So wait.. We're NOT in a new junk wax era..?

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by mindcycle

Yes.

Just a different beast. Now it's "junk" prizm base cards in fancy plastic cases. Or "junk" /25 serial numbered cards where 10 different parallels in the same product are /25.

I'm not saying everyone has to agree with me, but seeing 1,500 different Zion cards before all releases have even come out is a bit concerning is it not?

None of those Zion cards are junk.

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by smalltown

My LCS has nothing besides Hockey. That doesn’t mean other stuff doesn’t exist. It’s just all been bought for resale and speculation. The product is still available. Bought product or held product doesn’t cease to exist. You can buy as much Prizm as you want to open right now. Only thing stopping you is price.

I just went to buy two cases of Prizm from BO.


Only had one. I wanted two. What am I missing?

[smalltown]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Junk wax earned its name because the cards were junk. Are you really trying to argue that today's cards are junk?

No the term “Junk Wax” was borrowed from the finance world and “junk bonds”. It was to refer to the era as a poor investments. It was also applied retrospectively and not during the era. It had nothing to do with the quality of the cards.

[n1nesports]

Originally Posted by smalltown

The product is still available. Bought product or held product doesn’t cease to exist. You can buy as much Prizm as you want to open right now. Only thing stopping you is price.

You still can't compare it to the availability of cards in the 90s, not only were they available, they were accessible, to EVERYONE and their grandma!!

What nobody is mentioning is that people who knew NOTHING about cards, hell some didn't even know crap about the sport, like some of our parents/grandparents/the mechanic next door/the peanut salesman were also buying cards thinking they were going to be valuable, you don't see this anymore.
The people into cards now are waaaaaaay more informed. Some Honey Boo Boo watching mother of 5 isn't the one walking in and buying a box of Prizm.

And to OP, the whole serial number thing/case hits pretty much does negate comparing this card era to that of the late 80s/early 90s. If there were cards that were even close to being that scarce in those products people would still be breaking them, they wouldn't be at the thrift store down the street in a little bag of 50 for $2.

[mindcycle]

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

It’s your thread, my man. You define it.

Lol man. Nah, you don't get off that easy..

Do you truly believe product is hard to obtain nowadays outside just the $ it takes to obtain it?

[GeechQuest]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Junk wax earned its name because the cards were junk. Are you really trying to argue that today's cards are junk?

Define junk.

In 5 years 99% of prices will drop as new players will command market share.

The majority of cards, from a financial perspective, are junk.

I think the biggest difference is now instead of “putting away for retirement” guys are just flipping and taking profits right away, which is obviously the best financial play.

[mindcycle]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

None of those Zion cards are junk.

Aight man.. Whatever you want to think.

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

I just went to buy two cases of Prizm from BO.


Only had one. I wanted two. What am I missing?

See above.

Originally Posted by mindcycle

Lol man. Nah, you don't get off that easy..

Do you truly believe product is hard to obtain nowadays outside just the $ it takes to obtain it?

[n1nesports]

Originally Posted by GeechQuest

In 5 years 99% of prices will drop as new players will command market share.

You couldn't be more wrong about that, some will drop, many will drop of course, but all of them? Nope. Bump this thread in 5 years and let me know how these past few draft classes are doing.

[Keyser Soze]

You can keep a market engaged with 10,000 copies of cards from 10 different releases. Junk wax was trying to do it with 1,000,000 copies from one ugly ass release. THAT is unsustainable.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by smalltown

No the term “Junk Wax” was borrowed from the finance world and “junk bonds”. It was to refer to the era as a poor investments. It was also applied retrospectively and not during the era. It had nothing to do with the quality of the cards.

Guess my memory is bad then. Of course, it makes no sense to retroactively label that era "Junk Wax" in reference to "Junk Bonds", which are high-risk, high-reward investments, when the cards had zero reward in retrospect.

[gomiamigo]

I mostly agree with smalltown and mindcycle. the cards are definitely better looking for sure, but I think demand has more than tapped out for over 95% of current wax. When people go to sell those singles for 'retirement' prices will come down.

Maybe not for Zion silvers, but people are hyping Donte DiVincenzo base, Fox, etc at this point. I don't think the 40 diff variations of prizm/mosaic will hold their value outside of gold/silver/mojo except for generational talents like a Giannis or Lebron.

From reading the threads it seems like Mosaic 'hits' are coming way down as is Spectra FOTL Zion rpas.

The collectibles market will ebb and flow as it always has.

Collector since 1980.

[GeechQuest]

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

I just went to buy two cases of Prizm from BO.


Only had one. I wanted two. What am I missing?

Thomas’ phone number.

[smalltown]

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

I just went to buy two cases of Prizm from BO.


Only had one. I wanted two. What am I missing?

You’re missing the fact that Blowout routinely limits popular products so they can up the price after every successive purchase. Did you try getting additional ones from DandA or steelcity or eBay or hundreds of other online retailers? The product is there.

[oldgoldy97]

Even the old Google let me down. There’s no consensus definition for junk wax.

I take it to mean the era when cards were so overproduced that supply greatly outweighed demand to the point that its perceived as having little value.

[mindcycle]

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

I just went to buy two cases of Prizm from BO.


Only had one. I wanted two. What am I missing?

What kind of Prizm case? Hobby, retail, FOTL, blaster case, Mosaic..? When I search BO I get about 50 different results for Prizm.

[brothertona]

It has changed from people buying boxes for the cards inside thinking they would be valuable to people buying boxes to sell the boxes. How many posts have we had this year of I saw this at Target. I don't collect cards or don't collect basketball cards but I knew these were hot so I cleared the shelf.

Originally Posted by n1nesports

You still can't compare it to the availability of cards in the 90s, not only were they available, they were accessible, to EVERYONE and their grandma!!

What nobody is mentioning is that people who knew NOTHING about cards, hell some didn't even know crap about the sport, like some of our parents/grandparents/the mechanic next door/the peanut salesman were also buying cards thinking they were going to be valuable, you don't see this anymore.
The people into cards now are waaaaaaay more informed. Some Honey Boo Boo watching mother of 5 isn't the one walking in and buying a box of Prizm.

And to OP, the whole serial number thing/case hits pretty much does negate comparing this card era to that of the late 80s/early 90s. If there were cards that were even close to being that scarce in those products people would still be breaking them, they wouldn't be at the thrift store down the street in a little bag of 50 for $2.

[GeechQuest]

Originally Posted by n1nesports

You couldn't be more wrong about that, some will drop, many will drop of course, but all of them? Nope. Bump this thread in 5 years and let me know how these past few draft classes are doing.

You can’t sell 99% of cards that you pull from boxes right now...

Box of Prizm:

70% Vets (can’t sell them)
20% rookies (can sell half or all of the scrubs in bulk)
10% parallels/autos (only have value if the right player is hit)

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by GeechQuest

Define junk.

In 5 years 99% of prices will drop as new players will command market share.

The majority of cards, from a financial perspective, are junk.

I think the biggest difference is now instead of “putting away for retirement” guys are just flipping and taking profits right away, which is obviously the best financial play.

Junk gets thrown away. Are there cards I obtain today that I throw away today? Absolutely. Does that mean all of this is "junk wax"? Absolutely not.

Ironically, the junk wax era has earned the right to shed that name. There's practically no wax of any kind anymore that you would throw away rather than rip and hope to find something you can send to PSA.

Originally Posted by mindcycle

Aight man.. Whatever you want to think.

It's not whatever I want to think. It's the facts. Would you throw away any card with Zion on it like I just did a few weeks ago with tens of thousands of junk wax era cards that were sitting in my parents' basement?

[SPauthentic84]

Fun discussion...sorta

Let me ask you this....Is there any card right now that you cant find if you wanted it? Pretty sure I can go buy any Zion/Luka right now I wanted if I had the funds

[n1nesports]

Originally Posted by brothertona

It has changed from people buying boxes for the cards inside thinking they would be valuable to people buying boxes to sell the boxes. How many posts have we had this year of I saw this at Target. I don't collect cards or don't collect basketball cards but I knew these were hot so I cleared the shelf.

Yea but those are not joe schmoes, they're still collectors, just not to the specific sport. Could be a guy from the baseball or hockey side of the hobby.
The general public doesn't really know about this stuff like that.

[smalltown]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Guess my memory is bad then.

Yes?

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Of course, it makes no sense to retroactively label that era "Junk Wax" in reference to "Junk Bonds", which are high-risk, high-reward investments, when the cards had zero reward in retrospect.

It was based on Junk bonds being below investment grade. That's it. That's all. People didn't put that much thought into it. Because you don't think it makes sense today doesn't make it not the reason.

[n1nesports]

Originally Posted by GeechQuest

You can’t sell 99% of cards that you pull from boxes right now...

Box of Prizm:

70% Vets (can’t sell them)
20% rookies (can sell half or all of the scrubs in bulk)
10% parallels/autos (only have value if the right player is hit)

I don't break product very much, if at all these days, I buy singles. Lots of it is unsellable, I agree with that.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by smalltown

It was based on Junk bonds being below investment grade. That's it. That's all. People didn't put that much thought into it. Because you don't think it makes sense today doesn't make it not the reason.

Fair enough.

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by smalltown

You’re missing the fact that Blowout routinely limits popular products so they can up the price after every successive purchase. Did you try getting additional ones from DandA or steelcity or eBay or hundreds of other online retailers? The product is there.

Steelcity is out, DA has a three box limit.


I forget about AATH. I bet they have loads.


Can I get a list of these hundreds of other online retailers? Legitimate ones?

I guess I should stick to Leaf products. All their boxes are numbered so I know they didn’t make an infinite amount like Panini.