Agree it is all about the long game if you are collecting for value. Part of the fun is picking up an ultra-cheap insert for a young player and watching him become a superstar and in 15 years' time at the end of the career either having massive equity in that card value or having a card that is the pride and joy of your collection. For example a Matt Rowell 30th Anniversary Gold Seal going for $1.00 at the moment on eBay. This combines the two investable factors for me. A player with value upside and an insert set common enough to become obscure in the long-term future. More the better if he is also a player you want to collect.It was inevitable, but at the same time this is opportunistic. Build your PC's now, buy your sealed products now, and just play the long game.
I've shifted my focus from buying sealed products to just buying singles I want. I have noticed the slight downturn even for Richmond stock..
I remember when all the card shops closed down in the late 90s.....me and a friend of mine came back from a shop closure with shoppong bags full of $5 NBA boxes....boy did we have some fun!And the cycle continues. Have seen this pattern several times in the trading card market. The early to mid-nineties is a great example. The market went crazy, shops and dealers appeared everywhere and cards were overproduced. Then came the bust and card values dropped, card shops closed down and dealers disappeared. Cards from that era were regarded as having no value. Over time that has changed and some cards from that era, packets, boxes, and singles are in high demand.
The current downturn was inevitable for all of the reasons mentioned in Matt's post above although I do think the downturn will not be as sharp as in the past due to the strong status of the companies producing the product.
I am a NRL and cricket fan and collector. This post encapsulates everything about the ‘business’ and ‘hobby’ right now and for the past 5-10 years.I know I have a different perspective to most people around here, but when I buy cards they need to mean something to me. A milestone card, a medal card, a draft card - they all represent some kind of achievement and a souvenir of the club I follow. In contrast, things such as footy's finest and virtuoso cards are just pretty bits of cardboard - they mean nothing to me (although if people are willing to pay vast sums of money for one, good luck to them).
Both Select and Teamcoach have gone down the path in recent years of creating a ridiculously large number of meaningless bits of cardboard. Multiple layers of parallels of the same players, year after year - change background colour and press print, no effort required; numbered inserts that are otherwise fairly bland and non-descript, and other cards that have been artificially limited to create demand.
Other than signature and memorabilia cards, I don't see how any of these cards can hold their value. There is too many similar concepts, and very few people can afford to buy them all. On this website a new series is released and interest is high for about two weeks, then it is forgotten. Cards aren't selling because sellers want too high prices and there are too few buyers for most of them.
Select lost me last year when All Australian cards, which have generally been $1 - $2 cards, or even part of the base set in earlier years, were suddenly marketed as limited cards. Why would I pay $100+ for one of these, when I could go and buy genuine premiership merchandise and memorabilia for the same price?
Teamcoach have been trending down since the excellent 2020 release. Craft cards were a exciting concept for many people, but now there are twice as many. Three levels of star powers, two levels of B&F cards, three levels of base cards - it's lazy, it's overwhelming and it turns people off.
On ebay if your a Seller it will not let you leave a negative comment about a buyer, which sort of defeats the purpose having feedback in the first placeWhat I find crazy is people wanting supremacy prices for footy stars
What I find annoying is people bidding on auctions with no intent to pay. This has increased significantly this last 3-6 months
It was inevitable, but at the same time this is opportunistic. Build your PC's now, buy your sealed products now, and just play the long game.
I've shifted my focus from buying sealed products to just buying singles I want. I have noticed the slight downturn even for Richmond stock..
skip basketball. returns are not there.I will say I still collect anything and everything but have started collecting unopened boxes and packs too. And if I feel like a break will open some . Even thinking of buying some basketball boxes as the prices in these can be amazing on resale if you have patience and pick the right ones.
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