Noticing Cards That Are Drying Up
MinorLeaguer
Posts: 531 ✭✭✭✭
So having been an avid ebay (and now also Whatnot, COMC, Fanatics Collect, etc.) searcher for 27 years, I am definitely noticing certain non-big name manufacturer cards from the 70's to very early 90's that are coming up for sale with less and less frequency since I began following/"saved search" the card. I collect the first card of a player, and this typically steers me to minor league, junior league hockey, college football and college or non-US basketball and many locally issued cards or non-US issues from around the globe like South America and Northern Europe and other "Alt RCs", so they were a thinner market to begin with as these are cards that at the turn of the millennium, the card in any grade or condition, raw or graded, with or without its team set would come up for sale once every 1-3 months and now are coming up for sale maybe once or twice a year, or even once every few years, or if at all. It's like the spigot was either tightened a bit or even turned all the way off. Random examples of many cards I follow where I have definitely noticed a severe slowdown of offerings/listings are the 1970 (not the 1971) Dexter Press Yankees Clinic Thurman Munson Post Card, 1980 TCMA Wisconsin Rapids Kent Hrbek, and the 1990 Procards Indianapolis Ice Dominik Hasek. So, I think this is signaling that collectors have been adding to their collections and holding these tougher issues. But if I am wrong, anyone have an opinion to explain this phenomenon? Cheers!
Comments
With submissions costs so high one casualty has been sub prime issues.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
I think once the single cards/boxes that have dried up,and reach a level of profit for the holders of same,you will see them reenter the marketplace. Profit taking.
4Sharps Store inventory is way down. I think they are moving their stuff into auctions. I used them a lot to buy mid-level RCs from the 1990's across all major sports.
I suspect PSA is taking a lot of business from 4SC, Probstein, and their likes on eBay. And all the quality stuff is through the auction houses. Not gonna lie I feel a little good about Probstein getting hurt here but it’s probably bad for collectors long term.
It’s drying up because the cost is too high for commons. Plenty of Pokémon stuff out there.
I see more vintage selling in the raw on EBay now, another reason GMC does so well
I have massive stacks of 60's and 70's common that just aren't worth the grading fees.
Late 60's and early to mid 70's non-sports
Me too. It's a real bummer. I'd love to get some of them graded but between crazy-high grading fees and harsher grading on vintage it's just impossible. Makes no sense.
I don’t disagree regarding the economics of grading commons but I has a question.
If grading costs were expected to increase and card values were expected to increase, including 60s and 70s commons, wouldn’t the prudent, and most economical, time to grade those cards always be Now?
Or do I read what you’re saying to be that it may not be a given that the future will hold value for this category of sports cards. And most likely if that was the case, sports cards in general.
For years now there has been a trend toward people collecting only star cards and ignoring commons. I happen to love set collecting, but the only thing keeping it going was the set registry. That has taken a big hit because there is only so much collectors are willing to pay for a 1974 Celerino Sanchez, and escalating grading fees have crossed that threshold.
I still love set collecting, but have to admit I have lost interest in the registry myself. I have over 100 1973 commons that are sure PSA 9s and I don’t think I care any longer about submitting them even if fees were lower. I’ve become more interested in the cards themselves, PSA, SGC, raw…really however I find them.
For me it was always the team cards that I liked to sub. It's one thing to send in a 78 Brett or Ryan that I pulled from a box and it come back a 6 or 7, but completely something else entirely when it's a Yankees or Royals team card. If vintage were getting a fair shake these days then I'd be sending new orders in every month.