Are vintage complete set prices rising with the rest of the tide?

nam812

It seems only normal that in this unprecedented time of price increases that they would be, but my main focus is the 1972 set which I personally consider to be very close to end of the "vintage" spectrum (the end for me being 1973).

I have seen great increases in 1972 set sale prices over the last few months. I used to be able to grab a VGEX/EX set for $500 to $700 and an EXMT/NM set in the $850 area give or take, but now even VG/VGEX 1972 sets are selling for $1,300 and EXMT and up sets are selling between $2,000 and $3,000.

I currently have 4 complete 1972 sets ranging from a P/VGEX set to a NMMT set and am 92% complete on set number 5. I really enjoy buying complete or near complete sets for upgrading my main set and for helping me keep consistent grades throughout the other sets, but at these prices I think number 5 is my last one, and I may even part with my lowest grade set in the near future.

For those of you that have your finger on the pulse of vintage sets that are older/much older than 1972, are you seeing the same types of increases?

Thanks, Nick

Bosox1976

Nick - I've been noticing the same thing on 70's stuff... about double in price.

With PWCC out on raw, there are a whole lot less raw/mixed sets for sale the last couple of months - particularly nice older ones. I made a joke in a thread about a month ago that some of Dean's Cards stuff is somehow in play, but prices really are elevating when available. I also think mixed sets are being split up - graded to Probstein and PWCC and raw sent over to Greg Morris - so those 60's sets just aren't hitting the market as a whole.

grote15

I am a set collector (both raw and graded) and am happy to see any love shown to sets as a whole. With card submission fees as high as they are, the volume of 70s commons submitted to PSA is bound to decrease so I'm wondering what kind of impact that will have on already graded cards, as well as sets in general.

Dodgerfanjohn

I built a 1960 set in ex to exmt raw a few years ago. I did it card by card and it cost about $2800 to complete, and would have sold for around $2,200 at the time.

Right now, if I send the top 15 cards in for grading and they come back at what I think they will(5’s and 6’s), the set should sell in the $7k range.

thedutymon11

Good day,

In the Non Sports World I am seeing a complete drying up of Vintage Sets (About Pre 1970 for me) available on FeeBay lately, Usually my Sunday mornings were tied up with 2-3 hours of searching E-bay for stuff. Until a couple months ago, I had to usually look over 200-500 vintage sets in all the areas of my collecting, now I'm done in an Hour with perusing of 20-30 sets!

Yes that drastic! I haven't bought a set in 6 weeks, was averaging 2-3 week.

I don't have many of the Whys, but some theories why.

1. Recently E-Bay consolidated and eliminated at least one of my search criteria. Used to go to the Category Vintage Non-Sport Cards which was under the General Vintage Non Sport cards and supplies or some such. They did away with that sub category, so now I have to weed through 3000 Pokemon and GPK, and TPG Cards! So part of it is just scrolling through too much crap and missing things. Buyers are tired, like me, of wading through 1000's of unrelated listings.
2. Other than a few of what I'll call the Non Sport Gold Standards, Mars Attacks, GPK, Civil War News, and a few of the other 50-70's Main issues that are still holding their own (But in my Opinion most have not seen any increases and in fact could point to many instances lately of these items selling for historically less), I have seen some absolute Steals happen in the last few months, because there is NO Market it seems sometimes, I screwed up and watched a seriously Nice 1962 Civil War News US set had a start price of $400, was about 80-90% NM-MT, centered, awesome! Should have gone for $1500-$2000 easy! I saw it and decided I would Bid with a few minutes left, went to store and forgot about it, went for $400 opening bid! Still kicking myself! Why?
3. I bought a large lot of 1973 Wacky Packages for $350, had lots of Rares and thought I was looking at over a Grand in sales. A month later, most are gone, made $400, after E-Bay ect, gonna lose about $50. 3 went to PSA and may put me in a dollar or two profit when it all ends.
4. The same exact story that runs through the Non Sports Genre is endemic to Comics nowadays. Baby Boomers Are Dying! Customer base for Comics and Non Sports Cards is dwindling. The amount needed to own the real Gold Standards are either not doable cause of scarcity or overpricing.
5. Having been in the Non Sports World for 30+ years to me it has Never been so Lackluster than I've ever seen right now. Even the Auction Houses have had less the last few years. Mile High Card used to have Pages up to 1/2 Catalouge of Non Sports Stuff in their auctions. Nowadays a few pages. The only action seen is when as happened a few years back several of the Big Boys (I know but won't name them but think $75K for 3 ea 3-Stooges Checklists a few years back, about 2010) got out of the Hobby or at least downsized and their sales with the auction houses went bonkers, but they were selling to each other! Think about that! In the Sports World you may have hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of Top Tier Collectors who influence the Market. Some of the White Whale collectors are gone in Non Sports! I had three of these Whales I used to target by buying sets and subbing cards that they needed for theirs, having a For Sure Sale when it came back from PSA in a month! Dam those were the days! Now we may have a few hundred Real serious Non Sport Collectors of Top Tier stuff. And few very very high end, but not many White Whales.
6. PSA has a player in this action too, although the actual impact does have some effect, I don't know how much. And that's eliminating the NON Sports Forum, I mean could you have a more Blatant act making part of your Customer Base feel Aliented and second class citizens. And make all the jokes you want, this does affect some people.
7. Sheeesh, I watched another item a 1986 GPK Series 2 Wax Box sell recently for $1655.00, that is just sad! That box should have gone for $2-$3K easy. Thats the examples of many Non Sports I've watched over the last few months.
8. The main reason I have started dabbling in Wax Boxes Sports and Non Sports, at least there's Customers!
9. When you consider that with me in my heyday I was moving 50 packages a day out to Customers, but with average Sales being $10-$20 and a Shipping cost of $2.75. Nowadays that shipping cost is $4-$5 to cover us. I think this is a Big deterrent! I'm shipping 10-20 week now.
   One of the reasons I've tried to get away from the $10-$20 Sales and make the Sale $75-$100 with $5 shipping isn't so bad! I want to try the PWE's talked about here from E-Bay, but don't you have to be in managed payments, which I'm not!
10. In my year back now I have had exactly one Home run purchase, that was the two 50 each Vending Lots of 1945 Mutoscope Artists Pin-ups Non Sports Cards, with $1300 invested to include PSA and all shipping, I am at about $3000 in sales with 10 cards still to sell! My Only Homerun in 2020! Lets put it into perspective. I have bought 36 Vintage Sets in the last 6 months for the purpose of, a few more cards for my sets, most to flip sell, few to PSA for Re-sale or my sets. Its hard for me to calculate where I would be in each set because I've sold off the remainder and some are at PSA for 6-8 months now! But best guess' of the 6- sets I just flipped and I obviously bought because I thought there was some Up side, how often was I right, about 50% of the time, 3 for a small loss, 3 for a paltry profit. The only real Profit is in the PSA Graded stuff as we all know that I'm still waiting for!
11. Another thing that Non Sports doesn't have is the Michael Jordan, by this a Mean the hype, like what I consider the Non Sports Hype of the 2000-2012, I am not bragging but I must have gotten the first 10's in a few dozen Non Sports sets, was selling stuff like the #1 PSA Batman Black Bat with the first 3 GEM 10's, all subbed by me. The First 9 in sets that had never seen 9's before, dozens of them. I was constantly looking for stuff to grade and sell, now not so much. I had the best year I ever had in 2011!
12. In a sense I do thank PSA for the price increase because 75% of what I grade is $40-$60-$75 range, now it will be easy because until something changes, the $20 AND the year wait have made my 10 each subs AT PSA the last for awhile!
13. Im just padding to beat Blurry as Post of the Year!

Thanks

YeeHaH!

Neil