Comments on: Surviving the Great Baseball Card Bubble

By: 90rf

90rf — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:48:21 +0000

didn’t holiday barbies once go for like $500 or something for ONE in the box.
I see sets since inception (like 20 or so) pristine for a deal less than that.

the internet seems to have killed such things -once word got round about how many people actually hoarded it (availability kills collector value huh)

know what didn’t burst/was too tempting not to leave in the box and is now hugely profitable?

GI freaking joes from the 80′s. Not so impressive loose and player with but if you bought it and never opened it and the box managed to stay away from water and crap running into it – you have a fortune. Especially big vehicles/bases.

Video games too. Not popular ones but old niche ones like in the jrpg category. Opened copies of old games like chrono trigger,earthbound,lufia do good….sealed ones offer one heck of a roi.

In my opinion- you should never collect for profit-only satisfaction. At least with anything made for such a purpose. You always lose. Just like buying a shirt at the store, or a video game at release – in short time it will be worth half as much 9 times out of 10. the moment you leave the store for the shirt – 3 months or some bad word of mouth for the game.

I enjoy collecting arrow heads for example. All except an odd few are worthless but hey I like them – I find them myself – and if I see someone on ebay with decent picks moving them for a dime or two each I buy.

By: steve squiers

steve squiers — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:52:03 +0000

I still collect cards and I’m 44 years old. But I only buy PSA 10 cards of about $100 or less. Just to put away for my kids in the future. I try to look at guys who will be in the Hall of FAme like Willie Roaf and Michael Strahan in football, or Lindstrom in hockey. You quickly double your money but you’ll never get the killing like you did years ago. Today, we pay for the “grade” and not the card. Sad, but true

By: hennylo

hennylo — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:19:00 +0000

Same thing happened with comics and that is the companies that produce comics and cards got too greedy. I mean seriously refactor and gold refractors and what have you variants kind of killed both the industries and I like so many other kept buying, luckily I about broke even buying and selling both cards and comics but honestly with today’s youth its all virtual.

I think the market will rebound for the older cards and comics, anything from the early 70′s and below has a chance but when you see a Strasburg card sell higher than a Nolan Ryan rookie people must be smoking crack because it shouldn’t happen

By: CardMaster

CardMaster — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:14:26 +0000

Buy Tim Raines cards!!!!! He is going to the HOF THIS YEAR!!!!

By: arkel

arkel — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:53:37 +0000

The market for trading cards will not come back if billions of them were created. There is just too much supply.
If you print too many, the value of the existing stock goes down.

BTW folks, the current bubble is US Treasury Bonds. If you have any, sell them. They will be worthless once the dollar collapses. You heard it hear first.

By: Lance

Lance — Mon, 16 May 2011 23:31:22 +0000

Hahaha wow… I came across a box of cards I had since 1990 and was wondering values had gone up. Woops… they’re worth crap now. I had no idea the bottom had fallen out of the market.

The sad thing is as a kid I knew Magic the Gathering cards were gonna be hot and only bought a few packs cause I liked the art. If only I had converted then.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:10:52 +0000

I too had the same story. Now I’m setting here looking at thousands of cards and wondering how much I actually spent on memorabilia. I think the greed set in. When I got out of collecting, I could of bought a pack of cards for $100 PER PACK! Now this took all the fun out of collecting. Inserts in standard cards were king! Kind of like getting a winning $5 scratch off ticket that you paid a buck for. I wish trading cards would come back. Unfortunately for kids, if they buy a .99 cent pack of trading cards today, they wont get the excitement of opening a pack of topps and seeing sweet Pete Rose, or a Reggie Jackson. Those were the days. I clinged to my Barry Bonds Rookies like they were worth something. Now, I see the card I fought so desperately to keep safe selling for a mere 1-5 dollars on Ebay. Pathetic… Thank you to all the card manufacturers for ruining one of the most exciting hobbies in my child hood. Anybody want to buy my cards? I’ll sell em cheap!!!

By: Jon Dray Lee

Jon Dray Lee — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:10:30 +0000

I recently returned to the hobby after 20 years. Yes I got burned like most kids in the late 80′s and early 90s. However the limited edition auto cards along with the grading craze I think can only help bring the hobby back on top again. Everybody puts down the 1980s but I still wouldn’t mine having a Pristine or GEM slab of some of my heros in the 80s like Will Clark, Greg Maddux, Cal Ripken, Barry Bonds, and Ryne Sandberg. I personally like to collect high grades which does bring back the supply and demand back to where it was at the hobbies peak. There is still a market here and its something I enjoy none the less.

By: comicmantom

comicmantom — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:03:59 +0000

ok ! we now know don`t collect crap , as most people don`t really know ,what to buy, who to buy ,or when to buy, as more and more cards come out with unrealistic value`s.. most are value less ,but that don`t mean throw them out… it means put them away .. it just so happens you never know when some-one will hit the big one in baseball, or the big touchdown in football ,or just like the new pitcher that strikes out the whole team for a no-hitter boy i wish i had the rookie of that guy whats his name ..Halladay its only going to go sky high but i don`t have one.. dam only $15,000 it`s hard to pay that kind of money and then say wow what a fool i was to pay 15,000 and never be able to sell it for the same amount any one want to sell theirs I have .50 cents

By: Matt T

Matt T — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:52:10 +0000

I’m reading this and cant help but giving my oppinion from personal experience. I sell sports cards for a living and have been a collector my entire life. There are many, many sports cards that are worth hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Ebay is not a price guide and sure is not a good way to check how much cards are worth. Sports cards are and always will be worth money as long as people continue to love sports.

By: TheSRider

TheSRider — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:03:52 +0000

With the market so low, it’s a perfect buying opportunity. This guy who said nobody wants cards.. just look at the people above you. They’re waiting for the market to rebound, it’ll come. Its just normal. Maybe kids play with pokeman but baseball cards will make a big comeback. Only a fool would get rid of their cards now. markets go up and down, and back up again, i have some real nuggets in those boxes in the basement. after a few years youll be getting top dollar for those kobe rookie cards. MJ is a basketball god, his cards can only go up.

BTW, somebody once said those cards can never increase in value because back in the day there was no china to worry about, and today somebody in china can just mass produce fake copies of any card and sell them all on Ebay or just carry em over to the US. Well, WRONG… yeah maybe the chinese were too busy running away from tanks when the big boom was happening, but i still say you cant just copy cards that are gold! those cards are not just pictures, theyre priceless no matter how hard some chinese conman tries to fake them.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:38:33 +0000

If you think these cards will ever be worth anything you are deluding yourself.

These cards will never be hard to find. There are simply too many, even with people throwing them away to save shelf space.

Even if they were rare (which, again, will never ever happen), rarity does not in itself make something valuable. Someone has to actually want it and be willing to pay you cash for it.

Kids don’t collect sports cards anymore. On top of that, less kids follow sports than before. If a kid doesn’t care now about cards, why would they suddenly want them when they are 30 years old? Why would they want little pieces of cardboard with players they don’t care about and never saw in a game? That makes no sense.

Your cards are worthless and always will be. You can’t even use them as good toilet paper, and using them as note cards doesn’t work because of all of the ink on them. Burning them for heat might not be advisable; there might be some fumes coming out that aren’t good to breathe in.

With rare exceptions (Honus Wagner), sports cards will always decrease in value as people get older and everyone stops caring about the players on the cards. You think kids in 10-20 years are going to give a shit about A-rod or Kobe? If they don’t care about the players then why would they want cardboard icons of them? I mean right now they don’t even care about Michael Jordan. If you pay big money for an MJ rookie, you’d better be doing it because you want it, not because you are investing, because if you are, you are a moron.

Your cards have literally have no use other than taking up space and making your house burn longer in case of fire.

By: shawn hill

shawn hill — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:24:13 +0000

With the new consolidation of the hobby, prices will most likely increase. Look for big investment opportunities in 2010.

By: christine

christine — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:51:00 +0000

OMG, anyone in the market to buy 100 beanie babies??? I hate the fact that I paid 5-10 bucks a piece for pellet stuffed animals.

By: Online Credit Score

Online Credit Score — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:54:35 +0000

Yea, I agree. The modern day equivalent will be Pokeman cards and they are sold at a very high price!

By: Ted Valentine

Ted Valentine — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:08:14 +0000

I collected early 80s to early 90s. Still have my cards, and that is the only thing I have from childhood.

I was once offered $200 for a good chunk of cards at a show. I was insulted because I knew the price guide said they were worth twice that — circa 1984. Today I’d be lucky to get $5 for the lot.

Still, I had a lot of fun collecting, sorting, trading, seeking. It was worth it.

PS – I suspect I am not alone in hoping for a “revival” among my peers that will cause prices to go back through the roof.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:42:20 +0000

Wow. This is rather funny to read about, but crazy when you look at all the parallels between the fads or the bubbles as they are now called. Too bad my Michael Jordan and ‘tippy toe’ Bo Jackson cards will never be as cool as the day I traded for them.

By: over the cubicle wall

over the cubicle wall — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:47:22 +0000

Right there with you. I also remember the Cabbage Patch Kid craze.

By: Randy

Randy — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:24:19 +0000

My only hope is that all you suckers dump your cards in the recycle bin, offsetting the massive over-production and leaving *my* 1988-1992 era cards extremely valuable.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:22:53 +0000

In all seriousness, this is the best blog post I’ve read anywhere in a while. Man, the memories of the craziness!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:10:24 +0000

Hah, I found a bunch of cards in my old stuff, held securely in their decorative plaques. I proudly displayed them around my room when I was a kid. I just checked the going rate on eBay for a few of them – a whopping 10cents! Nice.

By: Blair MacGregor

Blair MacGregor — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:59:53 +0000

Oh this hits home for me as well; for me it was baseball AND hockey cards. My dad and I had boatloads of them and still do to this day. I distinctly remember him going out and buying boxes and boxes of 1990 NHL Pro Set(s) because of the perceived value. We used to do the same with Starting Lineups; the little figurines that were popular before McFarlane came out with his series.

The book sounds interesting and I don’t know what the author’s thesis is but I know that after the early 90′s, the sheer AMOUNT of cards that were produced every year just exploded to the point where today, there are so many sets and subsets of different player cards that it’s impossible for them to have any significant value. I know they did different things with them to try and create value like putting pieces of the jersey inside the card and stuff like that but I don’t think it worked to the degree they were hoping (I haven’t looked at a Beckett in years though!)

Great piece.
-B

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 03:49:07 +0000

Good Post! I collected from 1980-1990. Had my first table at a card show at 14 in 1985 and made over $700. Did 10 more shows with similar results. Sold everything I had left when I went to college in 1990. Good timing? No just luck. I Had a blast though.
I just began researching the hobby again recently to see if I would want to collect again, but boy has it changed. They cut up players uniforms and laminate them in cards then insert them in packs like lottery tickets. Graded cards unfortunately rule, graded meaning you mail your card away and pay graders to judge the condition and label and seal card in plastic forever. Crazy collectors compete to try to one up each other to get the best graded cards to build sets, causing a perfect mint common card to sell for hundreds of dollars. Lastly new unproven rookies still sell for $100 or more, but why when you can buy an older 1970′s Rookie of a Hall of Famer for alot less. Duh!
In a nutshell – The hobby stinks and I would not encourage my 4 year old son to collect.

By: tj

tj — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:30:34 +0000

One of our neighbors sold his sports cards to start a casino party business…..unfortunately the cards from my generation are worthless. i just donated them somewhere.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:32:33 +0000

Love the story. I was planning on selling my cards to pay for college. The value dropped so much that it wasn’t worth it. I always wondered why the unknown Todd Van Poppel’s rookie card was worth so much. I guess we can blame it on the “speculators”.