What year did card collecting end and investing begin?

jimmyg

BLUF: 1984. Please feel free to discuss/disagree.

Justification: Collectors bought cards with an eye toward investment potential for years before '84. My dad, who still has his '55s and '56s from when he was young, told me when he bought me my first pack in '81 to make sure to keep them in good condition so they'd be worth some money (and I'm sure Fritsch and Cramer invested heavily well before '84).

But '84 it is. '84 signaled an important shift in trading cards for one major reason: in '84 Topps produced the first limited edition set, Topps Tiffany, where the supply was artificially limited, that is to say that the supply was held to a number less than what the market could sustain for the purpose of investment appreciation. I remember vividly going into a baseball card store, World Series Cards on Sherman Way, and the store owner had an '84 Topps Tiffany Traded Gooden with a price tag of $200 and an '84 Mattingly Tiffany for $150. And the frenzy for special, limited editions began.

Now, there are a lot of seminal years out there which could foretell the shift to investing. The '90 Upper Deck Reggie autos which I blame for the current auto craze, the '91 Donruss Elites which I blame for the current insert craze, and the '86 Sportflics set which I blame for the current gimmick craze. However, '84 marked the shift to both quality and limited production. Fleer and Donruss were no longer second rate and the companies began to race each other to the top (bottom) of pitting collectors against investors, where kids began to drool over the stuff they couldn't afford.

So now I'm racking my brain trying to think of another collectible where a falsely limited supply led to sustainable appreciation. Comic books? Beanie Babies? Coins (specially made coins for collectors)? Plates with Nascar drivers?

It seems that the stuff that's truly valuable is that which had an abundant supply at issue and, because kids played touch or otherwise abused the product, relatively few survived in good shape. And when they get into their mid 30s and grow nostalgic, a market is born. I think I'll go buy some He-Man figures.

So I guess this is my bi-weekly rant. Please ignore or respond as you wish. I'd love your thoughts.

ThoseBackPages

i agree with your 1984 assessment

Topps also added The All-Star Glossy Set starting with the '84 racks
Also look at the huge price drop off for wax from '83 to '84

benderbroeth

well said

Boopotts

The idea of 'truly valuable' seems a little silly. Tell someone who just sold an Exquisite Lebron RC for $15K or so that they didn't really get that money because their card wasn't truly valuable and you're likely to catch some funny looks.

summerof68

1975 was the first year that investors (on a national scale) started hoarding factory sealed cases of Topps product. In 1979 the very first Beckett price guide came out and articles started appearing in newspapers and magazines across the country talking about the value of old baseball cards. As a result of this 1979 was the first year that baseball card shops started popping up all across the country. And in 1980, if my memory serves me correctly, the first National Convention was held. This contributed to Fleer & Donruss jumping into the hobby by '81. The hobby began growing fast and really picked up steam in '84, '85 during the period of "rookie mania". By 1984 Beckett decided to begin printing his price guide on a monthly basis. By '87 the popularity of baseball cards had grown to a fever pitch and companies like Fleer couldn't meet the demand. By '89 things had become ridiculous and even my local barber had wax boxes next to his cash register selling packs to men so they could bust them while getting their hair cut.

This explains the great disparity between the availability of 1974 cellos and racks versus the 1975 cellos & racks. Because of the big increase in demand 1975 was also the first (full) year that Topps put 36 wax packs in a box instead of 24 as in prior years.

1975 was the year that changed baseball card collecting forever--what used to be a hobby for kids was now beginning to attract the adult investor. And with the arrival of the first Beckett in 1979 investors nationwide began ordering factory cases to store away. And this is why, even today, factory sealed cases going back to 1979 are still common to find at the major auction houses. By 1981 we now had three card companies and card collecting was no longer just a hobby--It was an industry!!

cpamike

As always, Summer brings up some great points and gives all of us some great history regarding the card hobby.

I've always felt that 1981 was the year that it truly became driven by investing as opposed to collecting. As Summer indicated, now you had not one, but three companies competing and driving up demand for their product. True, as the decade went on, more and more people caught the investing craze as the card companies created limited product to drive up demand, but for me the year that I took note of the change in the hobby was 1981 where as Summer said it became an "industry".

Personally, I stopped heavily collecting in 1984 as I felt the industry was getting ridiculous and I did not enjoy collecting anymore. Even now, I can't stand the new cards with the various inserts, auto cards, patch cards, etc. and refuse to collect any of these. As I've started adding to my collection again, I've focused on collecting pre-1980 cards when they were produced with the collector and not investor in mind.

itzagoner

card collecting never ended. it never will.

collect what makes you happy. invest in what makes you wise.

there needs to be a distinction made as well for those who know how to buy & sell in order to supplement their collecting needs.

a well-acquired skill makes you both.

Stone193

I got the feeling that people were - perhaps - really thinking of investment around 1984 or 5?

The boom was around 1990 - I thought I had heard that the Japanese - e.g. - were getting into the collecting game for investment purposes.

And - it appeared - some dealers started to move collectors in that area to motivate sales.

We have spoken of this often here - there's not a collector who started around 1990 who doesn't have a stack ("brick") of some prospect that went no where.

Greg Bussineau of Superior - later Legacy on ebay and now Greg B. - had this letter to his customers back in 1997:



My closest friend in school with me at Columbia used to collect coins - and his brother collected Beatles albums - I was partial to BB cards - and I don't ever remember any talk of investment back in the 70s.

This is my experience - and in no way reflects the hobby - at large - or is this gospel - I did not read hobby publications in the 70s - didn't start to read them until the 80s.

I'm a collector - and I'm sure there's plenty of guys out there - and perhaps that's why what I collect isn't worth much - I just enjoy finding stuff - researching - and sharing.

My advice? Anyone who wants to put in the time, research, sweat equity, and have some funds? I would guess a nice balanced portfolio - stocks, bonds, mutual funds, maybe some real estate?

Just like business and friendship don't mix? Neither does a hobby and investment.

They're - IMO - mutually exclusive events.

Griffins

I'd agree with Summer of '68- I collected back then and when the price guide came out that turned everything into a number. Actually a few years before that The Sport Hobbyist (an early trade mag, along with The Trader Speaks and Ballcard Collector) was running ads with a picture of the T206 Wagner and the headline "One baseball card worth $1,000!" That really helped make people aware of the value. Shows were more about finding the card you needed, and if you found the last card in a set chances are the seller would just give it to you.
I quit in early '76 but held onto my cards. A few years later a friend and I got a table at the first national and sold our collections- the focus was on rookie cards and everyone seemed to have a price guide- it really sucked as it was not the same hobby it had been just a few years ago, but the times were a changin'
Condition wasn't really a factor then, it became one much later, long after I'd left the hobby for a 20 year break.

mtcards

1984 - Don Mattingly first signalled the modern investing era. Still most were baseball card collectors/dealers who wanted to make a little extra cash over and above the regular profit margin.

1987-1991 The true investing era. Thousands upon thousands of people who had no knowledge of sportscards or sports for that matter bought thousands of singles/sets/cases so that they could turn a profit and the card companies indulged their every investment dream by supplying them with all the cards they wanted.

Garabaldi

I agree with what most posters have said. I still think that inserts have really but the damper on collecting.

Stadium1978

1984 also had those seemingly limited 84 Donruss and 84 Fleer Updates and the Tigers won the World Series.


The last part probably doesn't really matter though.

jimmyg

I looked at '85 pretty hard because of the introduction of Beckett Monthly. Something about the magazine leaving the commons out of the price guide did something to my psyche. '84 Topps was the last complete set I ever bought. In '85, all I wanted was the Gooden rookie and the Pete Rose (some small part of me wanted the Franklin Stubbs rookie too, even though I was an Angels fan). The only cards from '85 I ever traded for were second year Mattinglys.

For years I read the Beckett Reader's Write. In one issue in the very early 90s, there was a sarcastic (though portentous) letter where the writer talked about the distant future of card collecting (maybe 2000 or 2005?). The writer spoke of the future of wax packs: they would come with one card, made of gold, and cost $10,000 each. It's a shame he couldn't foresee the advent of game-used, multi-sig cards as they're really worth their weight in gold.

A big part of me picking '84 surely had something to do with me starting to collect in '81. The primary motivation of me (and many other close to middle age guys) getting back to collecting is nostalgia. We desire that which we had when we were young. Moreover, we desire that which we desired when we were young. The biggest problem with the present day product is that there won't be any guys thirty years down the line who wanted it as kids because they were priced out of it. The cards today are high quality with sharp photos and quality card stock... but I still just want those from '81: miscut with rounded corners.

-Jimmy

CollectorAtWork

I agree with most posters. I think 84 with the Donruss Mattingly rookie card. (I recently got that card slabbed PSA7 for sentimental reasons.) That was so hot back then. The other big date was 89 Upper Deck with the Griffey rookie. I remember so many of my friends (in high school!) buying cases of UD and just storing them away for investment purposes.

Probstein123

great question !!
the first person that got me to think about INVESTING in the industry was RENATO GALASSO and their catalog ( late 70s, very early 80s )..
you could buy 500 card investor lots of the rookies you liked the most...
this helped change the way collectors think...

in 1981 I bought cases and put them away as an investment, but still considered myself a collector - like many...