Graded Baseball Cards

[Redsfaithful]

I wouldn't doubt if they have slapped grades on cards presented them too be real when they are indeed reprints or trimmed cards.

They have, this is a big rabbit hole you can go down.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...wcc-probstein/

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1298835

[redsfaninbsg]

Like many, I fear the bubble is about to burst on a lot of this stuff. Not saying my theory is correct, but I've tried to only spend money on big time players. In the last year or so I've picked up, Jeter Foil RC, Kobe Bryant Topps RC, Acuna Topps Update RC, Bench RC, Kevin Durant RC, Topps Venezuelan Concepcion RC, first year Prizm Curry and various Mantle cards. Those seem to be fairly safe to me in terms of not bottoming out. The Concepcion was more of a personal item, it's pretty unique and rare.

[JFLegal]

what a mess. of course shady/slimy characters were going to run this. i remember going to baseball card shows with my dad at random hotels and expo centers ... and it always had a shady feel to it.

great memories with my dad, just that most of the dealers themselves gave off a shady vibe. probably because they were shady.

[Larry Schuler]

I got bored and looked up a 1997 Bowman’s Chrome Barry Bonds International Refractor card I remember owning and it looks like it’s been going for $200-300. I thought the hobby had gone wild in 1998 but this seems to be even zanier. That Bonds card used to be $50-60 at the late 90s height of Bowman’s Chrome fever.

[Larry Schuler]

what a mess. of course shady/slimy characters were going to run this. i remember going to baseball card shows with my dad at random hotels and expo centers ... and it always had a shady feel to it.

great memories with my dad, just that most of the dealers themselves gave off a shady vibe. probably because they were shady.

The owners of the card shops in my area all seemed disgruntled and crotchety. There was definitely also a swindler vibe for sure. I remember being creeped out the one year I went to a combined POGS/toy/trading card show in this huge warehouse. The people at the booths were like carnival barkers and they were hawking shady stuff like brown paper wrapped mystery card packs that had 1 Michael Jordan rookie card mixed into one of the packs. I remember being 12 and thinking “How would you prove that/take them at their word?”

[KeefeCato]

Vintage cards from 1975 on back is the best way to go. Those will hold value. When the new flavor of the month rookie cards bottom out.
I never mess with anything after 1975. 1973 was the last year topps put cards out in series. With the high series being tough to find. 73 highs wasn't that hard to find. 72 was the last tough ones to get. Lot of people will tell you not to mess with anything after 72 for that reason.
Only thing after 75 I do mess with are Reds team sets. Most of those cost next to nothing though.

[adkindo]

If I would have only known as a kid what I know now, I would have only collected basketball and football cards. Most of that era (late 80's/early 90's) baseball cards were so mass produced, they are now worth very little....but many basketball and football cards from that period have became very valuable because so much less was produced. At the same time, I kind of hate what the baseball card market has become in recent decades. It is mostly older men and the only "kids" that can be involved have to have parents with resources. I grew up lower middle class, but my dad would always let me grab a pack of Topps or Donruss cards at the gas station because they were like fifty cents. It was the same for all of my friends, and so we collected, traded, and would study the back of those cards increasing our interest in the game. Today it is like there is a total disconnect between card collectors and actual young fans of the game. I can't imagine the response I would have got from my dad in 1988 at the SuperAmerica if I tossed a $10 wax pack on the counter....

[Guacarock]

The market is in a frenzy right now with the big spike in collecting the modern graded and serial numbered cards. While there's this new frenzy, the prices have dropped substantially on the real vintage cards.

I just got a 1939 Exhibits postcard featuring Frank McCormick, the Reds first baseman who led the team in battling the Tigers in the 1940 World Series. This is a card that would have cost me $25 to $35 a decade ago. Now, I got it for less than $10.

My pride and joy: A 1921 Exhibit with Greasy Neale, the right fielder who helped the Reds bury the Chicago White Sox in the 1919 World Series. I'm also partial to the old sets that pioneered color, like National Chicle.

My point is: There are some areas within the market where you can get super deals right now. You have to look and explore.

[Bob Sheed]

Today it is like there is a total disconnect between card collectors and actual young fans of the game.

To be fair, today there is a total disconnect between baseball in general and young people.

So the card industry adjusts. 20 bucks a box. 40 bucks a box. Retro cards. It's all being marketed toward adults. Because MLB for whatever reason (short-term money) has decided to alienate the younger generations.

I agree with the earlier comment. The newer baseball cards are almost all worthless if they aren't rookie cards or numbered. You really do need to go back to the 70s , and the card needs to be MT or NR-MT for the card to be worth anything if it isn't a HOFer.

And yes, prices are stupid high right now on everything, but that's true even outside the realm of card collecting.

Topps new approach to NFTs is kind of hilarious though. I mean, why would you want to own some stupid Michael Jordan basketball card, when you can own a virtual one?

[KeefeCato]

And you have these flippers going into the big box stores and buying up everything. Only to open them on YouTube. Selling the there subscribers spots in the breaks.
Some of these guys are making big bucks.

[Redsfaithful]

And you have these flippers going into the big box stores and buying up everything. Only to open them on YouTube. Selling the there subscribers spots in the breaks.
Some of these guys are making big bucks.

I think this is going to be the first thing to crash, because the only variable that has to change is for the card companies to decide to run the printers a whole lot more - and why wouldn't they? I doubt they want to repeat what happened in the late 80s-early 90s because it killed the hobby for a little while, but they're still going to print quite a bit more this year than in the last few.

Target has had some sports cards in stock online for most of today - Upper Deck hockey and Heritage baseball. Football and basketball all instantly sold out this morning, but seeing anything up for more than 5 minutes is new. I've been watching the last few weeks. (I think some of this might be that they've stopped some of the botting, at least for now.) The flipping won't be profitable once product being in stock is a regular thing again.

Oops, editing to add that I'm talking more more about people flipping straight to eBay, I don't expect the breakers to crash because that's gambling adjacent and so I think that's probably going to continue growing, but I think there will be some price pullbacks as retail is increasingly available.

[bm1475]

If I would have only known as a kid what I know now, I would have only collected basketball and football cards. Most of that era (late 80's/early 90's) baseball cards were so mass produced, they are now worth very little....but many basketball and football cards from that period have became very valuable because so much less was produced. At the same time, I kind of hate what the baseball card market has become in recent decades. It is mostly older men and the only "kids" that can be involved have to have parents with resources. I grew up lower middle class, but my dad would always let me grab a pack of Topps or Donruss cards at the gas station because they were like fifty cents. It was the same for all of my friends, and so we collected, traded, and would study the back of those cards increasing our interest in the game. Today it is like there is a total disconnect between card collectors and actual young fans of the game. I can't imagine the response I would have got from my dad in 1988 at the SuperAmerica if I tossed a $10 wax pack on the counter....

The hobby is so geared around the super high end, very few adults can even afford to buy that stuff. Even "set building" the base (read: junk) cards is really pricey, a pack of base Topps at Target costs like $2, $3 for Heritage. I tapped out when base Topps started being $1 a pack, that's how far back I go. 1992 Topps is the last set I remember really attempting to collect. I dabbled a bit after that, and used to pick up a few packs every year in the late 2000s-early 2010s, but it just felt like setting money on fire.

[PTjvs]

Collectibles in general are going utterly insane. Shoes are nuts, Pokemon & MTG are nuts, other sports (especially basketball) are nuts. It's one heck of a bull run.

[klw]

Vintage cards from 1975 on back is the best way to go. Those will hold value. When the new flavor of the month rookie cards bottom out.
I never mess with anything after 1975. 1973 was the last year topps put cards out in series. With the high series being tough to find. 73 highs wasn't that hard to find. 72 was the last tough ones to get. Lot of people will tell you not to mess with anything after 72 for that reason.
Only thing after 75 I do mess with are Reds team sets. Most of those cost next to nothing though.

So are you saying I shouldn't have taken a withdrawal out of my 401k to buy 10,000 Brian Reith rookie cards? I think I will have the market cornered!