Brand new to the forum

1957Braves

Thought I would say hi to everyone. I have especially enjoyed the recent discussions about the run up in prices of unopened 80's boxes. I've been buying, so that immediately tells me the market will bottom out shortly. Thos may have been covered already, but does anyone have any input on why there has been a rise in popularity?

Giantsdude24

I got into unopened packs and cellos about a year ago mainly because of the posts and scans of outlandish unopened hoards and boxes of 60's and 70's cards that reminded me of old card shops when I was a kid. Nostalgia and investments would be my 2 main reasons why people buy unopened, but the main reason I bought packs was because it was different then most other baseball collections. I had never imagined people would collect unopened product until I discovered the forums here. It is fun, but expensive and I dove into it hard before I realized I was in over my head. In order to have the collection of unopened products I wanted I would have had to put a mortgage on my house and not buy the new car I wanted, and that just wasn't going to happen.

I enjoy looking at and reading about other peoples collections however, and I really think the prices in unopened product for the 70's and 80's will go up for the next few years. I just hope the prices come back down to earth so more people can enjoy those exquisite and pristine unopened and untouched packs.

dytch2220

Welcome to the forum.

jmaciu

Welcome to the board. I too enjoy collecting the unopened side of things. I started back in August and have made substantial purchases from everything from 1979 OPC wax boxes to nicely graded cello to mid to late 1970's rack packs. It has been costly, though. But if you go at it with the idea of not having to have large quantities of boxes, then once you build a little inventory, you can pace yourself and buy here and there when you see something really cool. I just want to have a variety of things. Just spend within your means and you will really enjoy it. No matter what, having fun is the most important thing!

esquiresports

Welcome to the boards. You'll find an active, helpful, and often very opinionated group here, with a healthy number of disagreements. Hah. As for the run-up (which to this point has been primarily limited to 1980-83, with some movement in 1984-86, at least as far as I know), it has been discussed with some pretty strong opinions, and in no particular order, factors contributing to the run-up LIKELY include a combination of:

1. More people entering the hobby and/or deciding to collect some unopened
2. A generally improving economy/improved consumer confidence (at least relative to 2008-10)
3. A rise in the value of PSA 10s for key cards from this era
4. People getting priced out of the 1970s unopened market moving on to the 1980s
5. Ever-decreasing supply, although 1980s are admittedly multiple times easier to find than 1970s
6. Fear of getting priced out of 1980s and hype/positively (depending on whom you ask) about 1980s unopened, particularly on this forum
7. BBCE's new shrink-wrap and his availability of "from a sealed case" boxes

and finally, something that hasn't been mentioned but may be a factor,

7. The crazy prices that PSA 9 1980s graded packs are bringing, which I have seen in the $40-50 range for various early 1980s packs

I originally was going to cut off my unopened at 1980 I expanded to 1981 about a year ago and then decided to get into 1982 and 1983 when BBCE had some nice boxes available. So I am partially responsible for increased demand as well.

1957Braves

Thanks for the replies everyone. I personally am a big fan of what BBCE has to offer. Great reputation and the availability of product from sealed cases is great. I've ripped a few boxes from eBay that I know were highly suspect of being searched. That's the name of the game though. I've also been working on putting together a complete sealed run of all the glossy parallels from the 80's and early 90's. The Fleer sets were easy enough to come by and I got lucky with some of the Tiffany sets. Those seem to have caught fire also. Seems to me like people ate trying to find something of value from the era, and this type of product is "rare" by the standards, at least in unopened form. Anyone else have an opinion on the Tiffany-type products?

Guru

Welcome!

jmmiller777

Welcome to the shark tank!

galaxy27

Welcome, compadre! Looking forward to future posts!

gemint

Welcome to the boards. I think the run-up is partially driven by the promotion of unopened on this site. The group rips have brought a lot of board members into this market. It's given Steve (BBCE) a new avenue to unload product. It's much harder to sell a $1500 case to someone vs offering case fresh boxes to 24 collectors at $62 bucks apiece. I also think PSA grading packs has contributed to growth.

It was more a niche market up until 4-5 years ago. Now it's becoming semi-mainstream.

Bosox1976

If worried about price, get ripping!

Brick

Hi, hello, how are ya?

I still remember walking home from school and hearing construction workers listening to the 57 World Series, then getting home and watching the end of the game. Good year for the Braves.

JoeBanzai