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?

I had an uncle who was a sports card dealer during the boom in the 80s and 90s. He died and had a shed full of unopened cases of cards. I got a couple cases and they just say in my garage for a few years. Pre pandemic, the cases would sell for around $200 each. I just sold both cases a month or two ago for $3000.

All my individual cards from when I was a kid are in garbage condition and are mostly cards everyone has. About 15 years ago, my buddy and I decided to start getting into baseball cards again after finding out Allen & Ginter (amongst others) have cards with pieces of bats, jerseys, and autographs in them now. I find those to be a lot more interesting than plain cardboard. So I have some boxes of those in my garage now. Might have a Trout rookie floating around somewhere.

Allen & Ginter also has some specialty cards with pieces of clothing worn by WSOP Main Event winners. Nobody collects those so they’re cheap on eBay. I bought a few different ones of those just to hold onto. Kinda neat to have my little half inch by half inch swatch of John Cynn’s sweater from his Main Event win. I also have a piece of Scott Blumstein’s shirt and I think of Ryan Riess’ shirt. Oh and Tony Dunst.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/3...baseball+cards


In before some idiot sings the praises of NFTs as the next thing.

Ok, I waited initially.

You "found out my wife was having a boy," just random phrasing, or ...? That's some Robert Kraft **** bro.

I’m not sure I understand. When my wife was pregnant we had a sonogram (boy). I didn’t think a girl would be interested in baseball cards, however, having a boy I thought it would be a neat thing to share with someday and I’m happy I did. What am I missing?

I’m not down with NFTs either. I don’t understand it.

You should learn more about NFTs.

I lived in Ellicott City, MD in the early 90s.

I remember going to a baseball card show at the Columbia Mall in 1991. My dad paid a dollar for me to roll three dice. Top prize was rolling 3 ones. First roll 3 ones. Cal Ripken Jr rookie card was mine. I was in 5th grade.

Never had a bigger rush in gambling since.

Baseball cards rule.

It’s all a tool to get people to spend more.

Yes it is.

NFTs tho

There are some really valuable Allen and Ginter cards. One $750 rookie card, everyone knows the rules.

Man, i loved collecting baseball cards in the 80s. I sold all my stuff in early 90s to buy a motorcycle. Ricky Henderson was my favorite player and I would go to card shows and try and get any type of card, I always wanted his Granny Goose card but never found it or had enough money to buy it since I was about 10 years old.

I started to get into it again awhile back but quit bc I was never going to look at the cards or sets i bought. I wanted to get the 1975 topps set. All those styles are pretty sweet from about 1986 and older. Topps, fleet, donruss.

I feel the same way about about anything pre-85 era, maybe more towards pre-1980.

You can get the ‘82 Granny Goose for about $100.

I still have a book filled with Rickey Hendersons.

Nostalgia markets are inherently cyclical and I don't know if there was a direct correlation to being cooped up, but it does seem like a lot of people, Americans in particular, want to spend money on SOMETHING. Sports cards, Magic cards, Pokemon, FaB...it all spiked pretty hard the last few months.

The grading companies temporarily suspending is pretty telling that the top end of the "recent" market is going to be restricted to highly graded cards, though, so I think it's still best just to enjoy what you enjoy and don't really think about it like an investment.

--

ETA: Oh man, Granny Goose. I don't remember of those cards came in bags of chips or if they were a giveaway at the park (maybe both?) Reminds of something I'd mentioned on an earlier collectible thread: Back in the 70's, there was a series of RC Cola cans with players on them. No way was my dad going to allow a big stack of empty soda cans to accumulate, attract ants, etc, so he busted out the tin snips and I had the most dangerous stack of baseball cards ever

@offtopic... Good stuff, I don’t remember the RC cans (really cool). I have an ungraded second year Munson. It’s not perfect but I always loved this card.

I was born in '67. My friends and I started getting baseball cards in '72. In 1975, my mother threw out all of my cards because like most 8 year old boys I was not the neatest and they were all over the place. I have shoeboxes full of cards in mint condition from 1976 forward through the early 1980s. Each box full of cards is worth bupkis, as 1975 was the last year before they changed production or something that made subsequent cards worth much less. Meanwhile my friends have binders full of cards like Mike Schmidt rookies.

@Niss
The Murray, Molitor/Trammel, Henderson rookie cards are all nice... you have them?

Yes, I have them all, multiples. If I recall correctly, the only one that had a value that rivaled what my friends all have is Rickey Henderson.

I bought a case of 1989 Upper Deck High Number foil boxes in 1989 for $700 from a coworker's brother in law who was one of the few card shop owners that could buy them directly from UD. Two weeks later he offered to buy it back for $900, then a couple weeks later he offered $1100. They were in such demand and the market was that hot. Figured I would hold forever since I now owned something that was going to the moon.

About a year later the cases was going for about $4,000, then dropped to not too much more than I paid for it for years. I need to get it out of storage and finally sell it as it has gone back up recently to 4 or 5 K.

so now I have to go thru all my baseball, football and basketball cards?

jesus, I had resigned them to the bottom drawer and conveniently tried to forget about them.

are Lou Alcindor, Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain rookie cards worth anything?

Just a little..

I was wondering if finding valuable cards at a garage or estate sale is a thing of the past and that everyone is now aware. Like the 2011 post that was linked above, if anything people over value their collections now.

I was going to ask with who?

Almost every card from the 80s/90s/Aughties is worthless. Unless of course it a signed piece of John Cynn's or Scott Blumstein's sweatshirt trading card.


Dig out your old video games, and keep them in working order instead. Feel free to put your 1993 Fleer Flairs on your bike spokes.

Nope. All trash. Give them to me and I’ll recycle them for you.

They aren’t signed