The Future of AFL Card Collecting
- Thread starter banana
- Start date
As a collector, I've enjoyed seeing my collection add some sick looking cards over the last few years.
In terms of the market, there's definitely a cooling off, secondary prices for cards fall very quickly after release, which suggests to me a smaller number of big collectors and/or a saturated market (in a commercial sense). It's very much a 2 speed economy though. As a Carlton supporter I know I can't get master sets because I'm not prepared to drop an extra 10k a year on the high end ones I don't hit one way or another. I've got a mate who collects Freo though and he gets insane value for the cards he's chasing.
I think a lot of people are just turning to breaks to cut the risk of being burned on bad boxes and dipping resale values (and also there is a gambling element here). I find the emergence of repacks as a red flag. I see these as stores/outlets with stock they can't move (as it's overpriced) turning these into prizes in a game and making a cheeky profit on stuff they can't move (and presumably don't see long term value in holding). Maybe I'm ignorant and cynical on this though.
Grading is slowly gaining traction in my observation, listings on ebay for CGA graded cards has roughly 5x in the last couple of years. Though I am often bemused by the cards people choose to grade and put up for sale.
I think we'll probably have a churn of people coming in and out, but I think like most other card markets, the focus in on the immediate. It's insane to me that in the NFL a Joe Montana auto is worth less than a Bo Nix. I've seen a few Dusty collections come up for sale, at what appear to be a fraction of the 2022 prices they sold for.
In terms of the market, there's definitely a cooling off, secondary prices for cards fall very quickly after release, which suggests to me a smaller number of big collectors and/or a saturated market (in a commercial sense). It's very much a 2 speed economy though. As a Carlton supporter I know I can't get master sets because I'm not prepared to drop an extra 10k a year on the high end ones I don't hit one way or another. I've got a mate who collects Freo though and he gets insane value for the cards he's chasing.
I think a lot of people are just turning to breaks to cut the risk of being burned on bad boxes and dipping resale values (and also there is a gambling element here). I find the emergence of repacks as a red flag. I see these as stores/outlets with stock they can't move (as it's overpriced) turning these into prizes in a game and making a cheeky profit on stuff they can't move (and presumably don't see long term value in holding). Maybe I'm ignorant and cynical on this though.
Grading is slowly gaining traction in my observation, listings on ebay for CGA graded cards has roughly 5x in the last couple of years. Though I am often bemused by the cards people choose to grade and put up for sale.
I think we'll probably have a churn of people coming in and out, but I think like most other card markets, the focus in on the immediate. It's insane to me that in the NFL a Joe Montana auto is worth less than a Bo Nix. I've seen a few Dusty collections come up for sale, at what appear to be a fraction of the 2022 prices they sold for.
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