For those who believe today’s values are up……

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I think the endless loop of auctions, weekly, monthly, quarterly, pop up, extra innings ….. yadda yadda yadda …. Has made it clear to people that a great deal of this stuff ain’t as scarce or as special as we all wanted to believe. When a single auction has 7-10 of the same card, it don’t seem quite so amazing does it?

There's also the weird math of trying to figure out where the hobby is on certain cards. Even for some great looking cards, rarity won't elevate them past popular cards.

Not vintage, but easy to make an example of...1989 Upper Deck K.Griffey Jr cards still demand $40-50 in raw condition even though we know there's a million+ of them out there in the wild. Who doesn't want one, though? It's iconic junk wax.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

There's also the weird math of trying to figure out where the hobby is on certain cards. Even for some great looking cards, rarity won't elevate them past popular cards.

Not vintage, but easy to make an example of...1989 Upper Deck K.Griffey Jr cards still demand $40-50 in raw condition even though we know there's a million+ of them out there in the wild. Who doesn't want one, though? It's iconic junk wax.

Everybody already has one!

[LincolnVT]

Buy the best of the best at a decent price and sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by LincolnVT

Buy the best of the best at a decent price and sit back and enjoy the ride.

I disagree. Buy what you want/like at what they're worth to you. That way you can ignore the ferris wheel and other rides because you're getting your money's worth from your cards anyway.

[conor912]

I don’t invest in cards, I collect them. It can all go to zero for all I care.

[Balticfox]

Well said.

[Exhibitman]

I can prove that cards are a great investment or a crap one, just let me choose the starting point and ending point. The same can be said of anything. From 1970-1979, the inflation adjusted return on the S & P 500 was -2.2%. From 2000 to 2009 it was -24.29%. That’s two full decades where stock investors ate S**T. You make your money on the buy is the old saying but you have to know when to sell too and what to do with the money. If you sold off vintage in 2021 and went into modern right at the peak of the modern run up, yeah, you're pretty much f***ed and you will never, recover your losses. If you sold into the run and didn't put the proceeds into something that tanked, you did great.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

Everybody already has one!

There's a Yogi ism in there somewhere. Maybe, nobody wants one, they're too popular.

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

There's a Yogi ism in there somewhere. Maybe, nobody wants one, they're too popular.

'I can pick up that card any time after I die.' YB

[JollyElm]

"The card prices are so low that no one wants to buy them."

[Touch'EmAll]

ebay auctions by prominent seller just closed with majority of the prices very much in line or higher vs. recent comps.

The 10 cards I tracked were all Mays, Aaron, Clemente & Ryan high grade. Interesting to note they all had older PSA cert #'s. What drew me to track them were they all appeared high end for the grade - ie. 45/55 or better centering both ways, no tilts, no print dots, clean backs, nice registration.

I know sounds like a broken record, but high eye appeal & great centering of big name HOFers are going for very solid prices these days. You just can't comp all cards of one particular issue anymore - you must look close at the specific attributes and adjust price accordingly. There is an increasing difference in price between the average or low for the grade and high end for the grade.

And it is getting more difficult as time goes by to locate high end cards for sale. A lot of people are tossing up their low-mid for the grade cards, and the prices are telling. So in that regard, yes prices are hurting. However, it seems collectors are stashing away the nice examples, and when they do show are going for top dollar.

[MVSNYC]

Leon, awesome T205 Cobb!

Nothing to be concerned about. The card market, like the stock market, is cyclical and has peaks and valleys. Judging by the graph above, the market is lower than the 2021 peak, but certainly much higher then pre-Covid boom.

For pre-war, I've always been into Rare Back (often HOF) T206. And, also recently picked up a clean Goudey Ruth.

Since the original poster specifically mentioned post-war, I'm a fan of Jackie Rookies and Signed Mantles...I just acquired these two...

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

ebay auctions by prominent seller just closed with majority of the prices very much in line or higher vs. recent comps.

The 10 cards I tracked were all Mays, Aaron, Clemente & Ryan high grade. Interesting to note they all had older PSA cert #'s. What drew me to track them were they all appeared high end for the grade - ie. 45/55 or better centering both ways, no tilts, no print dots, clean backs, nice registration.

I know sounds like a broken record, but high eye appeal & great centering of big name HOFers are going for very solid prices these days. You just can't comp all cards of one particular issue anymore - you must look close at the specific attributes and adjust price accordingly. There is an increasing difference in price between the average or low for the grade and high end for the grade.

And it is getting more difficult as time goes by to locate high end cards for sale. A lot of people are tossing up their low-mid for the grade cards, and the prices are telling. So in that regard, yes prices are hurting. However, it seems collectors are stashing away the nice examples, and when they do show are going for top dollar.

Well said, +1