Love the channel my man, keep up the good work.It’s nice to learn about some of these things without feeling patronized or as if I’m being talked down to.
The entry of Donruss and Fleer are the beginning of the modern era. You are absolutely correct. Upper Deck was the beginning of cards being a pure adult activity.
As a collector of sports cards from 1975-1984 I agree with your 1980 cutoff between vintage and modern. Since I experienced this era first hand I thought I'd chime in on why I think this makes sense. From 1979 to 1981 it's important to look at not only the collectables market but also the popularity of sports. One of the biggest developments was the first Beckett and Eckes price guide published in 1979. While other printed guides existed like Sports Collector's Digest this became the first mass produced book that could be found in most bookstores. So values were being assigned to cards and it wasn't just a small niche audience. The Beckett and Eckes price guide increased in popularity each year for several years. This was long before there were any grading companies. Sports Collectors Digest was sold in 1981 from a family business to a large trade publisher indicating the growth of the hobby and interest in pricing. As others have pointed out in 1980 Topps was the only game in town. In 1981 I bought a ton of Fleer and Donruss because they were new and cheap. Unfortunately, they were also of cheap quality. The market was forever changed. What also happened in 1979? The launch of a tiny new sports cable network in Bristol, CT: ESPN. Many of us didn't have cable in the early 1980s and ESPN wasn't included in many packages because they had almost no programming. In a nutshell as ESPN grew by the mid-1980s and the NBA started to rebound on the heels of Bird/Magic the momentum of all sports as a business surged. As a comparison, in 1979 the NBA was at such a low point that its Finals were shown on tape delay. Thanks for the video.
I remember seeing a dealer at a card show selling a Mark Mcgwire rookie for $175 and a Christy Mathewson 1909 T-206 for the same price!! So glad I decided to purchase the Christy Mathewson.
You recommend investing in vintage baseball, but if sports cards are a collectible and this is the peak does that not mean that it will go down forever from now? Or is vintage baseball considered an antique?
For basketball, roughly, I think of pre-1980 as vintage. 84-88 fleer star era, 89-95 junk wax, 96-99 golden age insert era, 00-09 continuing chrome and auto/memorabilia age with fewer interesting inserts but introduction of niche uber high-end products, 09-contemporary the panini age. Very interested to see how panini era will be viewed down the line. They have some gems imo but often drowned out by a lazy reliance on endless parallels.
Hi Shawn, a few card markets which are really good in my opinion. That is soccer and tennis. Right now I only buy legends. In soccer sometimes there is lot more difficulty to buy rookies and cards. Because not only panini gave stickers out but also local supermarkets and businesses. And you need to have network to buy from a speficic country.
Personally, when it comes to basketball, I would say the golden eras of collecting would be between 96-99, and 2003-2010. Much like how you mentioned how Babe Ruth Micky Mantle and Ty Comb influenced the baseball sport and hobby, I feel that in 10, 20, 30 years from now, people are going to talk about Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, the exact same way. If you can afford their cards, those 3 players would have most stability long term, in my opinion. One thing that bothers me about post 2010, Panini era, is that Panini has taken the formulas established by Upper Deck, Topps and Fleer, and they are over saturating the market by making waaaay too many variants of each card in different colors and serial numbers, it’s hard to keep track of the different variants
Hey Shawn: Thank you again for another insightful video. I have noticed that the retail shelves at big box stores in my area are completely sold out of sealed sports cards products every time I check to see if Pokemon Hidden Fates has come back in. Beyond that surface level observation, I do not really follow sports cards. All I know is that the sports card products missing from store shelves every single week is not how things were in 2018, & 2019.
1980 or before as vintage baseball cards make sense on some level. This also ironically was the standard many were pushing in 1988 or 1989 also. Well there was an attempt to segment those years of 1980 and before as being different at least. In 1981 you had donruss, fleer, and topps all make cards. That was a milestone and Fleer and Donruss overproduced that year. On the other hand One could argue vintage is up to 85 or so as production runs did not get more crazy till 86 87 and so on. It does sound kind of silly saying a Cal Ripken rookie card or Wade Boggs is modern. But there has to be a cut off point I suppose. The modern card market is about weird limited produced items put in packs that are not even regular rookie cards. Its really rather weird. Why should a rare one of one autographed card be valued more than an autographed bat or jersey from one of the player's memorable games or what not which sometimes it the case. It makes no sense. The internet also has expanded the market as far as making it easier to get game used jerseys, bats and balls. That market kind of goes hand in hand with baseball cards I believe on the high end. One major change I believe has happened in the last 20 years or so is that very very few people seem to be focused on collecting complete sets. People used to put them together from wax boxes, or vending boxes now complete sets is seldom the collecting focus. The problem with the modern baseball card market being based on these one of a kind cards put in packs is once the main ones are found the unopened packs left in the wild have to take a major drop in value/desirability. And the other items in the packs often people dont really want. Production runs are reduced now for baseball cards and even most comic books in comparison to the 1980s but with a large number of people keeping what is produced in as perfect a shape as possible it means nothing will ever be hard to find in outstanding condition in the future. So people try to further make things rare with this super critiqued grading services and only wanting the highest grade ones. Its really rather weird.
The only delineation that matters to me are top tier hall of famers and active players. For instance, Cal Ripken is 1982. His Topps Traded RC has a PSA 10 pop of 395. I don't consider him "modern". I consider Cal Ripken a "vintage player." He's an absolute legend and probably the best SS ever. The cards I don't like, but are fun to collect, are athletes who are active. They are very risky due to the possibility of injuries, off the field problems, and hitting the ceiling earlier than expected. I am currently trading out of a lot of active players and taking that money and buying top tier hall of famers. Sports cards the past 3 years are total junk.
The market here in UK I think is really small for sporting cards, interesting video though. Are you able to give me a hand valuing a game? It's a sealed Pokemon Blue with a red Nintendo strip seal in VGA 85+. The only solds I could find on an auction site I heard about in your videos(heritage I think) was the US version (without the red strip). I wasn't sure if this version was less desirable.
Right now, it’s hard to value an item like your’s because number one, we really don’t as of yet, know how many other comparable items are out there, and number two, the market for sealed games is concentrated on US releases overall. I’d advise taking a wait and see attitude. When a similar item comes to market, your question will be answered.
Sport cards investing is a tricky hobby to get into one day a card is worthless & boom its on fire!!! One card that blow my mind a rookie card of Lebron James bought for 1.8 million in a auction. So I'm thinking to my self should I buy a rare Zion RC & wait to sell it for millions in the future ? BTW I think 1/1 signed cards are total bull shit just search ebay & see how many 1/1 autos were made. I only would go after 1/1 auto RC if they become big stars that card will hold value over all.
I don't know. I bought some 'printing plate 1/1 cards' from a different franchise, & got each color (black, magenta, cyan, yellow) & the art was cool & unique, & it caught my attention. '1/1' can be a treasure hunt sometimes.
In terms of breaking down the term modern in terms of sports cards it should be broken down further. There is a huge difference between junk wax era cards and current cards.
Reserved Investments Looking forward to watching them. I agree with many of your points thus far. The current boom I feel could last 2-4 years but nobody knows for sure, could be longer or everything could crash tomorrow.
1 year later....you're were right on target. Thanks for the TRUTH.
3 years later… he’s STILL right on target!
Great content! Thank you!
Great video here to pump algo
Love the channel my man, keep up the good work.It’s nice to learn about some of these things without feeling patronized or as if I’m being talked down to.
Thank you for the kind words. 🙏
The entry of Donruss and Fleer are the beginning of the modern era. You are absolutely correct. Upper Deck was the beginning of cards being a pure adult activity.
As a collector of sports cards from 1975-1984 I agree with your 1980 cutoff between vintage and modern.
Since I experienced this era first hand I thought I'd chime in on why I think this makes sense.
From 1979 to 1981 it's important to look at not only the collectables market but also the popularity of sports.
One of the biggest developments was the first Beckett and Eckes price guide published in 1979. While other printed guides existed like Sports Collector's Digest this became the first mass produced book that could be found in most bookstores. So values were being assigned to cards and it wasn't just a small niche audience. The Beckett and Eckes price guide increased in popularity each year for several years. This was long before there were any grading companies.
Sports Collectors Digest was sold in 1981 from a family business to a large trade publisher indicating the growth of the hobby and interest in pricing.
As others have pointed out in 1980 Topps was the only game in town. In 1981 I bought a ton of Fleer and Donruss because they were new and cheap. Unfortunately, they were also of cheap quality. The market was forever changed.
What also happened in 1979? The launch of a tiny new sports cable network in Bristol, CT: ESPN. Many of us didn't have cable in the early 1980s and ESPN wasn't included in many packages because they had almost no programming. In a nutshell as ESPN grew by the mid-1980s and the NBA started to rebound on the heels of Bird/Magic the momentum of all sports as a business surged. As a comparison, in 1979 the NBA was at such a low point that its Finals were shown on tape delay.
Thanks for the video.
Excellent analysis! You are 100% correct!
Air conditioner!!! 🙏
I thought there was an electric train coming up my street @ 05:10 😜
I remember seeing a dealer at a card show selling a Mark Mcgwire rookie for $175 and a Christy Mathewson 1909 T-206 for the same price!! So glad I decided to purchase the Christy Mathewson.
I would love to hear a Reserved Investments Podcast :)
I barely know how to use RUclips! Lol! 😂
Yeah do a pod cast!
@@dnalevelc144 I don't even know what the benefits of a podcast would be...
Great info. I totally agree.
You recommend investing in vintage baseball, but if sports cards are a collectible and this is the peak does that not mean that it will go down forever from now? Or is vintage baseball considered an antique?
For basketball, roughly, I think of pre-1980 as vintage. 84-88 fleer star era, 89-95 junk wax, 96-99 golden age insert era, 00-09 continuing chrome and auto/memorabilia age with fewer interesting inserts but introduction of niche uber high-end products, 09-contemporary the panini age. Very interested to see how panini era will be viewed down the line. They have some gems imo but often drowned out by a lazy reliance on endless parallels.
I heard the card containing a game worn piece of tom bradys jockstrap went for 10k last month.
Game pubes fetch top dollar
Hi Shawn, a few card markets which are really good in my opinion. That is soccer and tennis. Right now I only buy legends. In soccer sometimes there is lot more difficulty to buy rookies and cards. Because not only panini gave stickers out but also local supermarkets and businesses. And you need to have network to buy from a speficic country.
I honestly wonder if you're better off playing the lottery when it comes to pulling chase cards.
Out of the woodwork AND into the fold!
Personally, when it comes to basketball, I would say the golden eras of collecting would be between 96-99, and 2003-2010. Much like how you mentioned how Babe Ruth Micky Mantle and Ty Comb influenced the baseball sport and hobby, I feel that in 10, 20, 30 years from now, people are going to talk about Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, the exact same way. If you can afford their cards, those 3 players would have most stability long term, in my opinion. One thing that bothers me about post 2010, Panini era, is that Panini has taken the formulas established by Upper Deck, Topps and Fleer, and they are over saturating the market by making waaaay too many variants of each card in different colors and serial numbers, it’s hard to keep track of the different variants
You lost crediability when you mentioned 96-99 anf outside of Bron's rookie, there isn't much else in basketball from 03-10
@@josh_7569 Um, you had the late 90s inserts like PMGs, Rubies and Credentials. And you had autographs from Jordan, Kobe and Lebron from 03-10
@@josh_7569Curry became a big rookie, but he wasn't hyped at the time the set was released.
Hey Shawn:
Thank you again for another insightful video.
I have noticed that the retail shelves at big box stores in my area are completely sold out of sealed sports cards products every time I check to see if Pokemon Hidden Fates has come back in.
Beyond that surface level observation, I do not really follow sports cards.
All I know is that the sports card products missing from store shelves every single week is not how things were in 2018, & 2019.
Infomercials?
really happy to see you bash reagonomics ahaha
1980 or before as vintage baseball cards make sense on some level. This also ironically was the standard many were pushing in 1988 or 1989 also. Well there was an attempt to segment those years of 1980 and before as being different at least. In 1981 you had donruss, fleer, and topps all make cards. That was a milestone and Fleer and Donruss overproduced that year. On the other hand One could argue vintage is up to 85 or so as production runs did not get more crazy till 86 87 and so on. It does sound kind of silly saying a Cal Ripken rookie card or Wade Boggs is modern. But there has to be a cut off point I suppose. The modern card market is about weird limited produced items put in packs that are not even regular rookie cards. Its really rather weird. Why should a rare one of one autographed card be valued more than an autographed bat or jersey from one of the player's memorable games or what not which sometimes it the case. It makes no sense. The internet also has expanded the market as far as making it easier to get game used jerseys, bats and balls. That market kind of goes hand in hand with baseball cards I believe on the high end. One major change I believe has happened in the last 20 years or so is that very very few people seem to be focused on collecting complete sets. People used to put them together from wax boxes, or vending boxes now complete sets is seldom the collecting focus.
The problem with the modern baseball card market being based on these one of a kind cards put in packs is once the main ones are found the unopened packs left in the wild have to take a major drop in value/desirability. And the other items in the packs often people dont really want. Production runs are reduced now for baseball cards and even most comic books in comparison to the 1980s but with a large number of people keeping what is produced in as perfect a shape as possible it means nothing will ever be hard to find in outstanding condition in the future. So people try to further make things rare with this super critiqued grading services and only wanting the highest grade ones. Its really rather weird.
The only delineation that matters to me are top tier hall of famers and active players. For instance, Cal Ripken is 1982. His Topps Traded RC has a PSA 10 pop of 395. I don't consider him "modern". I consider Cal Ripken a "vintage player." He's an absolute legend and probably the best SS ever. The cards I don't like, but are fun to collect, are athletes who are active. They are very risky due to the possibility of injuries, off the field problems, and hitting the ceiling earlier than expected. I am currently trading out of a lot of active players and taking that money and buying top tier hall of famers.
Sports cards the past 3 years are total junk.
The market here in UK I think is really small for sporting cards, interesting video though. Are you able to give me a hand valuing a game? It's a sealed Pokemon Blue with a red Nintendo strip seal in VGA 85+. The only solds I could find on an auction site I heard about in your videos(heritage I think) was the US version (without the red strip). I wasn't sure if this version was less desirable.
Right now, it’s hard to value an item like your’s because number one, we really don’t as of yet, know how many other comparable items are out there, and number two, the market for sealed games is concentrated on US releases overall. I’d advise taking a wait and see attitude. When a similar item comes to market, your question will be answered.
If I was in Europe, I'd stick to Pokemon
72 thru 80 is semi-vintage
A person would be better off investing in lottery tickets rather than a lot of the crap produced nowadays
You might not be too far off on that one...lol.
Lebron rookie 1.8M
Powerball 106 mil.
Sport cards investing is a tricky hobby to get into one day a card is worthless & boom its on fire!!! One card that blow my mind a rookie card of Lebron James bought for 1.8 million in a auction. So I'm thinking to my self should I buy a rare Zion RC & wait to sell it for millions in the future ? BTW I think 1/1 signed cards are total bull shit just search ebay & see how many 1/1 autos were made. I only would go after 1/1 auto RC if they become big stars that card will hold value over all.
I don't know. I bought some 'printing plate 1/1 cards' from a different franchise, & got each color (black, magenta, cyan, yellow) & the art was cool & unique, & it caught my attention. '1/1' can be a treasure hunt sometimes.
In terms of breaking down the term modern in terms of sports cards it should be broken down further. There is a huge difference between junk wax era cards and current cards.
Agreed! This was an introductory video and there is only so much I can do in 20-30 minutes. More videos are coming...
Reserved Investments Looking forward to watching them. I agree with many of your points thus far. The current boom I feel could last 2-4 years but nobody knows for sure, could be longer or everything could crash tomorrow.
Timy keeps his cards mint condition with a weekly chemical peel.