Collectibles Markets vs Economy - Why does it have to be this way?

[bcbgcbrcb]

When money is tight, people should be limiting spending across the board, shouldn’t matter.

[cgjackson222]

Target inflation is 2%.

Monthly inflation has been between 3 and 4% for a few months.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com...nflation-rates

Not ideal, but not disastrous either.

High interest rates are taking a toll and slowing the economy, possibly to recession. Hopefully, inflation gets under 3% soon and interest rates go back down to a sustainable level.

Until that happens, there may be more pain.

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Why does the public have to just sit back and continue to tolerate price increases of everything and just keep paying up? Collectors are certainly not doing that by any means. If our income was increasing at a similar rate, it would be sustainable but income is falling, going in the opposite direction. Can people stop buying long enough to force an economic correction as we hobbyists have seen all to well happening to us over the past couple of years?

I think it is really difficult to compare collectibles to things like oil or other staples. People can't so easily reduce spending on food, fuel and basic services. But any normal person can easily cut back on their collectibles spending.

[Michael B]

Gas, on average, is 40-45¢ less than one year ago. I have not noticed large increases on the prices of items I buy on a regular basis. Some items have even gone down. This is mainly groceries. Fortunately, I have 13 grocery stores (including Target and Walmart) within a 3 mile radius. It makes it easy to keep track of prices. I mainly shop at Aldi (1 mile away) and Target (across the street) with a few items from Lidl, Giant and Wegman's. The one place I have noticed the increase is restaurants, sit down and fast casual.

[oldjudge]

Phil--what are you talking about? EVERYTHING is up roughly 30-40% from 2022? I believe that US inflation peaked at roughly 9% and now is in the 4% range. What are you seeing that is up 40% in the last year?

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Phil--what are you talking about? EVERYTHING is up roughly 30-40% from 2022? I believe that US inflation peaked at roughly 9% and now is in the 4% range. What are you seeing that is up 40% in the last year?

Prices are way up for a lot of goods sold. Much higher than the reported inflation numbers. The CPI is not nearly as useful of a metric as it was before they redid the formula however many years back, IMO. I know it's only up 8% or so per the dept of labor, but the price increases I've seen in my day to day life dwarf those figures. I think most people would say the same.

[GeoPoto]

"as never before seen inflation rates continue to soar".

I assume you are under 60.

Collectable prices soared in advance of the recent surge in inflation; whatever weakness in collectable prices you are observing now is hardly surprising despite the coincidental strength of inflation rates for other items.

[Kzoo]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Prices are way up for a lot of goods sold. Much higher than the reported inflation numbers. The CPI is not nearly as useful of a metric as it was before they redid the formula however many years back, IMO. I know it's only up 8% or so per the dept of labor, but the price increases I've seen in my day to day life dwarf those figures. I think most people would say the same.

I agree. That 8% government figure is laughable. The true % most folks are feeling is probably 2x-4x.

[Snapolit1]

Saw a bit from a comedian about how a local news station was interviewing a guy who was talking about how terrible the economy is while he was on his front lawn installing a 30 foot skeleton he had just purchased from Home Depot for $900.

Same people complaining about cost of gas going up 4 cents will have $2000 worth of Halloween decorations on their house.

When I was young most families had 1 car. Today it seems most of my friends everyone in the family over 18 has to have their own car. And many of them are BMWs. There are people legitimately hurting and there are people with absurd expectations as to what they are somehow entitled to.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Prices are way up for a lot of goods sold. Much higher than the reported inflation numbers. The CPI is not nearly as useful of a metric as it was before they redid the formula however many years back, IMO. I know it's only up 8% or so per the dept of labor, but the price increases I've seen in my day to day life dwarf those figures. I think most people would say the same.

Most people have no idea what the real numbers are or a clear concept on how to calculate them.

How much did you spend on consumer goods the first half of 2022? How much for the first half of this year? I doubt it has changed much. (I also doubt you have changed your spending habits in any meaningful way.)

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[oldjudge]

Phil--you need to learn that words have meanings. When you say EVERYTHING is up at least 30-40% over the last year it means that there is nothing that is not up at least 30-40% over the last year. The average US gasoline price is $3.47, down from $3.90 a year ago. Latest Kelly Blue book figures put new car prices up 4.8% over the last year. Clothing prices as of June were up 5.2% vs the prior year. Rental prices in the Los Angeles area have increased 10% over the last year. While there may be a few things that have shown more substantial price increases these numbers are in line with the government figures. Again, EVERYTHING means EVERYTHING; what you said is just plain wrong.

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

When money is tight, people should be limiting spending across the board, shouldn’t matter.

Speaking personally, I do cut spending across the board when money is tight. I cut the old cardboard budget much more deeply I do the food/clothing/shelter budgets though. I suspect that's true for most people. If things get really tough, I can cut the card budget entirely. Not really an option with food.