Anyone else losing interest in collecting older cards because they keep falling

slvnumber2

I have been collecting cards since I was 5 years old and I have always enjoyed it. When PSA first came out I started collecting a few big cards a year (back in 1996-97), and for the next 4-5 years I had quite a collection of PSA 8's of Mantle, Williams, Aaron, Mays... from 1953-1958. Luckliy when I first bought these cards they were relatively cheap and I made a killing whenever I sold doubles - I bought a 1954 Williams in PSA 8 for $1875 and sold it a couple of years later for between $4000-5000.

I realize with the econony the way it has been going those cards are now worth $2500-3000 these days, and when they do go up for sale on Ebay they usually don't meet the reserve or the BIN price is not met. I look at prospective cards to buy but I see very few cards outside of Cracker Jacks and some other pre-war issues that keep their value.

I am curious to see if anyone else sees the same thing I am seeing, and what your view on the graded card and raw card market is over the next 5-10 years? With everything that has been going on with scandals and such it seems that many people are not as interested as a few years ago, and personally I find that dealing with many of the dealers at the big shows - National, Ft Washington, Sportsfest is not the same since it seems as if the good material is dried up and nobody is buying either. Just my two cents and I would be curious to see what everyone else thinks.

Happy Easter to everyone.

koby

There was no way the super high grade cards could sustain their high values. First, the speculators with the windfall money from the late90s no longer have as much windfall money today. These guys wanted only the best of the best because that was what Forbes and WSJ recommended as alternative investments. But now those guys are out of the hobby. Take the highend speculars out, and you are left with the same market as before. Second, there are lots more submissions now than in the past. This is due to the registry as well as to those who resisted grading initially but could no longer resist due to the price differential. With this new supply of highgrade trading cards, people realize that what they believed to be scarce are actually not that difficult to find, and prices had nowhere to go but down.

jmullen

I'm a rarity over quality guy. By rarity, I mean I collect cards that are rare in any quality. A majority of the cards I collect have never seen an example above PSA 6. Cards like these seem to always be on the rise. Although I stick with vintage non-mainstream basketball, I liken this to pre-WWI baseball. From what I hear (and I am by no means an expert so I could be wrong) rare pre-WWI baseball keeps increasing in value.

Jeff

Jeff@sportcards.info

jrdolan

I wish prices were falling on the vintage cards I lust for. But the bids keep getting jacked to SMR and above, leaving me in the dust.

Not sure if that means I have good taste in cards, or I should be sinking my money into 2001 Pujols rookies.

slvnumber2

I agree with your reasons especially the market and also the submission numbers. When the stock market tanked it caused a lot of people to lose some serious wealth, and $35K Mantle's in PSA 8 and 33 Ruth's in PSA 9 for $100K+ did not seem very smart. Also, back during those days there might have been only 24 of the 1954 Williams in PSA 8, and today there are about 60-75 of them - supply and demand has made a huge swing.

Right now I am just trying to go back and get cards that I collected as a kid which was the early to mid 70's. At this point they are fairly cheap and fun to collect. I think the main thing when collecting is to follow the advice I was told long ago. Get stuff that you enjoy even the price drops to zero - that way you will still get the same enjoyment and not move up and down with market prices.

packCollector

I think I buy more at current prices. williams , mantles , stars , and key cards at todays prices appear to be pretty stable. it is no longer that people are buying them for crazy premiums for the scarcity. they are always available , now people are buying them for the importance that the cards have in the hobby and the collectibility of such. also , when I buy , I buy at prices that I feel I won't mind owning to have a top graded card that i will enjoy. if it goes down 20% so be it but if I excercise restraint on the buying side, it will probably go up 20%.