General Forum

It would seem that good ol' collecting has become outpriced and almost all newer products are focused on investors investing/gambling their money for a "big hit". Luckily some of us are able to still obtain some newer cards in lot purchases that the big breakers dump, but still it sucks to no longer get those 36 pack boxes with 15 cards per pack, some of us still want the pleasure of quantity > quality and build sets not called Big League or Opening Day. Will these companies ever think for those of us who really don't give much of a darn for some over-valued inserts and perhaps create a 99 cent or 1.99 version where the great hits have a much lesser chance of occurring. I guess that may be retail but most of that is kind of over-priced too. Please chime in how this new era of cards has altered the way you collect or buy cards.

I guess for me is that I skip buying packs, and if I am ever tempted I do the math of cost per card to bail on the idea quick. I pick up new cards when I can via trade pretty easily, or buy lots on eBay if I have to. Given the amount of product these days, I focus on older cards to enjoy the nostalgia. If a new card comes my way, great, but there's plenty of opportunities to get them without going the blaster/box route.

Pre-pandemic pricing for my PC (Matt Kenseth in NASCAR) was pretty reasonable. I usually got what I feel to be good deals. Prices have since sky-rocketed making it much more difficult to buy cards for my collection as I am uninterested in paying what I feel to be overpriced, although many people have different terms of value (especially now). I have managed to get some cards here and there, but in lesser quantity than previously. I also collect basketball and almost never find new product to purchase at retail. Even when I do find it, there is higher price tags than I generally feel comfortable with. I think I have only bought about 5 packs of basketball or so since the pandemic started.

I have to buy into a couple of breaks to get my base Saints.  I am also able to trade in for some.  I would love to be able to buy some boxes of bulk cards to bolster my tradelist and possibly get something I need.  I just don't know where to find them.  I was able to find a 3000ct box on Facebook Marketplace, but that is the extent of it.  There are also no card stores in my area.  It would be almost a 150 mile round trip to get to one.  The Target's and Walmart's in my area have had nothing in years.

I still like to build my own sets so some of the newer sets are becoming pretty frustrating. Whether it be manufacturers deliberatly including short prints and serial numbers cards as a portion of the base set or similar issues I've had to change what I consider to be a complete set for my purposes of collecting. With how hard it has been to find cards to open anyway I've turned my attention more towards buying individual cards to complete past sets I have been working on.

It really is kind of crazy to watch on ebay and see how the cards of certain "prospects" are selling at prices higher than established hall of famers. The investment aspect has gotten a bit out of hand. Although with the raising of the prices on many retail products I am seeing more which makes me think it has hurt the flipper market. 

It will be really interesting to see the next few years develop and get a better understanding of Fanatics vision of the card market. I have a feeling most of us will have to make some decisions on what we will be collecting moving forward.

I only buy typically 2-4 boxes of major releases that actually have many cards included. Topps flagship, score, etc. I could care less for blasters with less than 70 cards. If I am paying $20 then I do not want my cost average to be $0.50

I'm a set builder for myself I love helping others I don't collect for money

Personally I collect for the fun of it and the love of sports. My uncle got me into it when i was little and once I started to get into it more my dad started to get into it again (he was into the hobby in his childhood but quit after his mom sold all his cards at a garage sale, including a terry bradshaw rookie but she didn't know that they were worth anything). I look up prices and am glad when i find or pull a card worth money but i'm not into it for the money.

I have not purchased a single sealed product since the 90s.  Luckily my LCS has a pretty large online breaking presence and I am able to pick up modern base cards they don't ship very cheaply.  I've been able to build up a reasonably large inventory of modern cards for trading this way without buying any new product.  

The gambling started with the onslaught of inserts in the 90s.    I saw kids ripping open packs and tossing the cards because there were no inserts.   Basically a legal lottery for kids under the legal age.