Sports cards in the news creating new adventures

[jflan702]

So I saw that there was the news articles about how wall street is picking up on the card market pricing craze.

Has anyone else noticed all of the facebook seller groups have people coming out of the woodwork with 80's and 90's cards asking unheard of prices? I just saw a post about some 80's Score RC's and then some early 90's Topps misc HOF non-RC cards. All with asking prices that just make me SMDH. I just hope nobody actually thinks they are worth that type of $$.

Or is it just me being cranky? Do I need a poll for this? LOL.

 

[KCLJ520]

@jflan702

I saw a group on Facebook dedicated to collecting 80s and 90s cards, which is the height of the "junk wax" era. No offense to any collectors from that era (I was born in 1981, and my favorite set was the 87 Topps with those awesome borders!)

I just have no idea why those cards all of a sudden would take a huge price spike!

Blessings,

Kevin

 

[cmcjr99]

junk wax era material has been trending upwards for several years now and the recent price surges in cards in general have definitely been evident there as well...there has also been a surge in prices of graded HOF RCs from that era so the guy who recently picked up the 350 card lot of 1990 donruss larry walker rookies at roughly a buck a piece is probably looking to get the better copies graded and would only need a handful of 10's to come out ahead...

just as a personal point of pain for me rearding junk wax boxes...in 2016 i was offered 1989 bowman baseball boxes for $2 each then in 2018 i picked up about 10 boxes of 1991-92 fleer basketball at either $1 or $2 per box...i sold a couple in the $5 range and opened the rest...now those bowman boxes go anywhere for anywhere from $25 to $60 each and those damned basketball boxes bring anywhere from $75 to $175 each...

fwiw , there are several junk wax era groups on facebook who take those cards VERY seriously...for years i said it may take a long time but that stuff from that era would eventually dry up and be seen in a different light...it took a pandemic and many people being priced out of new material , but it has finally happened and it's actually funny to see so many people who turned their noses up at junk era stuff for years watching incredulously and still clinging to the old beliefs even as the current market proves the shifting trends...

 

[mrhaverkamp]

It is totally mind-boggling, for sure. I watch a lot of guys on YouTube get all excited ripping what I term "junk wax' hoping to pull Griffey, McGwire, and Canseco rookie cards (which they then most likely send in for slabbing). They blow past all of the common cards and other HOFers of the era, so what happens to those cards? Dumpster? I'm thinking nobody is building full sets....so this is the way those commons finally get some value. But how do we convince these newbies to become set collectors like some of us old-timers?

 

[pac_rat_76]

It is totally mind-boggling, for sure. I watch a lot of guys on YouTube get all excited ripping what I term "junk wax' hoping to pull Griffey, McGwire, and Canseco rookie cards (which they then most likely send in for slabbing). They blow past all of the common cards and other HOFers of the era, so what happens to those cards? Dumpster? I'm thinking nobody is building full sets....so this is the way those commons finally get some value. But how do we convince these newbies to become set collectors like some of us old-timers?

We don't! They are all about grading and flipping.

 

[GotMelky]

The owner at my LCS told me even 91-92 Fleer basketball which has...nothing in it really is spiking up to crazy prices.

 

[cmcjr99]

The owner at my LCS told me even 91-92 Fleer basketball which has...nothing in it really is spiking up to crazy prices.

unopened boxes are going anywhere from 50 to 175 each recently....

edit to add - there are quite a few jordans : the base with bv of 30 , 3 subsets at 10 each , 3 subsets at 5 each , and the pro-vision insert at 15...people who grade will surely gamble on those...

 

[SymphonicMetal]

Am I the only one who thinks the bubble is about to burst on this price surge?

 

[cmcjr99]

eventually , but i dont see it happening too soon...even if it does , prices of most things will still be significantly higher than when this began...

 

[SymphonicMetal]

eventually , but i dont see it happening too soon...even if it does , prices of most things will still be significantly higher than when this began...

I definately agree with the latter part about prices remaining higher than they were before this began. But the drastic rise in the mass produced MJs looks like a red flag to me. That was just too high too fast and too random.....as well as too mass produced Other similar MJs don't seem to be going up as much as those 91-92 Fleers are and many were less common than those.

One very odd thing I've noticed is that with all these incredible price rises, Shaq RCs seem to have gone down as far as I can see. He is one of the most recognizable and well liked athletes in the world and yet his cards seem to be going down! His RCs are mass produced to be sure but not nearly as much as those early 90s Fleer and Hoops cards before his rookie year.

I will say that unlike the economic crash of 2008, sports cards are performing completly opposite from what they did back then. In 2008 people were dumping their cards for next to nothing. Today they are like gold.............hopefully not fool's gold in the end.

 

[89Giants]

I definately agree with the latter part about prices remaining higher than they were before this began. But the drastic rise in the mass produced MJs looks like a red flag to me. That was just too high too fast and too random.....as well as too mass produced Other similar MJs don't seem to be going up as much as those 91-92 Fleers are and many were less common than those.

One very odd thing I've noticed is that with all these incredible price rises, Shaq RCs seem to have gone down as far as I can see. He is one of the most recognizable and well liked athletes in the world and yet his cards seem to be going down! His RCs are mass produced to be sure but not nearly as much as those early 90s Fleer and Hoops cards before his rookie year.

I will say that unlike the economic crash of 2008, sports cards are performing completly opposite from what they did back then. In 2008 people were dumping their cards for next to nothing. Today they are like gold.............hopefully not fool's gold in the end.

Might want to check Shaq RCs one more time, they have jumped a ton in the past week. I have some graded ones so I've been tracking his stuff

 

[cmcjr99]

i've been noting my expectations of more 90's star rc's to blow up since this all began and shaq is near the top of the list ...i actually missed that 2 of his rc's got the beckett up arrow treatment this week including topps soaring from 8 to 100 on the 11th...

i'm still expecting more cards of certain players (mj skybox , more fleer , etc) and more specific players (kidd , hill , webber , hardaway , marbury , mcgrady , yao , etc) to join the rc explosion...

edit to add - just went back to the opg and tonight every rc in 94-95 topps and most in 95-96 topps (including kg going from 15 to 100) basketball has an up arrow...not big jumps , but universal jumps so i say if you want to get any kidd , hill , or ej rc's you better hurry...

yet another edit to add - add 98-99 topps to sets with universal up arrows for the rc's with dirk , carter , and pierce now checking in at 30 , 20 , and 15 respectively....

 

[SymphonicMetal]

i've been noting my expectations of more 90's star rc's to blow up since this all began and shaq is near the top of the list ...i actually missed that 2 of his rc's got the beckett up arrow treatment this week including topps soaring from 8 to 100 on the 11th...

i'm still expecting more cards of certain players (mj skybox , more fleer , etc) and more specific players (kidd , hill , webber , hardaway , marbury , mcgrady , yao , etc) to join the rc explosion...

edit to add - just went back to the opg and tonight every rc in 94-95 topps and most in 95-96 topps (including kg going from 15 to 100) basketball has an up arrow...not big jumps , but universal jumps so i say if you want to get any kidd , hill , or ej rc's you better hurry...

yet another edit to add - add 98-99 topps to sets with universal up arrows for the rc's with dirk , carter , and pierce now checking in at 30 , 20 , and 15 respectively....

Wow! Just Wow!

I was thinking if the mass produced Jordans went up so much the Shaq RCs would have to follow. A month ago you'd have to trade at least 4 or 5 1991-92 Fleer MJs to get a Topps Shaq. Suddenly with the Jordans jumping up so high, you'd have to trade 3 or 4 Shaq RCs to get a 1991-92 Fleer Jordan which just made no sense.

I'm glad I have valued HOF rookies for NBA players of the 1990s for the past 15 years or so. Very few people seemed to want the RCs of Kidd, KG, Duncan, Nash, AI etc etc. I was always able to pick these up in trade with no problem. That is why i always say don't follow the market but rather take the path of least resistance........ which now seems to be football (with the exception of Brady, Mahomes and a few others) and maybe hockey which I need to do some research on.

I'm still bearish on the recent cards rising so high but I am bullish on vintage which I think will maintain a decent percentage of its value in the long run.

 

[cmcjr99]

major up arrows showed up yesterday (but dated as last week) for virtually every fleer sticker or all-star insert from 87-88 through 90-91 and mj and a few others also got bumped in base fleer sets from those same years :

mj -
87-88 fleer 400 to 700
87-88 fleer sticker 350 to 600
88-89 fleer 80 to 200
88-89 fleer sticker 30 to 300
89-90 fleer 25 to 60
89-90 fleer sticker 15 to 40
90-91 fleer 12 to 30
90-91 fleer all star 12 to 30


87-88 fleer barkley 15 to 20
87-88 fleer magic 15 to 40

87-88 fleer stickers -
magic 6 to 40
olajuwon 4 to 40
bird 6 to 40
barkley 6 to 40
kareem 3 to 40
all others up to either 10 or 20

88-89 fleer stickers -
commons 1.50 to 8
semi stars 2.50 to 10
bird and magic 5 to 15
note - they made a booboo on malone and dropped him to 1.00 - pretty sure that should be 10.00 since that would put him on par with drexler , ewing , mchale , thomas , and dominique



as for a pending crash...just to put it in perspective using 2 or 3 cards....

86-87 fleer jordan...before the surge began , it had bottomed out at 600...currently 12000...a 90% crash would leave it 1200 - still double where it began

92-93 topps shaq that began THE WEEK at 8.00 is now 100...a 90% crash still leaves it 25% over its starting point

96-97 topps kobe was either 12 or 15 before the jumps...now at 600 a 90% fall would still leave it at 4 or 5 times its starting point...

i wont even get into all the lebrons and newer guys or all the recent jumps in low end base...i will admit i'm still surprised that topps base is the key component of most of the rookie surges other than the jordan fleer...i'm just hoping i can hurry up and get out of thenursing home and back to my cats and cards and be able to turn some of my hoards of what was junk into a few more nice items...my buddy asked if i'm a buyer or seller - i said both - i know i have about 4 100-count cases of mj low-end base including probably over 100 first year hoops that just quadrupled in value - would love to turn a couple 10-card lots into a few things i dont have yet plus make a few bucks to boot...

 

[Chavezforprez]

This is all crazy. I started a thread for some bv checks if you have a free moment. Even just a few would help me out with what I want to flip into other cards for my PC.'

Thanks,
Billy

 

[cmcjr99]

This is all crazy. I started a thread for some bv checks if you have a free moment. Even just a few would help me out with what I want to flip into other cards for my PC.'

Thanks,
Billy

im limited to a few minutes here and a few minutes there while stuck in the nursing home so i cant get to them all at once,,,which player or two would be your highest priority ? let me know and i will try to get at least a few for you as time permits tonight

 

[Chavezforprez]

Here is the a list of cards, but please don't rush or make these a priority. Your health and time is obviously worth than my bv's. I'm in no rush, just seen the hype on these cards and was curious on bv's.

Take care,
Billy

Bryant:
2009-10 Topps -- Gold #123 (/2009)

Lebron James:
2003-04 Topps Matrix #111 w/ Kaman and Anthony (x3)
2009-10 Topps -- Gold #42 (/2009)

Michael Jordan:
1992-93 Topps -- Gold #141 (x2)
1997-98 Z Force -- Boss #10
2002-03 Upper Deck Finite -- Elements Dual Warm-Ups w/ Kobe Bryant #MJ/KB
2009-10 Upper Deck -- Dual Game Materials w/LeBron James #ML

MISC:
1992-93 Hoops -- Shaq RC #442
1992-93 Skybox -- Shaq RC #382
1992-93 Stadium Club -- Shaq RC #247
1992-93 Ultra -- Shaq RC #328
1992-93 Ultra -- All-Rookie -- Shaq #7
1992-93 Upper Deck -- Shaq RC #1
1992-93 Upper Deck -- Shaq RC #1B
1992-93 Upper Deck McDonalds -- Shaq RC #43
1992-93 Upper Deck McDonalds -- Orlando -- Shaq RC #5
1994-95 Finest -- Grant Hill RC #240
1994-95 Finest -- Jason Kidd RC #286
2003-04 Topps -- 1st Edition -- Dwyane Wade RC #225
2003-04 Topps Pristine -- Dwyane Wade RC #113

 

[cmcjr99]

2009-10 Topps Gold #123 Kobe Bryant 40.00 100.00

2003-04 Topps Rookie Matrix #JKA LeBron James 111 RC/Chris Kaman 116 RC/Carmelo Anthony 113 RC 25.00 60.00
2009-10 Topps Gold #42 LeBron James 75.00 200.00

1992-93 Topps Gold #141 Michael Jordan 5.00 12.00 (watch this one...highlight subset jumped to 30 with other subsets still at 8)
1997-98 Z-Force Boss #10 Michael Jordan 6.00 15.00
2002-03 Upper Deck Finite Elements Dual Warm-Ups #MJKB Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant 40.00 100.00
2009-10 Upper Deck Game Materials Dual #DGML LeBron James/Michael Jordan 150.00 400.00


i'll try to get back for the rest of these shortly...

 

[Chavezforprez]

Claude -- Thank you for the bv's. Your health is more important than mine, so please concentrate on that. This helped me out greatly.

Thanks,
Billy

 

[cmcjr99]

1992-93 Hoops #442 Shaquille O'Neal RC 3.00 8.00
1992-93 SkyBox #382 Shaquille O'Neal SP RC 3.00 8.00
1992-93 Stadium Club #247 Shaquille O'Neal RC 4.00 10.00
1992-93 Ultra #328 Shaquille O'Neal RC 3.00 8.00
1992-93 Ultra All-Rookies #7 Shaquille O'Neal 4.00 10.00
1992-93 Upper Deck #1 Shaquille O'Neal SP RC/NBA First Draft Pick 12.00 30.00
1992-93 Upper Deck #1B Shaquille O'Neal TRADE 8.00 20.00
1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's #P43 Shaquille O'Neal 1.25 3.00
1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's #OR5 Shaquille O'Neal 4.00 10.00

1994-95 Finest #240 Grant Hill RC 6.00 15.00
1994-95 Finest #286 Jason Kidd RC 6.00 15.00
2003-04 Topps First Edition #225 Dwyane Wade 20.00 50.00
2003-04 Topps Pristine #113 Dwyane Wade C RC 12.00 30.00