The State of The Hobby

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Mike121

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In order to break this part of the conversation away from the other topic, I've moved these posts into their own thread. Let's hear what everyone else thinks about the current state of the hobby.

Enjoyed breaking basketball as well, but have been priced out of that for now
Ain't that the truth!? I was looking at blaster boxes a few days ago going upwards of $100 some places! That's crazy, and very frustrating!

This can't continue, but I only see a few things being possible. Either 1) it keeps on going and a LOT of folks will be priced completely out of the hobby, most of which will be the kids or 2) the manufacturers start producing more cards and a few years from now this will be considered another "junk card" era. The only other option is that things settle back down, but I really don't see that happening on its own.
 
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Ain't that the truth!? I was looking at blaster boxes a few days ago going upwards of $100 some places! That's crazy, and very frustrating!

This can't continue, but I only see a few things being possible. Either 1) it keeps on going and a LOT of folks will be priced completely out of the hobby, most of which will be the kids or 2) the manufacturers start producing more cards and a few years from now this will be considered another "junk card" era. The only other option is that things settle back down, but I really don't see that happening on its own.
In any given year, there are between 30 and 35 HoF, and perhaps another 20 semistars. Out of any yearly crop of 200 rookies, 3 may make the Hall. 30 will have nice careers but will probably end up in the commons bin. The prices will drop when nobody wants cards of those other 170 rookies and 700 players who are not the very best.
 
The prices will drop when nobody wants cards of those other 170 rookies and 700 players who are not the very best.
I don't think most people care about most of those cards now. My thinking is that folks got bored sitting at home during COVID, started looking for things to do, and found cards. Now I think there are just too many people in the hobby, in its current state, and the unfortunate part is that most of these new folks only care about the profit that can be made. Look at the prices of some of these rookie cards, even base rookies. Some of them are unbelievable. This is all just my opinion, but it looks to me like we've picked up a lot of new "investors" and few to no "collectors". In fact, there might be less "collectors" now because some have been priced out.

What I hold on to is that I don't think this can, or will, last forever. That said, it's already lasted longer than I thought it would.

Again, this is all just my own opinion, from my own viewpoint, and isn't backed up by a single fact other than the fact that card prices are absolutely ridiculous right now and I really have no clue as to why! 🤦‍♂️
 
Everything is chasing thr low numbered rare rookies of the uber prospects. The next Lebron Keep in mind basketball rosters are smaller and have a GLOBAL market much more so than any sport. NBA is huge in Asia.
 
Keep in mind basketball rosters are smaller and have a GLOBAL market much more so than any sport. NBA is huge in Asia.
That is a good point. This spike in prices does seem to be affecting basketball cards quite a bit more than the other sports, but that's not to say there hasn't been at least a small spike across the board.
 
I’ve got to the point where when I go into hobby I’m asking what boxes are under $200. That used to be a nice high-end box. Now Bowman is 300+. Haven’t bought NBA hobby for 2 years...and i’m an upper-middle class income working adult.
 
Seems like a lot of people are complaining about being priced out of this hobby. If I can't afford to buy cards today I have thousands off cool PC cards to enjoy forever. Unless you are a brand new collector we should all have plenty of cards to enjoy our hobby with.
 
Seems like a lot of people are complaining about being priced out of this hobby. If I can't afford to buy cards today I have thousands off cool PC cards to enjoy forever. Unless you are a brand new collector we should all have plenty of cards to enjoy our hobby with.
This is a good point. I don't think I'll be priced out, at least not at the current state, but for folks who buy boxes/packs to collect sets this really hurts. I also can't help but feel sorry for the kids who used to save up their allowance to spend on a pack/blaster, or folks who collect on a budget and just buy those packs/blasters when they can afford them.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't blame the people who are buying them all up and re-selling them for profit. If there is money to be made doing something, I say go ahead and do it if you want to. If not you, it'll be someone else. The demand may not always be there either, so get it while the getting is good! I just don't like seeing the end result. I, personally, much prefer the hobbyists who do it because of the pure enjoyment it brings them, rather than the ones who do it because of the money it brings them (or may bring them).

I'm, primarily, a player collector so I have no problem still getting PC cards. I'm just having to pay a little extra for them now then I would have before all this madness started.
 
Are Blasters still $19.99? Haven't bought one in a long time. If so, I wonder if those will soon go to $24.99 with the increase interest? I know it won't stop the flippers, but curious if the card companies will price bump their products.
 
Are Blasters still $19.99? Haven't bought one in a long time. If so, I wonder if those will soon go to $24.99 with the increase interest? I know it won't stop the flippers, but curious if the card companies will price bump their products.
They are, if you can find them! The problem is, they're gone as soon as they hit the shelves then they're marked up to $30+ and resold. Some of the basketball blaster I usually buy were $50+ this year. Needless to say, I didn't get any of those!
 
Are Blasters still $19.99? Haven't bought one in a long time. If so, I wonder if those will soon go to $24.99 with the increase interest? I know it won't stop the flippers, but curious if the card companies will price bump their products.
bowman blasters are $25, I think megas are $30
 
Thankfully, I stopped opening new product after 2019............A friend of mine owns a card shop, locally, and he buys the blasters of basketball for $120 and turns around and sells them for $160................People actually pay that...........
 
I'm glad that I decided to collect only vintage. It seems to always go the same. Massive interest when issues 1st come out and dealers sell 3/4 of their case and then eventually dump the last 4/5 boxes and move on to the next case purchase while interest in that years cards wanes when next years issue come out. Give me mid-grade '50s cards any day.
 
Why settle for mid-grade? You can get really nice quality 50s cards for less than a lot of these current issues are going for. Ryan Mountcastle had a good week, but he'll be in the commons bin soon enough.
 
I kinda look at it this way. I won't spend crazy prices for new product and if you want to stay in the hobby but avoid being robbed of your money think of all the millions of cards out there that have already been ripped out of packs just waiting for someone to pick them up. This trend can keep going as long as it wants because I have millions upon millions of cards to collect that nobody else wants I will never run out of cards to choose from. I would rather buy 20 cards of my choosing for a couple hundred dollars then to buy a $400 dollar box of cards that are usually filled with mostly base junk I would take that option any day of the week but generally people are mindless morons that absolutely think they just have to have packs of junk to open. True investors buy cards one or two at a time they're smart enough to know you will never make money buying hobby boxes you loose money on 95 percent of the boxes you buy.
 
I like mid-grade(ex) because they are very presentable and you can usually get 3 commons of the price of 1 nm one. For filling sets it's great. If you are talking about investment then yes, higher grade cards would be more easily sold. Although I keep the eventual sell price in mind, completing a presentable set cheaply is the main goal for me.
 
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