Card prices during the "Great Recession"

[bowman209]

I wasn't collecting much during the 2008+ recession but was wondering how card prices held up back then.

For those around and buying/selling back then, what was it like? Were people dumping like mad or did things hold well?

I actually came here in 2008 to check on things but looked normal overall but I don't think things got really crazy until after 2008. The bottom for house prices here was actually in 2011.

Just curious.

[wharfrat7624]

Originally Posted by bowman209

I wasn't collecting during the 2008+ recession but was wondering how card prices held up back then.

For those around and buying/selling back then, what was it like? Were people dumping like mad or did things hold well?

Just curious.

GREAT question. I am curious to know as well. I didn't get back to the hobby until 2017.

[smapdi]

the hobby functioned much the same as today. There was no great sell-off or whatever you imagine. There was no cratering of rookie cards or dip in demand for blue-chip vintage and high-end things moved just fine. Things were lower in general than today, but pretty much inline with the past. That's just because there is so much money sloshing around today and people are used to the idea of the best cards from the latest bowman set being four-five figures instead of two-three.

[SaveMeTheGum]

Jamarcus Russell was selling for big bucks. So, no different -- people paying crazy money for unproven rookies.

There were more deals to be had -- my guess is all the trimmers went nuts buying/trimming/flipping.

[ThoseBackPages]

Originally Posted by smapdi

the hobby functioned much the same as today. There was no great sell-off or whatever you imagine. There was no cratering of rookie cards or dip in demand for blue-chip vintage and high-end things moved just fine. Things were lower in general than today, but pretty much inline with the past. That's just because there is so much money sloshing around today and people are used to the idea of the best cards from the latest bowman set being four-five figures instead of two-three.

i agree with this. i did most of my "heavy lifting", collecting wise in 2011/2012

[HarryLime]

Out of absolute sheer dumb luck, I sold out at the perfect time. I had gotten back into the hobby in 2006 and was collecting boxing cards. I spent 2006 and 2007 putting together one of the nicest Jack Dempsey player collections (and cleaning up PSA's player registry, they had both Jack Dempseys combined into one). When I sold I cleared nearly $14k and it was just months before everything tanked. Prices plummeted on high-dollar stuff (Grazianos, T226 Jack Johnson, E125, etc.). Cards that previously sold for $6k+ were ending <$2k. It was a glorious time to be a buyer in the market.

I basically only had competition from Adam Warshaw and we would play cat and mouse with mislabeled and miscategorized items from sellers that didn't know what they had. We would bang heads on stuff but also find stuff the other didn't. But we were also rooting for each other. It was the wild west and entire sections of his book were being added each year as more and more sets and items were discovered. Just a fantastic time to be a collector, I'll never forget.

Boxing cards are the last bastion of discovery in the hobby. The book is literally still being written on them. New sets gets discovered all the time and it's much more of a comraderie among collectors than a competition. A lot of that has to do with Adam. His book has made me thousands of dollars over the years and taught me an insurmountable amount of knowledge about all forms of collectible from 19c CDVs to cabinets to printing styles from other countries to spotting fakes.

Those were the good old days.

Arthur

[chester0711]

been collecting continuously since 2002. The biggest difference is the amount of buyers. The volume wasnt there. You could post a great card at market price and eventually get it, but it would take a week or two. Thusly, the market price was a touch lower because of this. If you wanted to move something fast (immediately) it had to be well below market, even if the card was a hot item. Now I see people constantly pricing up above market trying to see how much more they can get.
The other thing was people dumping whole collections and selling off because of some sort of financial ruin. The Beckett message board used to be littered with people's sad stories and that they had to exit the hobby and everything was for sale at 80% off.
You dont see that scenario as much anymore.

[actionbryan]

I feel like people always post on bo that the market was similar and good during the recession years but I never remember feeling that way. I felt like it was dead. But that said, I felt like it was dead since 2000, so maybe there was a normalcy to it.

I think I'm coming at this from the perspective of an average hobbyist/collector. Dealers putting in full time sales volume will obviously have a different perspective.

There were a lot of great buying memories, I never faced competition at brick and mortar auction houses like I do now for cards.

That said, I wouldn't want to go back, now is much better.

[pskell02]

I got back into collecting in 07 and never really noticed a dip or rise in prices after. The same holds true today, hot players spike, cold players drop. Though prospecting wasn't this expensive then. I remember supers being under $1k for bigger prospects. Times have changed.

[guru]

Prices were much lower especially in graded vintage.

All those prices have been way up in the last 4-5 years

[Vosen8832]

I collected a lot of football from 2008 to 2011 or so. The meaning on high end seems to have changed a lot.

A Drew Brees Contenders auto sold for around $350 even after the Saints won the superbowl.

I had a couple Tom Brady rookie autos that sold for around $175 at the time and sell for $800 now.

Obviously those guys have accomplished a lot since then.

But even "the next star" sold for a lot less. Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan National Treasures RPAs sold for like $175-$275. Now days someone who is off to a good start but hasn't necessarily done a lot like Mitchell Trubisky sells for around $800.

In baseball I still have a Ryan Braun 2005 Bowman Chrome auto I paid around $130 when he was doing really well. That was on the high end for any bowman chrome auto beside Albert Pujols who sold for a couple grand.

[ucLAkers]

Been back collecting since 2004....when the market crashed in 08...football cards became king and baseball was boring and stale. Thats about all I remember...selling tons of AP and buying a ton of Exquisite, Sterling, and Bowman Chrome. Baseball returned to normal/overpriced in 2012 AKA Trout is real.

[discostu]

* Try the papaya *

[BC81]

I also collected continuously since 1990. It wasn't until 2009 where I got into collecting more seriously.

I remember browsing ebay and finding Jordan and Lebron autos for 300-400. I only picked 1 or 2 up each because I didn't have the capital to hoard that stuff. I looked at a Lebron non-RC exquisite patch auto, and thought it was a ripoff at 400 dollars. Then those MJ exquisite patch autos were a totally overpriced when they were 3000 to 6000 dollars.

For baseball, the Mike Trout BC 2009 base cards were going for 250 dollars when he got sent down to AAA in 2011 for batting .220. He still hit .400 in the minors though. His prices stayed flat like that for a decent amount of time before he went crazy in 2012. When Bryce Harper was dubbed the "Lebron" of baseball, his 2011 BC could be had for 200-300.

I think the hobby has evolved since then. Everyone is now prospecting for the next Mike Trout and everyone that missed out on him has FOMO. The lebron and jordan NBA licensed auto is now in high demand due to limited supply. I think these were some of the reasons why cards were cheaper back then but I think the Great Depression certainly helped as well.

There must have been someone out there who was lucky enough to hoard everything in 2009 to 2011. If they did and still hold onto these cards now, they made out like a bandit.

[MoreToppsPlease]

Originally Posted by discostu

I'm of the belief that there's a lot of "outside" money/influence in the hobby now so it's really difficult to predict/project how a future recession would compare (in hobby terms) to 2008 when it was a smaller, tighter knit hobby.

Same.

Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark!

[shayscards79]

I agree with what others said that there were less buyers but I don't think the prices dropped because of the recession. Prices were just cheaper back then because products didnt cost as much.

Then Strasburg came along and Trout blew up and set the precedent for products and singles to cost more. I thought it was crazy that Buxton base chrome autos were $125 at release but everyone was looking for the next Trout at that point.. fast forward to Acuna and Wander prices at release and I can't even anymore.

[Bruins1993]

Many people turn to things they enjoy/makes them happy during recessions/bad times... After 9/11 Petsmart stock did very well as an example.

[unclemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryLime

Out of absolute sheer dumb luck, I sold out at the perfect time. I had gotten back into the hobby in 2006 and was collecting boxing cards. I spent 2006 and 2007 putting together one of the nicest Jack Dempsey player collections (and cleaning up PSA's player registry, they had both Jack Dempseys combined into one). When I sold I cleared nearly $14k and it was just months before everything tanked. Prices plummeted on high-dollar stuff (Grazianos, T226 Jack Johnson, E125, etc.). Cards that previously sold for $6k+ were ending <$2k. It was a glorious time to be a buyer in the market.

I basically only had competition from Adam Warshaw and we would play cat and mouse with mislabeled and miscategorized items from sellers that didn't know what they had. We would bang heads on stuff but also find stuff the other didn't. But we were also rooting for each other. It was the wild west and entire sections of his book were being added each year as more and more sets and items were discovered. Just a fantastic time to be a collector, I'll never forget.

Boxing cards are the last bastion of discovery in the hobby. The book is literally still being written on them. New sets gets discovered all the time and it's much more of a comraderie among collectors than a competition. A lot of that has to do with Adam. His book has made me thousands of dollars over the years and taught me an insurmountable amount of knowledge about all forms of collectible from 19c CDVs to cabinets to printing styles from other countries to spotting fakes.

Those were the good old days.

Arthur

Is there a book on boxing cards?

I had nearly 100 postcards of the Johnson/jeffries fight alone. From art, foreign, and Dana RPPC... was paying anywhere from $80 to $300 for Dana RPPC's depending on subject matter. Got a wild hair and sold them.

True about undiscovered cards.

Today you can't touch Dana real photo postcards for less than $500 for the better subject matter.

[hermanotarjeta]

There really wasn’t any difference in the hobby whether it was a recession year or not.

Factors that had a much bigger impact were how hot the players were.

[phdbeckett]

This is an interesting and somewhat timely thread. I have thought about selling off some of the more commodity like items in my collection and only keeping the stuff that even waiting 10 years on eBay you would never see again. It may be a good time to buy if there is another recession, but you won't know it until we're almost out of it.

[Cubsfanp]

in 2008, people were still spending money. For baseball, The Hobby was dominated by Pujols. Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton, and Grady Sizemore were supposed to be the next big thing and their rookie cards were $500+

People were spending way too much on prospects like Tim Lincecum, Joba Chamberlain, Jesus Montero, and Matt Laporta.

The Asian market was buying up Kosuke Fukudome.

It was very much the same, just with different names.

[SirTommyWinAlot]

Lebron James, Tom Brady and lastly Mike Trout have changed the face of modern sports cards forever.

[drstrader5]

As others have mentioned, there wasn't a real noticeable change in late 2008 and early 2009. I was collecting mostly FB back then and SP Authentic, Exquisite and Contenders were still in high demand because the 2008 rookie class was loaded. 2008 Bowman Draft and Contenders were popular and 2009 Ultimate collection was another great product.

[HarryLime]

Originally Posted by unclemonkey

Is there a book on boxing cards?

I had nearly 100 postcards of the Johnson/jeffries fight alone. From art, foreign, and Dana RPPC... was paying anywhere from $80 to $300 for Dana RPPC's depending on subject matter. Got a wild hair and sold them.

True about undiscovered cards.

Today you can't touch Dana real photo postcards for less than $500 for the better subject matter.

Yes, great resource is Adam Warshaw's "America's Great Boxing Cards." That book has made me thousands of dollars and every year a new version comes out with all sorts of new finds and additions. It's invaluable if you're buying or selling boxing cards.

The Dana Studio PCs can be had pretty cheap if they fly under the radar. They're the type of thing a seller doesn't realize what they have. I've picked up a few from prior to the Johnson/Jeffries fight for ~$20/ea.

Arthur

[HarryLime]

Originally Posted by Cubsfanp

in 2008, people were still spending money. For baseball, The Hobby was dominated by Pujols. Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton, and Grady Sizemore were supposed to be the next big thing and their rookie cards were $500+

People were spending way too much on prospects like Tim Lincecum, Joba Chamberlain, Jesus Montero, and Matt Laporta.

The Asian market was buying up Kosuke Fukudome.

It was very much the same, just with different names.

Don't forget Kazuo Uzuki.

Arthur