Collectors of baseball cards striking out

[originalisbest]

 

 

 

-slym

 

slym, if there's a gentle curve to the cards, that's often a natural state for them, and placing carefully into an album, or carefully filling a box of them (once in penny sleeves) will tend to flatten them out. Also, it wouldn't greatly affect any psa or sgc grade -- just the act of slabbing will straighten them out.

 

To affect the grade, we'd need to be talking a water damage warp, or otherwise severe curve, in which case pressing wouldn't make much diff.

[slym2none]

Heh - as I mentioned before, I jokingly said that to my friend.

 

But I do appreciate the knowledge shared!

 

 

 

-slym

[originalisbest]

Heh - as I mentioned before, I jokingly said that to my friend.

 

But I do appreciate the knowledge shared!

 

 

 

-slym

 

Sure thing! The way I read it, your friend's cards, if they have that gentle arch to them, that's a natural state for vintage cardboard, especially often seen in old vending boxes, etc. It would have to be really severe/creased, etc. to negatively affect value.

[slym2none]

I will tell him just that - if he doesn't read it here first.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[Hepcat]

For all the talk though, did the baseball card market really collapse?

 

Some people would say it has, but it really hasn't - certainly not for decent mid grade vintage, and certainly not for superior grade vintage. Witness certain "low pop" highgrade 50s and 60s commons selling for many hundreds, and supergrades of vintage superstars come with prices that will make you blush!

 

Yes, that's why I think that all these articles about the baseball card market "collapsing" are at best missing the point, or at worst blatantly false and sensational.

 

[originalisbest]

For all the talk though, did the baseball card market really collapse?

 

Some people would say it has, but it really hasn't - certainly not for decent mid grade vintage, and certainly not for superior grade vintage. Witness certain "low pop" highgrade 50s and 60s commons selling for many hundreds, and supergrades of vintage superstars come with prices that will make you blush!

 

Yes, that's why I think that all these articles about the baseball card market "collapsing" are at best missing the point, or at worst blatantly false and sensational.

 

 

I agree with you Hepcat, but hey, it's a sensationalism that sells. And few would disagree that an 89 Upper Deck Update Set bought when it came out has collapsed in value (proud owner of one set here! ) but of course, '89 Upper Deck sets are not the market.

 

There are also those who think the youth isn't there, no one will want to collect cards 20-30 years from now, the boomers when they sell off will have no one wanting to buy Mantle, Mays, Aaron etc. OK, "perhaps" that will happen, but really, a slim chance in my view. Baseball lovers and other sport lovers love history; I never saw Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig, Young or Speaker play, but sure do know them and love seeking out their cards. Same will hold true 30-40 years from now, I think. Pretty sure people anywhere will still follow their favored sport, too. Frickin' ESPN is dedicated to, and its only reason for existing, is the love of sports.

 

The book "Mint Condition" (a really great, well-researched and entertaining read about the people behind baseball cards, from the turn of the century to the present day) tries to make the argument towards the end that the collecting populace is dying off, but as has been discussed earlier in this thread I think it's much ado about nothing. The author's reason behind writing "Mint Condition" was to find out "what happened?" when he unearthed his 1984-85 childhood Topps collection, and expected to be able to cash in big (after all, they were now near 25 years old at the time! ) but was greatly disappointed. This may have colored his view somewhat.

 

There are those who think digital will wipe out interest in bygone relics of paper, plastic and cardboard. Nonsense! People still love tangible things they can hold. If anything the digital world has raised interest in such items, allowing pictures of them to be shared anywhere, knowledge to be disseminated, and inspiring people to seek out the real deal to add to their collections.

 

Anyway. I wouldn't fret about the desirability of nice shape vintage stuff - heck, even beater shape vintage stuff will find a home if priced right. And to the point raised earlier in the posts, yeah, I don't doubt that some vintage cards in a shop's inventory will sit, even stars -- but I bet they weren't priced fairly to market, and even if they were, perhaps it's not a shop card collectors know to frequent. Put those same cards on eBay and you'll get some price for them, and again it depends on a proper scan, listing style, pricing technique and etc, etc. But they most certainly wouldn't be "worthless" in my view.

 

P.S. to hepcat -- I really appreciate and admire your wonderful collections, especially the comics, model kits and cards -- heck, if you threw coins and a few stamps into the mix we'd be very VERY similar in our tastes! Except I like precode horror, but don't think you have much interest in that genre? But still!

[originalisbest]

I will tell him just that - if he doesn't read it here first.

 

 

 

 

-slym

 

Glad you found it helpful, hope it is for him too!

[Hepcat]

P.S. to hepcat -- I really appreciate and admire your wonderful collections, especially the comics, model kits and cards -- heck, if you threw coins and a few stamps into the mix we'd be very VERY similar in our tastes!

 

On the stamp front I have an album devoted to the several dozen stamps my artist uncle designed for the authorities in the French zone of occupied Germany after WWII. I have an uncancelled sheet for most of these.

 

On the coin front, I have dozens of Canadian, American and Lithuanian silver dollars and other silver coins, but no rare pieces. Just nice looking ones, some of which I display in a curio cabinet.

 

I do though have a world class collection of premium hockey, baseball, football, car, airplane, dog, Batman, Monkees and other coins from the sixties. Here's a picture of The MAN holding up a couple of my binders:

 

 

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the sixty coins of my Old London Rocky & Bullwinkle set:

 

 

 

Old London Potato Chips were sold in Pennsylvania and in other adjacent northeastern States.

 

All kinds of different coins came out during the early and mid sixties. For example, a set of sixty Space Orbit coins were issued as premiums in Dare, Krun-Chee and Hunter's Potato Chips in Canada in 1965(?). Here are scans of some of my Dare coins:

 

 

 

 

And here are scans of some of my Krun-Chee coins:

 

 

 

The Dare coins are more common than the Krun-Chee ones since Dare chips were distributed in and around Toronto while the Krun-Chee chip plant was in Windsor and the chips weren't sold much beyond southwestern Ontario. Krun-Chee chips were not that common even in London when I was a kid. Meanwhile, the Hunter's Space Orbit coins are the toughest of them all. I have only one.

 

A U.S. variant of the Space Orbit coin set was also issued with Gordon's Potato Chips and Krun-Chee Corn Chips. To avoid offending delicate American sensibilities, the coins of Commie Soviets Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov, Nikita Kruschev and most of the Soviet space vehicles were replaced with coins bearing less threatening images. Here is a scan of a sheet of my Gordon's ones:

 

 

As you can see, John Kennedy was deemed a suitable image albeit Kruschev was not. Here's a scan of a sheet of my Krun-Chee Corn Chip coins:

 

 

Here are scans of my Space Magic coins that were premiums within Krun-Chee, Schuler's and Nalley's Potato Chips in 1964 or so:

 

 

 

 

 

Although all these brands were also sold somewhere in Canada at the time, my impression is that these coins were only distributed in the U.S. since that's where they all seem to originate these days.

 

A twenty coin set of Warships were also issued by Krun-Chee and Schuler's in Canada in late 1962 or early 1963. Here are my Krun-Chee ones:

 

 

 

[originalisbest]

Wonderful stuff Hepcat! Love it! I have some of the Krunchee Space Coins, but didn't know of the Rocky & Bullwinkle ones. Will have to look for!

[RVAj]

Like alot of collectibles,you just need to steer away from the massed produced era's.I collect Pre War Cards from 1887 to 1912.They are as hot as ever.

[kidcolt]

The Internet has made collecting cards to easy. It has changed the hobby for me. I enjoyed the chase of searching and finding cards. The excitement of finding a card after years of looking made the hobby fun. I remember pulling cards that no other person had and being the envy of everyone. You would hold it until something really special came along. Now everything is only a click away. Within minutes you can find any card you want. Some might like that but it ruins it fore.

[arexcrooke]

But hasnt the internet done that with almost every collectible?

I like it as someone who collects that I can find cards I want when I am looking for them.

It increases the enjoyment for me as patience isnt my strong suit when collecting something.

[ThoseBackPages]

But hasnt the internet done that with almost every collectible?

 

agreed.

[Hepcat]

The book "Mint Condition" (a really great, well-researched and entertaining read about the people behind baseball cards, from the turn of the century to the present day) tries to make the argument towards the end that the collecting populace is dying off, but as has been discussed earlier in this thread I think it's much ado about nothing. The author's reason behind writing "Mint Condition" was to find out "what happened?" when he unearthed his 1984-85 childhood Topps collection, and expected to be able to cash in big (after all, they were now near 25 years old at the time! ) but was greatly disappointed. This may have colored his view somewhat.

 

His experience constitutes further evidence that collectibles don't do well price wise unless generally thought to be absolute dreck upon initial release. That's why so much kid stuff from years gone by is so highly prized, and priced, these days.

 

[The Amazing Chump]

I'm not reading 72 pages. But do baseball cards have any value anymore?

 

I've got a bunch of loose cards from 84-92 (roughly) and 9 sets in the 87-92 range. Should I just throw them in the back yard and pee on them?

[slym2none]

I'm not reading 72 pages. But do baseball cards have any value anymore?

 

I've got a bunch of loose cards from 84-92 (roughly) and 9 sets in the 87-92 range. Should I just throw them in the back yard and pee on them?

 

 

 

 

-slym

[krighton]

87-92 I wouldn't waste human pee....use your dog

[arexcrooke]

There are a few cards in that 87-92 range that are collectible.

I'd like to know what the 84-86 stuff is. Still not a great time frame but some cool stuff in there anyway.

[chromium]

It increases the enjoyment for me as patience isnt my strong suit when collecting something.

 

 

[GAMBIT]

I used to collect baseball cards, not at all, anymore!..

 

To me The joy was building the complete set , team by team, almost every player, and the mngr. (There was only 1 maybe 2 rookie cards of a player) .. Going to con's to try and find the 2 or 3 cards that you havent gotten yet, then waiting till the end of the year to buy the "traded set" to finish off that years set!.. ( there was only topps! at least for me!).. Now , no one cares about completing the year(s) sets, in fact they basically throw away the cards from the pack that arent "rare". They only go for the insert cards

.Also there are way to many different co. mass producing these cards. there's a million different variants of each player. and the baseball card pack themselves are just to expensive. its a total mess and it is just sad IMO. The way of the baseball card will never be what it once was