I'm very curious to learn more about how folks in other countries think about card values. For example: Why would a card of a player as great as Sachin Tendulkar be worth only a dollar? Considering it is his first card distributed in packs (I think) and he is widely considered one of the best cricketers of all time wouldn't it command some sort of premium? Is there just not enough demand in general for cricket cards? Thanks in advance!
Lara, Kohli + Murali First Cards
- Thread starter jamesgwilson91
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First , I think the days of the 96 Futera Tendulkar base card selling for a $1 are long over..... and judging from the past 4 months on Ebay I think the days of finding it for $25 are over as well. Going rate these days are anywhere between $45 - $65 and I think a lot of the variety depends factors in high shipping costs to US. One just sold locally in the US for $61 and then the $40-ish variety appear to be selling in Australia with shipping costs anywhere from $15-$20.
Regardless, if you reference any of my past posts here I wholeheartedly agree with your thesis about the potential for Cricket cards and the upside can potentially be huge. All signs over the past 6 months seem to be pointing in this direction. The 96 Futera set, although readily available now (but quickly disappearing), is still one of the most extremely limited sets and is capstoned with the Tendulkar rookie card from a major manufacturer (17,500 produced in 5,000 boxes) as well as the WCW Tendulkar inserts which only has a count of 2K..... take these numbers and lets use your reference earlier and can you imagine if the 1986 Jordan Fleer only had 17,500 base cards produced instead of the estimated 300,000?! What would that supply constrainment do to the increase in its value?!
Steve from Cardshowcase has essentially the only boxes and cases remaining for sale at this point (Ebay). When the last of those go it will be interesting to see what happens next. This set seems to have landed in the hands of relatively few collectors and store owners but has been rapidly starting to get disseminated to a larger collector base and a market has been forming around this. Tendulkar's fan base is massive and on a scale that dwarfs baseball and if that Indian collector base starts going after then its a rocket ship. His base card is also extremely condition sensitive and nothing above a PSA 8 or SGC 8.5 has been graded up to this point. And to state grading doesnt increase value of a card, recently a PSA 7 Tendulkar base card sold for $250!
Interestingly enough, Topps had a massive hit in India about 10 years ago with their Cricket Attax cards so to some extent a card collecting nation has been formed with a generation of kids over 10 years ago who are now and soon to be consumers longing for the carefree card playing days of their past. Ironically these kids treated these cards in the same manner of the US kids who collected those Mantle cards back in the 1950s - used them in games and beat them up pretty good! Additionally there is also a global maturation occurring with trading cards whereas the US has led the way on this, 3rd party grading companies are popping up everywhere and slowly starting to spread to Non-US markets and collectors and investors are spreading into submarkets they would not have considered 10 years ago or even known about.
Lastly.... The growth of cricket is becoming truly global. The big question is can it get into the US Market in any sizeable or material way and become a major sport? I have a hard time seeing this occur BUT.... there is clearly early evidence it is making progress - there is now a US cricket league about to launch in 2022, and there is a massive market of Indian expats over here who are truly passionate about their sport, the next T20 World Cup will have games played on US soil, and there is the potential for Cricket to be an Olympic sport in the 2028 LA Olympics Another interesting theme is that if you look at the CEOs of some of the largest US tech companies (Google, Microsoft, Twitter, IBM) - they have massive influence in the US and some are also actively involved in perpetuating the game of Cricket here....
So- sorry for my long response here but this has been my frame of thought this year as I do see Cricket Cards undervalued. I believe although there appears to be a bit over oversupply in the market a the moment, I see the demand to continue to increase rapidly
Regardless, if you reference any of my past posts here I wholeheartedly agree with your thesis about the potential for Cricket cards and the upside can potentially be huge. All signs over the past 6 months seem to be pointing in this direction. The 96 Futera set, although readily available now (but quickly disappearing), is still one of the most extremely limited sets and is capstoned with the Tendulkar rookie card from a major manufacturer (17,500 produced in 5,000 boxes) as well as the WCW Tendulkar inserts which only has a count of 2K..... take these numbers and lets use your reference earlier and can you imagine if the 1986 Jordan Fleer only had 17,500 base cards produced instead of the estimated 300,000?! What would that supply constrainment do to the increase in its value?!
Steve from Cardshowcase has essentially the only boxes and cases remaining for sale at this point (Ebay). When the last of those go it will be interesting to see what happens next. This set seems to have landed in the hands of relatively few collectors and store owners but has been rapidly starting to get disseminated to a larger collector base and a market has been forming around this. Tendulkar's fan base is massive and on a scale that dwarfs baseball and if that Indian collector base starts going after then its a rocket ship. His base card is also extremely condition sensitive and nothing above a PSA 8 or SGC 8.5 has been graded up to this point. And to state grading doesnt increase value of a card, recently a PSA 7 Tendulkar base card sold for $250!
Interestingly enough, Topps had a massive hit in India about 10 years ago with their Cricket Attax cards so to some extent a card collecting nation has been formed with a generation of kids over 10 years ago who are now and soon to be consumers longing for the carefree card playing days of their past. Ironically these kids treated these cards in the same manner of the US kids who collected those Mantle cards back in the 1950s - used them in games and beat them up pretty good! Additionally there is also a global maturation occurring with trading cards whereas the US has led the way on this, 3rd party grading companies are popping up everywhere and slowly starting to spread to Non-US markets and collectors and investors are spreading into submarkets they would not have considered 10 years ago or even known about.
Lastly.... The growth of cricket is becoming truly global. The big question is can it get into the US Market in any sizeable or material way and become a major sport? I have a hard time seeing this occur BUT.... there is clearly early evidence it is making progress - there is now a US cricket league about to launch in 2022, and there is a massive market of Indian expats over here who are truly passionate about their sport, the next T20 World Cup will have games played on US soil, and there is the potential for Cricket to be an Olympic sport in the 2028 LA Olympics Another interesting theme is that if you look at the CEOs of some of the largest US tech companies (Google, Microsoft, Twitter, IBM) - they have massive influence in the US and some are also actively involved in perpetuating the game of Cricket here....
So- sorry for my long response here but this has been my frame of thought this year as I do see Cricket Cards undervalued. I believe although there appears to be a bit over oversupply in the market a the moment, I see the demand to continue to increase rapidly
Sal - you should also do well on US exchange rate that will make buying cheaper for you - I did some research a few years ago and discovered that in america there are some 62m people collecitng cards each year and the market is well over $2b but in australia there is estimated to be around 40k collectors and a market of around 300m (but growing). Note your from virginia - i used to live in Colonial Heights just north of Petersburg and close to Fort Lee - loved by time there people friendly -was the first I lived in a place that snowed. Loved to tour the US civil war battle fieldsHello here from one of those damn yanks who is interested in buying your old base cardsI just joined the site after finding this thread. Seems like an awesome community!
Just wanted to provide some context on why folks like me are interested in the early cards of star players. In America sports cards have been huge since the 1980s when the market really took off. Many of our most valuable cards are base cards. 1952 Topps Mickey mantle being a prime example of a card that goes for $20k or more even if it's ripped in half and duck taped back together. Other cards from the set could be bought for a few dollars.
A more modern example is Michael Jordan 1986 fleer. Those boxes were junk when they came out. They sat on the shelf collecting dust. Now those Jordan cards are gold. Mint copies sell for $300,000+ even though more than 20,000 have been submitted to PSA. As such unopened boxes that used to sell for $20 now costs $100,000 (not a typo).
So all that's to say.... I am more than happy to take a risk and pay an inflated price for 1996 Tendulkar cards because I think like an American card collector. Maybe not $50 but $25 or so seems reasonable. I know there is risk in these cards going back down to $1 BUT there is also potential reward down the line.
Just wanted to share another view. Hope this helps.
Sal
I agree entirely but remember Indian potetial market could be larger than US - I appreciate card collecting is relatively new in Inida but with over 1 b people they could dwarf USA with its 350m and 60 odd m collectors - never worry about your long responses as they are so informative and interesting - best wishes
John
zephyr_213
OzCardTrader
I think that the whole 'rookie card' thing is an American phenomena. Being from Australia, I could care less about a Bradman or Tendulkar 'rookie' card. Give me an on card auto any day! Just my 2c.
So cool! I live outside of Richmond, VA about 30 minutes from Colonial Heights. Yes, a lot to like about this area. But I must say living in Melbs for 2 years was one of the best times of my life. Oz is a beautiful country.
Speaking of Oz... Good ole Collingwood forever
zephyr_213
OzCardTrader
HAHA no thanks. My point is that MJ and Kobe and co have signed thousands and thousands of cards. Good luck finding a Tendulkar on card auto...Well, I have a bunch of auto cards of American sports I'd be happy to trade for a pile of your base Tendulkar and Bradmans... And you wouldn't have to feel bad about ripping off a naive yank
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