What's Going On With Prices For Cards?

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craxz

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I'm slowly getting back into the hobby. I guess members here were right. You never leave...

I have been checking out prices on ebay for players and I am finding cards that would sell for $250+ are now selling for $100 or even less...

Is it the economy, too much choice, or are collectors not paying as much?

I would like to hear some inputs.
 
I imagine the exchange rate has a lot to do with it. Paying 25-30% more on a card certainly hurts a bit.
 
I'll go with "all of the above". I know I'm a lot pickier with what I pick up. There's so much out there and my pockets aren't infinitly deep.

Makes for some simple economic choices.
 
Nothing really changes. It's all about supply and demand and the flavour of the week. It depends on which cards your looking at. Rookie cards are more volatile unless you're looking at HOF'ers. Certain sets get hot and then if the card companies make the same sets over and over each year then those sets seem to suffer more than innovative sets that capture collector's attention and aren't duplicated on a yearly basis. See the Cup and look at Limited Logos, Enshrinements, etc... Each year they come out they sell for less and less because there's 50 more of each player added into the mix...

craxz said:
I'm slowly getting back into the hobby. I guess members here were right. You never leave...

I have been checking out prices on ebay for players and I am finding cards that would sell for $250+ are now selling for $100 or even less...

Is it the economy, too much choice, or are collectors not paying as much?

I would like to hear some inputs.
Click to expand...
 
craxz said:
I'm slowly getting back into the hobby. I guess members here were right. You never leave...

I have been checking out prices on ebay for players and I am finding cards that would sell for $250+ are now selling for $100 or even less...

Is it the economy, too much choice, or are collectors not paying as much?

I would like to hear some inputs.
Click to expand...

Case breaking or group breaks (although this seems to be more prevalent in baseball) means that more cards are available that maybe weren't in the past. I'm talking about lower numbered cards, SP's, etc. Prices reflect that. I also feel like we've reached a point where there are just too many options. People are more selective in what they want because honestly both Panini and UD pump out so much crap that it all looks similar anymore year to year.
 
There are very few cards that sell for $250 or over.... a very very tiny amount relative to all other cards. So which ones are you referring to?
 
Burner said:
There are very few cards that sell for $250 or over.... a very very tiny amount relative to all other cards. So which ones are you referring to?
Click to expand...

Now or just a year ago?

From what I noticed Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Ovechking, Crosby, Selanne, etc etc cards, whether be patches or auto have dropped a lot.

Could age group also influence these sales?
 
craxz said:
Now or just a year ago?

From what I noticed Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Ovechking, Crosby, Selanne, etc etc cards, whether be patches or auto have dropped a lot.

Could age group also influence these sales?
Click to expand...

*Over Production
*Repetition
*Economy
*Exchange Rate
*Headaches and cost of trying to sell online
*Case breakers or online dealers liquidating inventory

All these things and more drive down card values.
 
It is not so much the exchange rate (a known factor when I bid), but the "Import Charges" and "Global Shipping Fees" that now apply to so many items.
 
For me, lately...

A card that I would normally hit a 29.99 BIN, I have to seriously look at now.

One the other day: 29.99 + 4.50 = 34.49, from a Canadian seller. 43.25ish once exchange is factored. No thanks.
 
Not to hijack the thread although I wonder if it plays a part in pricing but are you guys in Canada seeing an increase in US sellers who won't ship outside the US? Seems like there are a lot more "Need help from a US member" threads lately.
 
Kyle said:
Not to hijack the thread although I wonder if it plays a part in pricing but are you guys in Canada seeing an increase in US sellers who won't ship outside the US? Seems like there are a lot more "Need help from a US member" threads lately.
Click to expand...

It's not necessarily "won't ship outside the US", it's the sellers who will only ship using the Global Shipping Program, not realizing that it's an utter scam that is seriously (and I mean SERIOUSLY) hurting their business.
 
Even the USPS change last year to $7/first class was a serious dent.

Have I mentioned lately how immensely grateful I am to Drama for gathering all this crap and drop-shipping to me once every month or so? It's saving me HUNDREDS in postage.
 
The supply of wax(being broken) far outweighs the demand for singles from the wax and has since 05-06. Group breakers and large volume breakers have brought it so far out of line that prices for singles simply could not hold. Until that aspect of the market corrects there is no way out.

Darren
 
One thing that I have noticed in recent years is polarization.

It's all in or nothing at all these days, it seems.

People will still pay a premium for the premium players, but the middle-of-the-road guys are consistently dwindling downward. It's almost criminal how much I can get away with buying some Brendan Gallagher cards compared to those of his fellow Double Rookie Class comrade Alex Galchenyuk.

But that tangent aside, it's pretty much all of what you touched on that is causing most prices to come down. In 2012 there were X autograph cards of Sidney Crosby. In 2015 there's X plus 3 years' worth of autograph cards of Sidney Crosby. A quick reference check reveals that today there are 759 autographed cards of him on the market. Going back to 2010-11, this is the year-by-year breakdown:

2010-11: 109
2011-12: 112
2012-13: 56
2013-14: 84

I don't have current figures for 2014-15 (to date) but that's a pretty significant explosion of content. Standard market economy rules apply.
 
I think mass production of low numbered card are the biggest cause of price going down. When cards /100 were what was considered limited. I could save up enough to eventually have a shot at a complete PC of my player other than 1/1s. When every set coming out with cards /10 or less I accepted I couldn't get everything. I became more selective and it doesn't matter how common or rare a card is anymore. It's all about design and price. Ugly and cheap Or expensive and nice design I pass. I am all in on middle of the road stuff. But that makes one less person on all the other cards. I am sure the last few years have changed other people's views of collecting. Similar to how it has changed mine.
 
quincy said:
Even the USPS change last year to $7/first class was a serious dent.

Have I mentioned lately how immensely grateful I am to Drama for gathering all this crap and drop-shipping to me once every month or so? It's saving me HUNDREDS in postage.
Click to expand...

I need to get in on that action, especially for Schneider stuff that is only running a couple/few bucks.

Bought a plate last week for 4.99 and paid $8 to ship - that ain't right, but I wanted it.
 
Just touching on a few points above, I think the combination of increased postage rates by USPS and the increasing discrepancy in the value of the Cdn dollar has had a huge factor on sales in the past year.

I don't sell a ton of stuff on ebay, maybe 10 to 15 items/packages a month. Last year, two-thirds of those packages would have gone to Canada. So far this month I've had two post office trips - one with eight packages and one with six packages - each time there has only been one package to Canada (and those both had multiple purchases in a single shipment with combined postage).

People simply are being more selective in what they buy and who they buy from - especially cross-border - and I think that has contributed quite a bit to driving auction prices down.

Dave
 

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