State of the Hobby

SharpysSports · Apr 18, 2023

I've been picking up the odd thing here and there. It is nice to have prices back where they should be. I was able to pick up a Paul George PSA 9 Absolute Green #/5 for $12.50 US!

The problem I've got is I like a coloured rainbow chase and Panini just keep increasing the number of parallels. Makes me not want to even bother starting the chase...

I sold a lot of stuff a few months ago but this was purely to fund a holiday for the family. Since then I have listed a lot for sale on MERQARY but it is all $1 or less so not really moving.

GarnettFan4Life · Apr 21, 2023

SharpysSports said:
I've been picking up the odd thing here and there. It is nice to have prices back where they should be. I was able to pick up a Paul George PSA 9 Absolute Green #/5 for $12.50 US!

The problem I've got is I like a coloured rainbow chase and Panini just keep increasing the number of parallels. Makes me not want to even bother starting the chase...

I sold a lot of stuff a few months ago but this was purely to fund a holiday for the family. Since then I have listed a lot for sale on MERQARY but it is all $1 or less so not really moving.

Wish I could find some PSA9 /5 KG for that price!

I am getting some nicer priced stuff but wouldn’t mind another little bit of a drop

Iron Clad Lou · Apr 21, 2023

SharpysSports said:
I've been picking up the odd thing here and there. It is nice to have prices back where they should be. I was able to pick up a Paul George PSA 9 Absolute Green #/5 for $12.50 US!

The problem I've got is I like a coloured rainbow chase and Panini just keep increasing the number of parallels. Makes me not want to even bother starting the chase...

I sold a lot of stuff a few months ago but this was purely to fund a holiday for the family. Since then I have listed a lot for sale on MERQARY but it is all $1 or less so not really moving.

Overpaid on that PG

1980bust · Apr 22, 2023

Zion One and One black 1/1 PSA 10 sold for $28.8k USD yesterday.

Just unbelievable - I knew prices were dropping like a rock, and Zion probably even more so, but that is just ridiculously low.

That said, this is still an amazing time to buy for the PC.

Billyhoyle · Apr 23, 2023

1980bust said:
Zion One and One black 1/1 PSA 10 sold for $28.8k USD yesterday.

Just unbelievable - I knew prices were dropping like a rock, and Zion probably even more so, but that is just ridiculously low.

That said, this is still an amazing time to buy for the PC.

speaking of the rock

1980bust · Apr 25, 2023

Billyhoyle said:
speaking of the rock

That's actually mental.

I've been looking at the WWE flashback gold prizm autos lately, and the prices are sooooo expensive.

Got sent a 57% off offer on a gold Stone Cold auto for $1500 USD

SharpysSports · May 13, 2023

Who else is feeling a little overwhelmed with the hobby at the moment.

I remember the days when the first thing I’d do when I woke up was check eBay for PG cards.

Now I just can’t be bothered and whenever I do scroll through the 2500+ cards all I see is another 50 parallels I haven’t got or 50 new inserts I didn’t even know had been released in amongst 2000 base cards for sale….

I think we’re paying for it big time right now thanks to the spike in the hobby and the licence going to a new home. Panini are over producing cards trying to make as much money before they lose they licence but it’s killing my enjoyment in the hobby and fanatics may never see a cent out of me because of this.

I might go collect NRL or Pokémon cards because being a player collector in basketball just doesn’t bring me any joy anymore.

How does Fanatics fix this?

Iron Clad Lou · May 13, 2023

Fanatics won't want to fix it. They will just ramp up production. 100 variations per variation

GarnettFan4Life · May 13, 2023

@Billyhoyle can you bump that old super collector thread you had - I’m thinking up something to try to get to fanatics

SharpysSports · May 13, 2023

Iron Clad Lou said:
Fanatics won't want to fix it. They will just ramp up production. 100 variations per variation

Surely they’ll want to fix it. I won’t be around if they’re just going to ramp it up further. Without player collectors, who are the guys who go in box breaks or bust their own boxes going to sell to? This drops the interest in breaking boxes which means less product being bought. Less product being bought by guys who bust means Fanatics will need to drop prices to sell product.

Ultimately player/set collectors are the ones who set the value of the overall hobby. If we all leave, 99% of the cards produced are worthless and the 1% of cards worth anything have already been produced (90’s cards).

Just my thoughts…

1980bust · May 13, 2023

The reality is, it's hard to see any card-producing company going down the purist route as opposed to the profit route. If Fanatics goes even further down the endless parallel rabbit hole, it just means that the big hits become harder to find, and more of a rush for the gamblers that hoard and group break product. Which is - let's be honest - who these companies are aiming for.

As for enjoying the hobby, I just stick to what I want and like, and ignore all the noise around everything else. Everywhere you look there's people panicking about prices dropping, or talking about their single card worth $5k, $10k or more. It's a sentiment contagion - they're all (rightly or wrongly) feeding into each other's worry and negativity and actually creating more of this doomsday scenario they're worried about.

No matter what's going on, there's always a way to enjoy the hobby in your own way. So that's what I just keep doing while everything seems to keep burning around me

GarnettFan4Life · May 13, 2023

Positive point for me here -

The junk slab era brought out HEAPS of old Kevin Garnett stuff that was stuck away in boxes - a bunch got graded and then slid in with all the other stuff on ebay. So you've got your 400,000 Ja Morant cards trying to be sold, some of those received PSA 6,7,8's etc. Pop 2000 on some of that. Some of the Garnett stuff got PSA 6,7,8's - Pop 10 on those. Can safely say now that they will remain a fairly low pop for all time now considering if that price jump didn't make people want to sell them then we can assume there's no more to pop up to be graded ever again.

Makes sens to me anyway. I've found it to be great.

And you have to HYPER FOCUS at the moment @SharpysSports - there's TOO much out there to go for it all. For me I've basically gone down to RC year stuff and jersey numbered Celtics and maybe Gold/HoF related stuff. Screw all those parallels.

GarnettFan4Life · May 13, 2023

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37616332/bill-russell-rookie-card-1957-sells-660000

Iron Clad Lou · May 15, 2023

Noticing that hobby boxes, especially at a big place, are starting to take a bit of a dive.

Not at areas I would be comfortable paying, but down a bit.

Iron Clad Lou · Jun 23, 2023

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.c...pPmpSvZWai1cibSqm9w-792RlHfcQ&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Very interesting.

A certain fruity retailer here in Melbourne was having lots of Topps supply issues, with breaks taking months to finally get broken. I wonder if this was an effect on them, and the reason why they opened up a couple of stores with space to "break:

SharpysSports · Jun 23, 2023

Reading this short section of the 6 page contract makes me think that Fanatics/Topps are trying to do the right thing by the hobby. I can see what they're trying to stamp out and I actually think it will go a long way to keeping the box prices down.

I'm sure there will be a similar contract and agreement in place for those who want to break online however I can see Topps/Fanatics setting the break prices and if anyone doesn't follow these rules then they will not be allocated any more product.

I wonder if the certain fruity retailer you mention is concerned about losing the exclusive agreement they allegedly have with Panini which means a hit to their bottom line...

GarnettFan4Life · Jun 24, 2023

I don’t think they care - How much money would you need to have, or lack of care for people in the hobby to not even give a courtesy yes or no reply to a $7000 trade proposal? I know I’d at least say yes, no, counter.

TAB1980 · Jun 24, 2023

For those of you who might be interested, my local Games World has dropped their price of last year's Chronicles Hangers from a totally ridiculous $45 to a very respectable $15!

Iron Clad Lou · Jun 24, 2023

TAB1980 said:
For those of you who might be interested, my local Games World has dropped their price of last year's Chronicles Hangers from a totally ridiculous $45 to a very respectable $15!

Cheers mate just grabbed a couple

TAB1980 · Jun 24, 2023

Iron Clad Lou said:
Cheers mate just grabbed a couple

I bought 5! I'll do a battle with that vs an Optic Blaster ($75 vs $75) probably tonight in the box break forum.

The Optic Blaster should have no chance of winning this!

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