Quitting the hobby

One of the problems is the massive disparity between the value of the unopened packs and the cards inside. While packs/boxes have risen 400-500% the cards haven't really jumped anywhere near that much.

Am shifting my focus to other collectables.

Will be interesting to see what price next seasons Hoops start at. I imagine retail will be $4 a pack again but will all be sold in seconds and only available via 3rd party sellers for $40 a pack, if this year is anything to go by.

Pete, I wouldn't sell.
It's all about connection and if you've been collecting for 30 years there's a lot of emotional connection.
Totally understand your frustration - but like anything, it will fade and you should find yourself in a nice spot again.
Remember your 1st car - I wish I never sold mine. Holden HZ loud v8... so many memories..
Right now outside of everything else that's going on - it's our generation's time to spoil ourselves.
15 years ago it was my dad's time and the old Holdens and Fords went through the roof. Now it's cards - what we became attached to when we were kids.
I personally love getting my old folders out and remembering the feeling of pulling that Penny or Shaq card or going into a card shop and looking at the cards I could swap up for.
Forums like this aren't a bad fix either.

I think the attachment atm is financial. It's sad but true and the people that are buying up all boxes and re-selling are just as greedy as the big bad brand. (this came from my 7yr old son when I was showing my old cards to him 2 days ago) If you enjoy coffee so much, why don't you lower the price and sell more? Are cards about enjoying the moment and connection to the hobby or gamblers fix?
When Eb games have to cancel your order because you ordered 10 boxes - that's a clear indicator of cards being a hobby or employment.

I moved from cards to old skool sneakers - (the same thing happened, sneakers have now settled). I have always liked cards so I just hovered around the hobby - so much so that a couple of years ago I purchased some packs from Big W - I think $8 a packet. I got some Luka Prizm rookies and rated rookies. Meant nothing to me, I wanted Ben Simmons....76ers fan. I chucked them in my toolbox at home - there they sat until my mate was going on about how much they worth. I showed him and put them back as I don't have the full set and won't get it anytime soon. I tried to trade but could only get offers to purchase. I assume as investments. I just focus on the players I like coming through atm. Makes it easier for me to stay involved without the frustration.

Wealth is a mindset, relationship and experiences are priceless.

I think it will be very interesting to see how card prices from this season hold up long term given the pack prices as @popang mentions.

If interest in the hobby diminishes in the near future and pack prices return to more "normal" levels in another year or two will the fact cards came from more expensive packs hold any weight?

Will anyone (everyone) still be willing to pay a premium for 2019-20 or 2020-21 cards just because the packs happened to be more expensive in those seasons?

Probably makes sense for me to try and cash in on the non-generational players first, and hang on to the all-time legends a bit longer. There is definitely a massive emotional attachment to the MJs, LBJs, Kobes, etc.
It's definitely something to seriously think about - but it is a first-world problem I'm complaining about hahaha.

I think it's disappointing that Panini or any solitary company has ownership and control of the entire industry. Panini do make some sensational products, however the knowledge that they won't contain an MJ signature as an example is disheartening. The price of high end boxes is quite extraordinary, literally thousands of dollars now. I have been collecting on and off since about 1990. I do miss the variety of the 1990's, Upper Deck, Fleer, Fleer Ultra and Skybox etc. It was nice to have greater variety at more reasonable prices.

Jas55 said:

I think it's disappointing that Panini or any solitary company has ownership and control of the entire industry. Panini do make some sensational products, however the knowledge that they won't contain an MJ signature as an example is disheartening. The price of high end boxes is quite extraordinary, literally thousands of dollars now. I have been collecting on and off since about 1990. I do miss the variety of the 1990's, Upper Deck, Fleer, Fleer Ultra and Skybox etc. It was nice to have greater variety at more reasonable prices.

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Not to rain on a nostalgic parade but by the mid 90s (95?) of those mentioned only Upper Deck was produced by a separate company. All the others were owned by Marvel.

To be even more depressing these days Upper Deck owns all those brands. They also tried to buy Topps about 10-12 years ago but lost out in the bidding.

At the end of the day only you can answer this question as nobody here knows your full circumstances.

And I feel everyone here is getting too bogged down with the current state of the hobby and not looking at the bigger picture which is your end goal. You stated your end game was to sell up in 10 years to fund retirement. If you can sell up now and either reach retirement or fast track it then I think you have your answer. Who cares what the hobby is like right now. It is only a road you are driving down to reach your destination (retirement). Focussing too much on the road (ie state of hobby) seems to be clouding your vision of your final destination (retirement).

Btw, I bought cards off you a decade ago and if I remember correctly you had a pretty kickass mj collection. Should fetch some nice coin in this market.

juxedo said:

And I feel everyone here is getting too bogged down with the current state of the hobby and not looking at the bigger picture

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I think the question everyone has is this the new normal. If the answer is yes, it will limit some people's ability to be involved.

Of course the end game looks better too, but to stay involved many people don't want to move their pc either

juxedo said:

At the end of the day only you can answer this question as nobody here knows your full circumstances.

And I feel everyone here is getting too bogged down with the current state of the hobby and not looking at the bigger picture which is your end goal. You stated your end game was to sell up in 10 years to fund retirement. If you can sell up now and either reach retirement or fast track it then I think you have your answer. Who cares what the hobby is like right now. It is only a road you are driving down to reach your destination (retirement). Focussing too much on the road (ie state of hobby) seems to be clouding your vision of your final destination (retirement).

Btw, I bought cards off you a decade ago and if I remember correctly you had a pretty kickass mj collection. Should fetch some nice coin in this market.

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Lots of good points but I think in the end the state of the market and specifically its sustainability is the over-arching factor.

If you think the market is unsustainable and have enough to reach your retirement goals then you would sell — really you should sell even if you don't have enough potential $ return as you obviously wont get more funds later if you think the market will fall.

However, if you think it is sustainable and you like your collection, why not hold and enjoy it some more? If you hold this view then you would not believe your cards would fall in value and you would also gain intrinsic value/utility through enjoying them for longer.

Just saw this thread and I myself quit collecting for about 10 years (got back into comic collecting during this time), but the hype this year lured me back in. I still had a pretty large PC of superstar auto's and of course my MJ collection.

The theory I've heard and believe is that since COVID and sports stopping there was nothing for punters to gamble on. Trading cards seemed to just take it's place and ppl started "gambling" on sealed boxes pushing the prices right up trying to pull the next big Zion/Ja card. Also Kobe's death spiked hunting of his auto's which the last non redemption auto's seem to be in 19-20 Hoops product bumping that price up. It's pretty funny as I was able to get a Retail box of Hoops for $100 and busted it and thought to myself, "what a steaming pile of turd that was". They had a second box and now I regret not buying it, lol.

Every time I think the bottom is going to fall out, it just doesn't and prices seem to bump up again.

If you're felling jaded by the hobby, I think now is probably a good time to reduce your collection to a degree, keeping your nicer and more sentimental items. This could be the best time to cash in. Gotta admit I was pretty shocked at how much some base Lebron/Kobes were selling for at times that I prob wouldn't have been able to give away a year ago. It also makes me sick that I can search threads on here that show how much I sold some Lebron rookies for at times. :'(

Ja$e said:

Just saw this thread and I myself quit collecting for about 10 years (got back into comic collecting during this time), but the hype this year lured me back in. I still had a pretty large PC of superstar auto's and of course my MJ collection.

The theory I've heard and believe is that since COVID and sports stopping there was nothing for punters to gamble on. Trading cards seemed to just take it's place and ppl started "gambling" on sealed boxes pushing the prices right up trying to pull the next big Zion/Ja card. Also Kobe's death spiked hunting of his auto's which the last non redemption auto's seem to be in 19-20 Hoops product bumping that price up. It's pretty funny as I was able to get a Retail box of Hoops for $100 and busted it and thought to myself, "what a steaming pile of turd that was". They had a second box and now I regret not buying it, lol.

Every time I think the bottom is going to fall out, it just doesn't and prices seem to bump up again.

If you're felling jaded by the hobby, I think now is probably a good time to reduce your collection to a degree, keeping your nicer and more sentimental items. This could be the best time to cash in. Gotta admit I was pretty shocked at how much some base Lebron/Kobes were selling for at times that I prob wouldn't have been able to give away a year ago. It also makes me sick that I can search threads on here that show how much I sold some Lebron rookies for at times. :'(

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i don’t search old sale threads anymore lol
also deleted any old pics of cards I had so I dont get depressed

It was a complete accident searching for something else lol! I'm pretty happy though that I kept a lot of stuff. Some auto's I picked up for $30 odd bucks seem to be selling now for $200+!

Ja$e said:

It's pretty funny as I was able to get a Retail box of Hoops for $100 and busted it and thought to myself, "what a steaming pile of turd that was". They had a second box and now I regret not buying it, lol.

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This 100%. I bought one box back in January for about $200 NZD. Didn't hit a Zion RC so maybe got $20 worth of cards from it. Didn't really care as that is how most of my box breaks go, but, then when you see boxes for sale for $500 a few months later you just laugh.

Yep, that Cody Martin (or was it Caleb) auto is really going to earn you all those $ back!

Cody Martin is not bad, it's when you get a guy noones ever heard of is when Panini is taking the piss.

That is kind of my point. He was at least drafted.

But, is that card (given I was shorted the other auto) going to earn you back the $500 you had to shell out to buy a box by the end?

How many cards could you pull from Hoops that are genuinely worth more than $20?

Yeah, in the famous words of Scribe, "Not many, if any".

Ja$e said:

Yeah, in the famous words of Scribe, "Not many, if any".

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Well I did a quick count and given all the parallels there are 59 Williamson's in there...

So maybe there are a few!

But, really is anyone out there going "must... get... all... red... back... parallels..."?

Man alive are there some crap parallels in there! Almost makes Prizm look tame.