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Sports cards vs Comics
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174 posts in this topic

The key sports cards seem to be doing pretty well from what I see.  The drek of sports cards have become basically worthless.  Comics have been going thru the same transition over the last 10 years where only the hot keys have gone up. Comics have the added benefit of dozens of movies and shows to keep up popularity but I'd think there is more similarities to the two collectibles then you think.

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I only collected hockey cards from 1980 and earlier and I did really well when selling them back in 2004-2006. When ever I check in, the price of that stuff seems pretty stable, though there is some sketchy graded stuff out there. If they were giving that stuff away, I would be happy to take it. 2c

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On the contrary, the GOAT's, particularly those we grew up around, from say the Gretzky's to even LeBron, are going for insane money. It's not necessarily the rookie cards only, I was talking to a gent I met on the plane last week and all he collects is Jordan's. He was showing me some PSA 10's which are going for ridiculous money now. There's a lot to learn, but all I can tell you is that as a financial experiment, I went out and bought a number of graded cards for a particular player, and had them regraded. It was obscene to me how much money people leave on the table not unerstanding the nuanced differences between graders, and the characteristics which command big money. I got in and out because I was starting a trend that others in the hobby noticed, and began picking-up on, and suddenly the population of this player spiked to a level where it left me uncomortable speculating anymore than I did. I wouldn't have lost, but the amount of effort and gain wouldn't have been the same and it really felt like fishing in a barrel for awhile. After speaking to that gent on the plane, I noticed the market has stepped-up once again, so I might give it a go once more.

FWIW's the new crop of talent has just shown a completely different pattern where they get out of hand in value right out of the gate, I only see those dropping eventually. Depending on where you're buying (i.e. peak market) you might be losing when the market corrects on them.

Edited by comicwiz
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One other thing. When I was on the plane, he showed me a vintage card. I remarked how perfect the centering was, but what really caught him off-guard was how I mentioned it wasn't sheet cut. To me, this is one of the more disappointing things that has been allowed to perpetuate within the vintage card grading market. I told him, even if he offered it to me at a quarter of the value I wouldn't buy it if were a sheet cut example, and he was floored that I knew how to tell. I explained how much time I had spent buying this same card to get regraded, and how many sheet cut cards I saw in PSA holders. The market hasn't reacted towards them negatively yet, but as populations rise, I believe it will become a more important variable factored into valuating them. I was glad he showed it to me because it made him more aware about something he knew nothing about, and with the amount of money he was spending, frankly I was surprised he didn't know.

Edited by comicwiz
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The high end sports card market has been strong for years. The great cards from the 60's and earlier in PSA 8 and better routinely set records. As mentioned, however, if you bought cases of unopened sets of NBA Hoops and Score or Upper Deck baseball cards in the 1990's, you'll be waiting for a while yet to see those big gains everyone was hoping for.... :shy:

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I won several cases of 1990-91 NBA cards. Ended up with 32 boxes for $56. I was mad because I thought it each case was twenty boxes, but one was only twelve. Sold a few 3 for $25, and more for $5-6 each. I think they retailed for about $25 a box when new.

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1 hour ago, Hollywood1892 said:

I used to collect both as a kid...but I've noticed a massive drop in the value of sports cards and not so much comics.

Can anybody enlighten me on why this has taken place?

30 years from now, will people care about Michael Jordan?  Probably not.

Will they care about Spiderman?  you betcha!

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I know several people who collect sports cards.  Most of them are buying new product as it releases.  I keep an eye on some pricing, but I’m not super into it.  Basically, I feel like that the market is much, much smaller than it used to be obviously.  But for the collectors within that market, it’s bigger than ever.  Just based on what I’ve seen and who I know that collects.

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Prices are very strong for graded cards BUT there are many many trimming scandals going on right now. All one has to do is visit the Blowout forums and see the numerous threads of cards clearly trimmed (and other things) showing up in PSA and other grading company holders and being sold through major eBay auction sellers such as PWCC and even Heritage. If I were Heritage I would just avoid the headache and get out of sports cards as that's just a fraction of what they offer. One of the alleged trimmers is a former NFL player.  

There is currently a lawsuit filed against PWCC and PSA.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1352880

Countless threads on the issue. It looks like Heritage pulled this one from a recent auction. 

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1352577

Low Grade 52 Mantle's being altered.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1290614

I personally wouldn't touch sports cards as I can the bottom falling out on too many of them in the future.

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This may make me sound old (and Canadian) but I liked it best when there was only one company releasing cards each year (i.e. O-Pee-Chee hockey, Topps baseball, etc). I was swept up in the 90s craze but the only cards I have kept are my hockey cards from when I was a kid in the 1970s and we used to *trade* them by leaning a hot card against a wall (called the set up) and having other kids shoot common cards at it from about five feet away with the first kid to knock the set-up card down getting to keep it, while the kid who put the card up against the wall got to keep all the shooters. This game reached such a fever peak at my elementary school in North Vancouver during the late 1970s that the school finally had to ban it before a fourth-grade brawl broke out due to the constant disputes between players. And, yes, I still have a Gretzky rookie card found in my pile of shooters from those days (I can't even imagine how many I would have fired against a wall - we thought Montreal Canadien and team cards were the only keepers, no one wanted any Oilers). We also used to play topsies - you would take turns flicking cards abut five feet forward with the first player to land a card on top of another getting all the cards that had been shot. Now that's card collecting!

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1 minute ago, Mephisto said:

Prices are very strong for graded cards BUT there are many many trimming scandals going on right now. All one has to do is visit the Blowout forums and see the numerous threads of cards clearly trimmed (and other things) showing up in PSA and other grading company holders and being sold through major eBay auction sellers such as PWCC and even Heritage. If I were Heritage I would just avoid the headache and get out of sports cards as that's just a fraction of what they offer. One of the alleged trimmers is a former NFL player.  

There is currently a lawsuit filed against PWCC and PSA.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1352880

Countless threads on the issue. It looks like Heritage pulled this one from a recent auction. 

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1352577

Low Grade 52 Mantle's being altered.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1290614

I personally wouldn't touch sports cards as I can the bottom falling out on too many of them in the future.

This is why I saw sheet cut cards as such a gross transgression that wasn't properly being vetted. Instead it was rewarded, and rather significantly in cases where it was used to obtain 10's on cards deemed impossible due to wire cutting methods.

This was, for someone who saw the writing on the wall, an inevitable progression of the issue. Whether it will come back to cause issues for the less severe practice of sheet cutting, only time will tell.

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2 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

This may make me sound old (and Canadian) but I liked it best when there was only one company releasing cards each year (i.e. O-Pee-Chee hockey, Topps baseball, etc). I was swept up in the 90s craze but the only cards I have kept are my hockey cards from when I was a kid in the 1970s and we used to *trade* them by leaning a hot card against a wall (called the set up) and having other kids shoot common cards at it from about five feet away with the first kid to knock the set-up card down getting to keep it, while the kid who put the card up against the wall got to keep all the shooters. This game reached such a fever peak at my elementary school in North Vancouver during the late 1970s that the school finally had to ban it before a fourth-grade brawl broke out due to the constant disputes between players. And, yes, I still have a Gretzky rookie card found in my pile of shooters from those days (I can't even imagine how many I would have fired against a wall - we thought Montreal Canadien and team cards were the only keepers, no one wanted any Oilers). We also used to play topsies - you would take turns flicking cards abut five feet forward with the first player to land a card on top of another getting all the cards that had been shot. Now that's card collecting!

Yup, knockdowns, topsides, and farsies...I remember those days very well.

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