Over the last year, coinciding with the timeline of the pandemic, the sports card hobby has seen an incredible rise in popularity.
The demand has affected everything from record breaking card prices to consumers waiting overnight to shop at Target and Walmart for new boxes of cards.
This dude bought a '52 Mickey Mantle for, you guessed it, $5.2 million
One of the most popular grading companies, Professional Sports Authenticator, announced the immediate suspension of nearly all card grading services because of the influx of submissions. On March 30th, buried under a multi-million card backlog, PSA temporarily halted 98% of their business for 4-6 months.
Another card company, SGC raised their grading costs from $25 to $75 per card. There are also new players in the industry, like HGA, CGC, and CSG, among others trying to take advantage of the lucrative business.
It's not just vintage baseball cards either. Some highly sought after new cards are fetching 7 figures. Basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, boxing and non-sports related cards like Pokemon have risen in popularity.
With all that said, it seems like the market is starting to correct itself. My friend owns a 1996 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie, PSA 9. Two months this card was fetching close to $100,000. Now it's selling for closer to $40,000.
I am one of the many that sold most of their card collections when they were younger. My biggest regret, I owned a beautiful copy of this card when I was in college but sold it off to get out of a sports gambling debt (pathetically cliche).
I didn't sell them all, saving some of my favorite cards from when I was growing up: Sayers; Aaron; Clemente; Gretzy rookie.
I had a renewed interest when I found out my wife was having a boy. I started collecting again about 14 years ago, to include: Jeter; Sanders; Curry.
What's card collecting looking like at 2p2. Do any of you currently collect? Any good or bad stories? Do you have photos to share? Is the market sustainable?
What's the deal with baseball cards?
Last edited by kevstreet; 04-16-2021 at 03:12 PM.