Do you have any thoughts as to why certain companies like Topps and Metal have skyrocketed while other issues seem to be stagnant in value? I'm looking at the Tim Duncan and AI Rcs. as examples. That is very odd to me.
And I know what you are saying about not being able to give some of these away in recent times but now are selling for much higher in this economy. Strange times indeed.
my thoughts on why certain issues have exploded and others havent....
the trend really seemed to start with prizm basketball and at first it looked like it had a lot to do with the class of 2019...it quickly spread - just look at 2012-13 and 2013-14 prizm to see the magnitude...with no more topps chrome basketball , prizm just seems to have filled that niche ...
next up was the untimely death of kobe which set off an explosion across almost everything of his...the one that surprised me most was the massive jump in everything of lebron...when he first went to the lakers there was a small bump , but over his first season there all i seemed to hear was how he was ruining the team , was a cancer , was on the decline , etc and his prices stagnated....fast forward a few months and everything of his is 5 to 10 times what it was in 2018...
most years around february through april , many people splurge a little when tax refunds come...the kobe , lebron , zion , and ja explosion was already in progress when the covid lockdowns started and stimulus checks started going out...now you had people with nothing to do but kill time and a little chunk of money on hand so the boon continued and started spreading to other players and sets....the last dance stuff focused so much attention on the bulls (and i look for similar with the mcgwire/sosa and tom brady features coming up) that virtually everything of mj , pippen , and rodman started flying...then a lot of the mid 90's rookies such as iverson , garnett , and duncan who recently made the hall of fame or are considered locks in the next few years...i'm a little bit surprised there hasn't been any uptick at all in guys like chris webber , penny hardaway , jason kidd , grant hill , or tracy mcgrady, but i don't think this is over yet so maybe .....
as for why certain sets and not others...it seems the old saying chrome is king is in full effect...similar sets like finest and bowman's best have seen some movement , but not nearly as much...i do think they will continue to climb though...the basic topps ? my personal opinion is that a lot of people who have collected baseball throughout the years and has always considered topps to be the big boy have ventured in and have started snapping up topps rookies of key players...aside from the massive explosion with stephen curry a few years ago , i don't really recall any time since 1992 when topps basketball made an impact until this spring...now just look at some BV's and it's amazing (kobe rc 60 , iverson from 2 to 20 in 3 months , lebron from 50 to 500 in a little over a year)...
the big mystery is metal , metal universe , and metal championship...they are all cool cards...really ...i love the micro-etch foil stuff...(i think the condition sensitivity of the borders on those cards may play a role in this as well)...1995-96 and 1996-97 metal were nice introduction to the market ...the 95-96 set can hang it's head on being the first metal set while the 96-97 set boasts the great rookie class although players who had their rookie card in series 1 tend to book higher in series 2 if they had a card in ech series...the one i simply can not fathom is 1997-98 metal universe ....the 2nd year kobe at 100...the mj at 400...rodman and pippen at 40 each....i may be way off base , but i'm leaning toward thinking it gets a big boost due to the similarity to many of the superhero (marvel , dc , whatever) cards...now why metal universe exploded and metal championship has not (kobe still with a 6 bv) escapes me - and i am actually looking to find some championship on the assumption it WILL take off soon...
another i've noticed selling well at or above bv has been 1996-97 flair showcase...i've loved flair since it debuted with 1993 baseball and i know many people have chased the legacy collections and masterpieces over the years...while it was a beautiful set from day one , the 96-97 issue took it to a new level and i think it's a simple case of the cards being so attractive...
my summary - i think a combination of tings have driven this boon and frankly i don't think it can go on forever , but i do think it has more legs...i've got my eye on 4 or 5 more sets (first 2 years of finest , 94-5 and 96-97 sp ) and a dozen or so more players that i hope to be able to stockpile now but with my current financial situation i dont know if i will have time or not...even if this does turn out to be just a bubble market , i am fairly sure most items that have skyrocketed , even if they crash , will still be well over what they were when this all began...
two other cards that blew me away when compiling data to price the cards in my list above.....2015-16 hoops kobe and lebron...both book at 3.00 but both are selling consistently in the 8 to 15 range...the kobe has lebron in the photo and is being marketed as "kobe's last year" and "with lebron"....the lebron card pictures him doing his customary pre-game chalk throw and is being marketed as "iconic chalk throw pose"...and here i thought the 2008-09 topps chrome kobe that pictures lebron on defense having a BV of 200 was wild...smh
