Baseball card article from The Economist

EchoCanyon · January 14, 2015 9:27PM

Linky from Dec. 2014 article

WhiteTornado · January 14, 2015 10:11PM

Thanks for sharing. Interesting how they show parallels to other market crashes like tech stocks and housing. They don't seem to give major importance to the card overproduction boom, although they touch on it.

parkerj · January 14, 2015 10:39PM

love the pic of the guy with the room full of cards, presumably junk.....how many of us can fill a room that size or larger with junk? Thankfully, not me, i disposed of it years ago, and luckily i was poor enough in the 80s, and quit altogether in 1990, not to hoard that much in the first place.

Nathaniel1960 · January 14, 2015 11:19PM

1980's baseball in the binders, a smattering of 69 and 72 topps singles strewn about, and one fuggly hat/stache' combo.

You could nuke that room now and make a claim for about $1000.

LarkinCollector · January 14, 2015 11:24PM

<< love the pic of the guy with the room full of cards, presumably junk.....how many of us can fill a room that size or larger with junk? Thankfully, not me, i disposed of it years ago, and luckily i was poor enough in the 80s, and quit altogether in 1990, not to hoard that much in the first place. >>

I'll bet there's an elusive 88D PSA10 Devon White in there...

saucywombat · January 15, 2015 12:15AM

<< 

<< love the pic of the guy with the room full of cards, presumably junk.....how many of us can fill a room that size or larger with junk? Thankfully, not me, i disposed of it years ago, and luckily i was poor enough in the 80s, and quit altogether in 1990, not to hoard that much in the first place. >>

I'll bet there's an elusive 88D PSA10 Devon White in there... >>

LOL

PMKAY · January 15, 2015 12:54AM

<< 1980's baseball in the binders, a smattering of 69 and 72 topps singles strewn about, and one fuggly hat/stache' combo.

You could nuke that room now and make a claim for about $1000. >>

Burbank Sports Cards would see about 8 million dollars in that room.

DezHood · January 15, 2015 1:40AM

Anyone read the comments? I liked this one better than the article:

"surprised the economist would miss the bigger story, here. it wasn't greenspan's rate hikes that slowed demand for baseball cards (seriously?). online auctions (even before ebay, but especially with ebay) were what efficiently and dramatically restructured this market.
beckett's price guide and card dealers had no interest in exposing the massive overproduction of baseball cards to meet the artificial demand borne of their own (closed and inflated) pricing system. but, as online auctions disintermediated the old market makers, replacing them with peer-to-peer transactions, it became clear that the actual value of a modern baseball card (with practically zero scarcity) was next to nothing."

Paleoanthroman · January 15, 2015 1:52AM

Very Bottom middle on the floor looks like ’71 baseball.

AU58Brew · January 15, 2015 2:02AM

Great pic!

mlbfan2 · January 15, 2015 2:57AM

Here's a slightly larger version of that pic, and some info.

"Sept. 10, 1992 - U.S. - Baseball card collector JOHN MACLELLAN surrounded by his 467,126 baseball cards in his storage space where he stores his massive collection."

Paleoanthroman · January 15, 2015 3:10AM

Is this the same guy in the pic?

mlbfan2 · January 15, 2015 3:30AM

<< Is this the same guy in the pic? >>

That obituary says he was a Red Sox fan. And here's another pic of the guy from the photo that shows that he's wearing Red Sox gear.

Nathaniel1960 · January 15, 2015 3:47AM

if that's the case, sorry I ragged on his stache.

At least he lived to see the Red Sox win it all.

PSASAP · January 15, 2015 4:11AM

Any story that completely ignores third party grading services, and uses Beckett pricing as an accurate measure of valuation, is crap. Nonetheless, an interesting crap article, and a foreboding message at its conclusion.

dennis07 · January 15, 2015 4:31AM

That 'stache was pretty common back in the late 80's & early 90's with us 30 somethings. Styles come and go.

Paleoanthroman · January 15, 2015 5:16AM

If everybody saves something it will always be worthless and if everybody trashes something it becomes priceless. Grading companies and Inserts have saved the hobby to a large extent by creating an artificial scarcity. I gave my 2 young boys a Jumbo Bowman box each for Xmas. They ripped open all the packs and kept the autos and refractors and tossed everything else. That was interesting. 320 bucks for 10 auto cards. What scares me about the hobby is that the main liquidity in the market is not from young dollars, but from nostalgic dollars. I don’t know if that will sustain. As we all start to die off, it’s possible that up to 80% of what is bought and sold right now between us old heads might be worthless to the new generations.

PSASAP · January 15, 2015 6:10AM

Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. It is our security blanket during troubled times, reminding us of what was a simpler, more coherent time.

jfkheat · January 15, 2015 7:49AM

<< 
"Sept. 10, 1992 - U.S. - Baseball card collector JOHN MACLELLAN surrounded by his 467,126 baseball cards in his storage space where he stores his massive collection."

>>

467,126 is a lot of cards but I'm sure many of us here have or had that many at one time. When I got married 14 years ago and moved I donated around 450,000 cards to the local Shriner's hospital and childrens hospital. I stored all of mine in a 2 bedroom apartment. I could store 10s of millions of cards in this much space.
James

otwcards · January 15, 2015 7:54AM

<< 

<< 
"Sept. 10, 1992 - U.S. - Baseball card collector JOHN MACLELLAN surrounded by his 467,126 baseball cards in his storage space where he stores his massive collection."

>>

467,126 is a lot of cards but I'm sure many of us here have or had that many at one time. When I got married 14 years ago and moved I donated around 450,000 cards to the local Shriner's hospital and childrens hospital. I stored all of mine in a 2 bedroom apartment. I could store 10s of millions of cards in this much space.
James >>

Many of us have or have had half a million cards. Most of us didn't store them all less than 8 inches high!!!

saucywombat · January 15, 2015 8:22AM

I'd guess I easily have more than 500,000 but there's no way they are taking up that much floor space.

vols1 · January 15, 2015 9:48AM

More about the guy

BLUEJAYWAY · January 15, 2015 12:54PM

<< If everybody saves something it will always be worthless and if everybody trashes something it becomes priceless. Grading companies and Inserts have saved the hobby to a large extent by creating an artificial scarcity. I gave my 2 young boys a Jumbo Bowman box each for Xmas. They ripped open all the packs and kept the autos and refractors and tossed everything else. That was interesting. 320 bucks for 10 auto cards. What scares me about the hobby is that the main liquidity in the market is not from young dollars, but from nostalgic dollars. I don’t know if that will sustain. As we all start to die off, it’s possible that up to 80% of what is bought and sold right now between us old heads might be worthless to the new generations. >>

There is a fair amount of truth in this observation/anlaysis. For instance. I know the older I get the more fuzzy the memory is for the tobacco card era, or interest. As most people collect what interests them (or can turn a profit on) or what relates to who they saw play or interacted with. For these type of cards unless someone keeps the "torch/exposure" interest going they will further recede into history/memory and really only mean the most to us from that particular era, logically speaking.Yes many of us go back in time with our card interests, but by and large we collect who we can identify with from our time. Look at the retro interest for us adults who wish to recapture our youth with the 50's-70's card chases driving that market. With all the current stock of cards being saved,sleeved, and slabbed unless the next generation exhibits the same exhuberence we have, there will be a plethora of material avaliable in pristine condition or 8/9 condition with little interest. These would be 2 of the worst factors to merge that a collector/investor would'nt want to see merging. This view does not even encompass the many distractions the youth have today to divert their attention away from card collecting (computers, X-Box's and the like).Yes, it's best to be a collector first without concern for value, but somewhere in all of us we would like to at least break even. Maybe even in hopes just to flip our stash to be able to just respend it on newer product of interest. Sorry for the running off commentary. Just my view, and I welcome your opinions. By the way. A close friend has 2+ million cards from 1948-up when he started collecting and he was one of the lucky ones who's cards did not meet the trash can.

Baseball card article from The Economist

Comments