General Forum

I just watched a video of 2020 Contender Draft Picks Football box opening.  For $320, he got 6 Sticker Autos of nobody special and one mahomes parallel SN to 99.  I usually buy a box of Score to put together a large set that doesn't have a factory box set.  There is no way I'm paying $200 for a box of Score.  I wanted to buy Illusions last year and couldn't afford it.  The box breakers and subscription boxes are what is driving this inflation.  That and the morons buying slabbed cards for 10 times what they are worth.   

Somedays I wonder why I collect.  Then I remember the collection is for me to enjoy.  I focus on what I like and what I can afford and I don't worry about what others are doing.  It gets hard when the prices of the cards I want get out of reach because of the actions of the card producers or other collectors.  So then I have to refocus and find something else to collect.  It's constant calibration and re-calibration.

The hobby is getting insane again - reminds me very much of what happened in the late 80s - except the shiny toys now are different.  But it's the same concepts.  Refocus and recalibrate...

It's the Junk Insert Era. Sure, the number of printed cards overall Is much lower, but so diluted with the number of releases.

If baseball cancels the season Will the hobby go through what happened un 94?

I understand what you are coming from. I'm a set builder at heart. That is what I always focused on for the first 25-to-28 years I was in the hobby...but it's impossible to do sets these days. They are either too small, or they simply don't exist. Particularly in the NBA, there is only one halfway decent set each year, and it's missing so many players. The largest set of the year is only 300 cards, in a 525 man league. 

Most of the other actual sets have been dropped to make way for memorabilia delivery systems. You can't collect a set where you can expect to get maybe one or two of the cards in a $200 for 6 card box. 

What I've done is changed my focus to trying to get at least one card of every person to ever get one in my three sports. It's so much more rewarding to find some obscure player you've been chasing than to get the 1251st card of Michael Jordan. (for example). 

I will still complete sets if I can, but going forward (and for the past couple of years) it will be all about building the encyclopedia of people. I added 4 NBA and 2 missing NASCAR people in the last week and it's a big thill. 2 of the NBA players, it was their only career-issued cards. 

I am amazed at the price-point for most packs/boxes nowadays. The high-end stuff you pay hundreds of dollars for minimal potential at getting a huge hit. Everything on the sedondary market is way overpriced because people weren't lucky, and are trying to regain their lost money. Like bpaul14 said, just collect what you want and adjust accordingly.

I know what you are saying ravensray. I got back into collecting 6 or 7 years ago and was buying new retail but it is so expensive to collect. I think I have finally found my niche. I buy collections locally and I have also been focusing on some of the junk era stuff I never got around to finishing. Also, a lot of those expensive early 90's inserts are really cheap now so I actually have hope to complete those sets now.

As others said figure out your budget and what fits into that and you can still find enjoyment in the hobby.

This came on my newsfeed this past week and I just shook my head. Baseball cards - what most of us have and pursue come nowhere near to a fortune. Oh, I'm sure that replacing them would cost quite a bit, but honestly, to look at cards as an investment is exactly what happened to the industry previously and soured many. Will history repeat itself? Probably, because that's what we do.

So as someone said, "calibrate...re-calibrate" and establish your purpose and passion in the hobby.

I was on offer up and let go looking at cards just not worth what they are asking i got much better deals when i bought from here

I feel the same way.  The frustration has set in. The cost of commons and non-SN parrallels are just out of sight.   People asking $1 or two for them just to make up what they paid for the boxes

Articles such as this one that Joshua linked to is another problem.  Readers read this and think, "Hey I have some of those Jordans and Jeters, and even some of those 1987 Topps Canseco RC.  Really, the price has plummetted to $32.99?  Any one who want sto pay me half of that, I will gladly mail them all I have.

For as long as people think they can make money in buying and selling cards, the ridiculous prices will continue.  But there will be a day when "mother" is selling a box full of sports card at her garage sale for $5 just to clean up Junior's room when he left for college.