Who will be the buyer of our vintage cards in 20 years?

[Mrc32]

Couldn't this question be asked about most collectibles? Coins?

I think there will always be buyers.....but I also scratch my heads at the REAtype values some cards bring today. If I were a buyer at such levels, the question you ask would keep me up at night.

[BleedinBlue]

My guess is the REA type buyers in general are not all that concerned about the future value of their collections. Their cards do not constitute a major portion of their overall net worth. For those of us who have collections more valuable than our homes and our 401k's this is a greater concern.

[Rich Klein]

I was from Jersey until I moved to Dallas in 1990 to work for Beckett Publications and yes, that is something I thought/think about often.

Yet, when I read boards such as the Beckett message boards, most of the posters are in their 20-30's so there is a future generation that will, I believe move to vintage. And I would not be surprised if that move happens in the next two years.

Regards
Rich

[DixieBaseball]

The rub here is classifying the best from the rest. I agree, that rare to scarce stuff will always have decent demand, but a 57 Al Kaline probably will come down in value over time. I still think it will have its place, but probably worth some percentage less. When I think of what a 57 Al Kaline may be worth, I don't think it will matter if is goes down 20-35% as the dollar amount will be relatively small. I think we have already witnessed this to some degree as I remember a Nolan Ryan rookie being worth more 10 years ago than it is today and so on.... I think Pre-war may have the sticking power, but post war will slide. Then of course the 80's and up never had its place with exception to unique insert type cards that may be scarce.

2 cents...

[Tim Fritz]

I'm one of those guys in his 30s that has just started in the last few years to move to pre-war. I still collect 50s and 60s also. Have just about everything from the 70s and 80s.

It will be very interesting to see what collecting will look like in 20 years. Who would have thought 20 years ago that the internet would have changed collecting like it has. Stores and card shows are just about gone.

For my sake I hope the bottom falls out and I can pick up T206 HOFs for a buck.

[Matt]

I think we'll see a continued decline of most cards from the 1950s+ as in addition to fans of baseball history (who should always exist), those cards are currently collected by those who saw those players play in their youth. As that generation dies out, that demand will go with them and we'll be left with just the folks who collect across all eras. The pre-war market for the most part shouldn't suffer any such drop-off as there's no reason 20 years from now people will be less interested in Ty Cobb or Christy Mathewson then they are today. That's not to say it's a guarantee, but I see a strong reason to expect a fall in the 1950s stuff and no such reason for the earlier stuff; if anything, as people from the baseball card boom of the late 80s and 90s become wealthier, there should be a rise in the pre-war market as more will be able to get in.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Detroit fans and set builders will care about Al Kaline, and HOF collectors. Post war has taken a pretty big hit in price over the last few years and could continue to slide but will always have spikes. When Nolan Ryan and other greats pass away they will have an immediate spike in price and then slowly come back down. Look at what happened when Ted Williams died, his cards shot way up and now they have dropped way way down in price, but over the past year his rookie is increasing in value. There will always be a buyer for whatever cards you may have, just maybe not for the price you were hoping for. I don't see prewar dropping in price anytime soon, if anything will keep rising as more and more collectors 25 and older get into it and have the income to support it. In a day and age of hundreds of channels to surf, the internet, and laptop cellphones, holding a piece of America's Pastime history is very peacful and entertaining in these fast times we live in.

[Kawika]

"...holding a piece of America's Pastime history is very peaceful and entertaining in these fast times we live in."
Couldn't say it better.

[T206Collector]

Me.

[barrysloate]

Hi Bob- nice to see you on the board, and hope you are well.

You said what I have been saying for a long time. The hobby is changing, the world is changing, and there will surely be a different landscape twenty years from now. My guess is there will always be collectors of vintage antiquities of all kinds, but there may in fact be less baseball card collectors than we have today. We baby boomers collected cards as a kid, and it was a rite of passage. That no longer exists today. A great many 8-12 year olds never even bought a single pack of cards in their lives, so when they become adults they will have a different perspective on collecting them. Yes, it will change, not necessarily for better or worse, but different for sure.

The issue I have is that everything in the world changes too quickly. Look at technology, everything becomes obsolete in a year or two. I can't keep up with that, and really have no interest in doing so. So my point is we should expect things to change.

[sportscardtheory]

Here's a key; stay away from everything but all-time greats. It's just like investing, stick with something that has the most potential to, at the very least, hold value. There is a reason I am stock-piling Derek Jeter cards and not Christian Guzman and buying up Hall of Famer rookie cards and not spending that money on wax boxes of new products. If you want to last in this hobby, you have to be smart.