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SydneyOrient

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Hello all as someone who liked to collect basketball cards as a kid to now reading about how people use cards as investment pieces it got me thinking, how do people determine which player/s to 'collect' and put aside, I imagine you want to buy the players cards before he takes off so how do you determine which player's cards will be worth money in years to come?

The next question is once you have decided which player/s to target what cards are you looking for? Jersey? Auto? Rookie? A combination of all three?
 
I'm sure someone with the time could write a thesis on this.

Long term - Multi championship winning stars. (I'm interested to see what Curry does over the next few years)

Short term - Flip a coin, pick a player, roll the dice, go to the casino, cross you fingers that you picked good. Then sell at the right time.

Best option - Treat this as a hobby. Pick a player you like from you favorite team and collect the cards you want. If you luck out (ie Giannis) then congratulations, but if you don't (like most people) then it has more personal feels to it and you will enjoy the collecting side rather than the lost value.
 
I try to stick to playmakers and guys that demand the ball - Devonte Graham is the perfect example.

Ideally you want to try and hit guys on big market teams - In saying that I'd avoid the Knicks at all costs, they're too messed up and too much risk of a trade.

Also, try not to follow the trend as you'll always be overpaying. For example, I think RJ can be great but he was overpriced to begin with because of his draft position and hype, I went with Herro and Hachimura as their hype wasn't so big to start with and I still think they're extremely undervalued!
 
To the OP, Delly summed it up perfectly. Treat this as a hobby. If you want to invest then cards is not the way to do it. Most of what you see now is not investing. I would call it more gambling. There is a very limited number of cards I would classify as investment grade. At the risk of being burnt by fellow forum members, I would even go as far as saying there are zero panini products that are investment grade. Not yet anyway.
 
juxedo said:
To the OP, Delly summed it up perfectly. Treat this as a hobby. If you want to invest then cards is not the way to do it. Most of what you see now is not investing. I would call it more gambling. There is a very limited number of cards I would classify as investment grade. At the risk of being burnt by fellow forum members, I would even go as far as saying there are zero panini products that are investment grade. Not yet anyway.
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That,s very close to what i said to Reid.Enjoy the cards while you can.Because when your as old as i am,you sit back and say why did i pay that much,and it,s only worth that much.It,s a huge gamble,and way to many releases from panini.
 
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Paul_Ambrey said:
That,s very close to what i said to Reid.Enjoy the cards while can.Because when your as old as i am,you sit back and say why did i pay that much,and it,s only worth that much.It,s a huge gamble,and way to many releases from panini.
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Exactly, that's why I mentioned zero panini products are investment grade. They are making the same mistakes as upper-deck did back in the 90's. It's as simple as Supply and Demand. Not gonna end well and the only ones that are gonna come out on top are the 1%ers and Panini.
 
as others have said, cards are to volatile a market to invest in. player popularity can be fickle and the masses change their minds on a whim.
look at the cards you had growing up. how many of them have even held their value? most probably went down significantly?
even the high-high-end products are pants for holding value.
 
Pick some “safe” cards to have and some “potential” ones.

Jordan, Lebron, Kobe = safe.
RC’s and players in first couple years in league = potential

Have fun with it, enjoy the games and the moments like Linsanity and go along for the ride. If you have some disposable funds locked up in MJ’s and the like then the rest is a free roll.
 
GarnettFan4Life said:
Pick some “safe” cards to have and some “potential” ones.

Jordan, Lebron, Kobe = safe.
RC’s and players in first couple years in league = potential

Have fun with it, enjoy the games and the moments like Linsanity and go along for the ride. If you have some disposable funds locked up in MJ’s and the like then the rest is a free roll.
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Thank you for that, makes alot of sense as does what every one else has said,

When looking at kobe LeBron etc's cards are you talking about their rookie cards or is it a bit more in depth then that?
 
SydneyOrient said:
Thank you for that, makes alot of sense as does what every one else has said,

When looking at kobe LeBron etc's cards are you talking about their rookie cards or is it a bit more in depth then that?
Click to expand...

Always about the RC's. That's probably the best way to go IMO.
Also a lot into 90's inserts, some graded stuff. But once you get to this stage you have to do a lot of research and market watching too so you don't get caught up in the hype or a lot of the card pumping and dumping that seems to go on now and then.
 
Another newbie and another question....

Cards are so overpriced on Ebay when coming from an Aussie location.

I've been using 130point to price cards and pretty much everything is at least double what they are selling for in the US.

Any sites recommended for US sellers with decent postage...?

Obviously postage on Ebay sellers from the US is huge too.
 
There is no way to predict how the hobby will shake out long term. As a long term investment I don't like it one bit. You might be one generation away from having very few people interested in bits of cardboard.

I think there will always be some interest there purely from a collecting point of view, however, as a general rule the overwhelming majority of cards will drop in value long term. If you pull something big, the safe play is to sell fast.
 
If I were to invest in a basketball card I'd get the best graded Michael Jordan 86-87 Fleer that I could afford. Then an RC of LeBron. Those are the only two I'd be looking at - especially Jordan.
 
Thanks mate, have signed up and had my first card shipped there.
So far so good.

The ebay bots on Aus listing are killing me!
 
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