Am I envious of you folks that can do these things? Sure. But as I state in my post above, trades, low grade and scrapbooks is how I participate in the hobby these days.

[Republicaninmass]

Happy to be selling into strength.

It's only stuff, but can translate into 1s and 0s that are accepted anywhere. My worry would have been if I passed away or needed to sell, the market wouldn't have cooperated. It's one less worry for myself and my family with the bulk of it sold.

[chadeast]

I agree with Adam's comments that you're in the wrong pond. Ebay dried up for me sometime around the end of 2021. I recall actively searching for most of 2022 with very little to show for it. Though there were still the occasional auctions, 90+% of what's left is BINs at unreasonably high prices with sellers who won't negotiate. I know, I've tried.

Like many of you, I've seen the same card for years just sitting there, with a seller that makes sure the card is always 50% above market whatever that may be. I haven't looked at Ebay in 2023 at all. I'm sure that I've missed some reasonable auctions, but I decided that it's just not worth my time.

Adam, I think you made a wise move to Encore auctions, I shifted almost all of my buying to the AHs (as well as net54 BST).

EDIT: Edit to add that if you're talking about prices overall, well I'll have to agree with you on that. I've accepted the new reality and punted on a number of collecting goals, consigning cards that I liked but didn't love to further fund the addiction (thanks Lee Behrens).

[Jewish-collector]

Remember this sports card & memorabilia hobby that so many of us love is very much about acquiring these things with money. Other hobbies (like sports, gaming, gardening, fishing, etc,...) are more about skill & technique. Sure, there are costs associated, but not like there is in this hobby. This hobby is supposed to be a way to reduce stress from your day job. The problem is the hobby becomes as stressful, if not more than your day job.

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

Happy to be selling into strength.

It's only stuff, but can translate into 1s and 0s that are accepted anywhere. My worry would have been if I passed away or needed to sell, the market wouldn't have cooperated. It's one less worry for myself and my family with the bulk of it sold.

If there was someone who was on the autograph card craze early, it was you! Whewwwwww

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by Fuddjcal

If there was someone who was on the autograph card craze early, it was you! Whewwwwww

Thank you, thank you, I've been on the wrong side plenty as well!

[raulus]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I guess I am in the minority here, in that I am not well-heeled. My Navy retirement and what I make working out here in "the world" allows me to get by. I don't have the spare money to buy thousand-dollar and up cards or attend conventions. Am I envious of you folks that can do these things? Sure. But as I state in my post above, trades, low grade and scrapbooks is how I participate in the hobby these days.

Even those of us with cash to burn are feeling a lot poorer these days, as our cash doesn’t go very far. Even if you can afford it, you have to ask yourself whether it’s wise to spend 5 or 6 figures on it. All that cash could buy lots of other exciting stuff!

And even when you decide to parlay serious cash into cardboard generally, you keep asking yourself if this specific piece in front of you at the moment is really what you want to buy, or whether you should wait for something even higher on your wish list to come along.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by raulus

Even those of us with cash to burn are feeling a lot poorer these days, as our cash doesn’t go very far. Even if you can afford it, you have to ask yourself whether it’s wise to spend 5 or 6 figures on it. All that cash could buy lots of other exciting stuff!

And even when you decide to parlay serious cash into cardboard generally, you keep asking yourself if this specific piece in front of you at the moment is really what you want to buy, or whether you should wait for something even higher on your wish list to come along.

Or index funds or the equivalent.

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by raulus

Even those of us with cash to burn are feeling a lot poorer these days, as our cash doesn’t go very far. Even if you can afford it, you have to ask yourself whether it’s wise to spend 5 or 6 figures on it. All that cash could buy lots of other exciting stuff!

And even when you decide to parlay serious cash into cardboard generally, you keep asking yourself if this specific piece in front of you at the moment is really what you want to buy, or whether you should wait for something even higher on your wish list to come along.

Well said. I agree with this 100%

[Oscar_Stanage]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

I may be wrong, but I attribute the phenomenon OP describes (as far as I've experienced it) more to sellers' obstinacy than to an across-the-board rise in prices.

Agree. People forget that with the exception of the Cobbs/Aarons/Mantles/etc this is all an extremely illiquid market. One sale here and there becomes the anchor data point for the next. Prices won't go down without forced sellers, and I am not sure there are too many out there.

[Yoda]

Auction houses are reaping insane profits with the rise in card values. If one of the majors, say Heritage, dropped their BP to 15%, I am certain their sales volume would more than make up for the lost income.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I keep waiting for reality to sink in and affect the pricing of cards, memorabilia and the like.

I think reality is already priced in when it comes to vintage blue chip items. The reality is that career-issued Ruth cards and the like are no longer the purview of budget-conscious collectors. The prices on them are not going to revert to the prices of 10 years ago or more. I expect that they will beat inflation over the next 10-20 years even after the high returns of the last 3-4 years. The holders of these items have better access to information and sales channels and lots of wealthy buyers, so they don't need to cater to budget-conscious collectors. Also, with all of the data and opportunities out there, anyone knowledgeable isn't going to fire sale anything good. You either have to find it in the wild, get very, very lucky with a sale that falls through the cracks at an auction house or a mis-priced item at a show, or correctly anticipate the next area of growth, get in there now, and then use the appreciated items to trade into cards and other items.

I sold a number of blue chip cards several years ago for what I felt was a very high price at the time; today, they would be worth anywhere from 5x-25x what I got for them and I wish I had them back.

[bandrus1]

I personally think there are still a lot of good deals for collectors out there. I have purchased a number of rougher pre war Hall of fames recently for an affordable price

For example a few months ago I paid $80 for a raw e90 Eddie collins