Why no 03-04 Exquisite?

Mule5 · 03-07-2019, 11:29 PM

Hi there!

I'm just getting back into the hobby after about a decade hiatus. Before I got out the last time (and sold the bulk of my collection) I had taken a pretty good run at the 03-04 Exquisite base set (about 75% complete). It was the set to collect (in my opinion) at the time, when I was collecting at my peak.

Fast forward to today, and I thought I'd jump back in and start to slowly put this set together again (for nostalgia's sake and because I really like the set!). But to my surprise I hardly see any of these out there. I figured it would be a slow grind to find these, but man, these are really hard to come by (unless I want to pay really high BINs). I figured at least some of the less popular players would be pretty available....

So, I'm curious if any forum members know what is going on? Are people just hoarding these? Why is that the case? (Other iconic cards and sets seem to be much more 'liquid'; I could buy a Jordan RC pretty much every day I think). I'm not trying to hype or pump or whatever, just genuinely curious about the phenomenon with this set and if there is something I am missing in trying to collect these.

Thanks!

Kingofkings1281 · 03-07-2019, 11:36 PM

Pretty much anything from 03-04 has been dried up for quite some time and the key cards rarely become available.

drobfan8 · 03-08-2019, 12:02 AM

We're down to seeing about 3 or 4 of each player pop up a year. Less in some cases. Jordan's are scarce especially.

I'm gonna really regret selling mine too early, but I had my reasons anyways.

thecomebacker · 03-08-2019, 12:40 AM

In 2009, an 03-04 MJ Exquisite limited logos sold for less than 1k. Today that same card would sell for over 30k. You get the idea.

phdbeckett · 03-08-2019, 06:58 AM

To take a slightly different approach, you could liquidate your partial set, and have a ton of capital to use on a refocused collection. I would at least see if there is anything else out there that piqued your interest before doing so. A lot has changed since your departure from collecting.

marinocollector · 03-08-2019, 07:01 AM

10,000s Jordan RC made..... only 225 03-04 Exquisite base.... Card Collectibles should get interesting over the next couple decades as we've demanded our cards are so scarce it should never meet demand.

Mule5 · 03-08-2019, 12:35 PM

Interesting; so these got really popular, people started buying them up and hanging onto them rather than re-selling, hence the low supply. Figured these would be popular, but am a bit surprised they don't get circulated much. I realize that each card is fairly rare (225), but I didn't think the set was that rare as a whole (~42 x 225 = ~9500), so I naively thought more would be around. Clearly people who have bought these aren't willing to let them go, and 10,000 is a pretty limited supply for a very high demand.

I guess if I'm going to go for it I'll need to be in it for the long haul...

Thanks everyone for the comments and perspective!

Indeed things have changed a lot in 10 years. Been listening to some of the cool podcasts and reading some of the interesting websites out there, trying to catch-up on things.

rhigh2390 · 03-08-2019, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mule5

Interesting; so these got really popular, people started buying them up and hanging onto them rather than re-selling, hence the low supply. Figured these would be popular, but am a bit surprised they don't get circulated much. I realize that each card is fairly rare (225), but I didn't think the set was that rare as a whole (~42 x 225 = ~9500), so I naively thought more would be around. Clearly people who have bought these aren't willing to let them go, and 10,000 is a pretty limited supply for a very high demand.

I guess if I'm going to go for it I'll need to be in it for the long haul...

Thanks everyone for the comments and perspective!

Indeed things have changed a lot in 10 years. Been listening to some of the cool podcasts and reading some of the interesting websites out there, trying to catch-up on things.

As long as you buy what YOU like instead of what the "hobby" says to buy (what's hot), you will be happy and not regret it.

BC81 · 03-08-2019, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhigh2390

As long as you buy what YOU like instead of what the "hobby" says to buy (what's hot), you will be happy and not regret it.

This is so true. Buying purely for investment gives you the bad case of FOMO. You will be endlessly going after prospect after prospect without the joy of collecting.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BravesFan4Life · 03-08-2019, 10:57 PM

The first year of Exquisite, highly collected especially it being Lebron, Wade, etcs rookie years. People are love the set, it will be next to impossible to put together a base set in a timely manner going forward.

Beavers98 · 03-09-2019, 10:29 AM

If you continue putting the set together you should do an update thread. Pretty sweet!!

the27guy · 03-09-2019, 10:52 AM

Just looked at my email. In January 2018, there was a near complete exquisite 2003 set up for BIN. It had all of the base vets including MJ, Kobe, etc as well as all of the rookies with the exception of the best 5 cards.

I Offered $2k.

Seller ended up getting $2500.

2003 will always be the most popular year but I think the price point is beyond reasonable at this point - speaking to the base set.

For anyone out there looking for a fun and cheaper project, I’d suggest another exquisite base set. 2005’s are considered by most the best looking of all. And at 10-25% of the cost on 2003’s, it has a better starting point.

drobfan8 · 03-09-2019, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the27guy

Just looked at my email. In January 2018, there was a near complete exquisite 2003 set up for BIN. It had all of the base vets including MJ, Kobe, etc as well as all of the rookies with the exception of the best 5 cards.

I Offered $2k.

Seller ended up getting $2500.

2003 will always be the most popular year but I think the price point is beyond reasonable at this point - speaking to the base set.

For anyone out there looking for a fun and cheaper project, I’d suggest another exquisite base set. 2005’s are considered by most the best looking of all. And at 10-25% of the cost on 2003’s, it has a better starting point.

I think $2500 is a steal.

I'm gonna make a bold call but we'll see base of the top HOFers (even TD etc) hit $1k someday.

Great call on the 05/06. I once bought the entire base set for $380 (no rookies) and I nearly completed the Gold set. Had MJ, LeBron, Kobe. Them all

KhalDrogo · 03-09-2019, 03:25 PM

The last MJ base that sold was raw and got $1000 in March 2018. I would love to get my hands on a copy.

elee712 · 03-09-2019, 03:35 PM

I believe a lot of exquisite base in that year were lost in some natural disaster a couple years ago. It's the one where the collector died later on but he tried to collects as much as he could.

the27guy · 03-09-2019, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drobfan8

I think $2500 is a steal.

I'm gonna make a bold call but we'll see base of the top HOFers (even TD etc) hit $1k someday.

Great call on the 05/06. I once bought the entire base set for $380 (no rookies) and I nearly completed the Gold set. Had MJ, LeBron, Kobe. Them all

Certainly. And I should have purchased it. But there are a lot of things that I should have purchased a year ago.

It’s a great set. It’s worth collecting. It’s more expensive than what I am now willing to pay though.

jbarnett83 · 03-09-2019, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the27guy

For anyone out there looking for a fun and cheaper project, I’d suggest another exquisite base set. 2005’s are considered by most the best looking of all. And at 10-25% of the cost on 2003’s, it has a better starting point.

Agreed, love 05/06 and would like to get my hands on the Nash gold. Another one I’m a big fan of is 09-10, they have a Refractor type finish and the photography is incredible

WillC · 03-09-2019, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elee712

I believe a lot of exquisite base in that year were lost in some natural disaster a couple years ago. It's the one where the collector died later on but he tried to collects as much as he could.

I remember that.

He used to contact me regularly to ask if I had any 2003-04 Exquisite for sale.

His story - about losing all his cards in a hurricane - seemed far-fetched at first, especially as people generously started to send him cards. It felt like a scam (which says a lot about how cynical I've become). But, in retrospect, I think the whole thing was just an awfully sad and true story. Like you said, he passed away soon after. I wonder what happened to his cards? Not that it matters in the big picture.

thecomebacker · 03-09-2019, 03:58 PM

05/06 gold is my favorite.
Price on 03-04 base or gold is getting out of hand!

BC81 · 03-09-2019, 04:09 PM

Agreed 05/06 base was beautiful. One of the best looking sets ever.

I always appreciated how UD tried to make each exquisite set completely different in design each year.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mule5 · 03-09-2019, 08:43 PM

Just to clarify... I liquidated everything when I got out.... but was thinking of going for this set again. Prices are nuts though. But there are a few cards I sold that I can’t believe how much they are now.

Good idea on 05/06. I still have my exquisite bosh base cards, so not quite staring from scratch

dherm360 · 03-09-2019, 09:06 PM

2005/06 is terrible, no one collect this

WillC · 03-10-2019, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dherm360

2005/06 is terrible, no one collect this

Ha!

win23 · 11-01-2019, 01:46 AM

I still have the complete 2003 Exquisite base graded by psa and bgs for both MJ And kobe

k13 · 11-01-2019, 03:50 AM

Is a 3 color Barbosa rpa worth anything?

I assume about $100-$150 at best right?

03-07-2019, 11:29 PM	#1
Mule5 Member Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: Victoria, Canada Posts: 54 tymuhly tmuhly	Why no 03-04 Exquisite? Hi there! I'm just getting back into the hobby after about a decade hiatus. Before I got out the last time (and sold the bulk of my collection) I had taken a pretty good run at the 03-04 Exquisite base set (about 75% complete). It was the set to collect (in my opinion) at the time, when I was collecting at my peak. Fast forward to today, and I thought I'd jump back in and start to slowly put this set together again (for nostalgia's sake and because I really like the set!). But to my surprise I hardly see any of these out there. I figured it would be a slow grind to find these, but man, these are really hard to come by (unless I want to pay really high BINs). I figured at least some of the less popular players would be pretty available.... So, I'm curious if any forum members know what is going on? Are people just hoarding these? Why is that the case? (Other iconic cards and sets seem to be much more 'liquid'; I could buy a Jordan RC pretty much every day I think). I'm not trying to hype or pump or whatever, just genuinely curious about the phenomenon with this set and if there is something I am missing in trying to collect these. Thanks! __________________ PC: 2003-04 Exquisite Basketball Pascal Siakam, Chris Bosh, Raptors championship team player autos 18-19 Revolution Vet autos

03-07-2019, 11:36 PM	#2
Kingofkings1281 Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Oklahoma Posts: 9,610 Kingofkings1281	Pretty much anything from 03-04 has been dried up for quite some time and the key cards rarely become available. __________________ Always looking for high end Vince Carter, Randy Moss and Tom Brady. http://kingofkings1281.imgur.com

03-08-2019, 12:02 AM	#3
drobfan8 Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 17,814 drobfan8 drobfan8	We're down to seeing about 3 or 4 of each player pop up a year. Less in some cases. Jordan's are scarce especially. I'm gonna really regret selling mine too early, but I had my reasons anyways. __________________ Wanted, 03/04 Exquisite Base Gold Tim Duncan and 05/06 Exquisite Base Gold /25 Michael Jordan

03-08-2019, 12:40 AM	#4
thecomebacker Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: CA, USA Posts: 2,043	In 2009, an 03-04 MJ Exquisite limited logos sold for less than 1k. Today that same card would sell for over 30k. You get the idea. __________________ lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Collecting Bulls Players 3 Color GU Patch Cards.

03-08-2019, 06:58 AM	#5
phdbeckett Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Ohio Posts: 2,804 phdbeckett	To take a slightly different approach, you could liquidate your partial set, and have a ton of capital to use on a refocused collection. I would at least see if there is anything else out there that piqued your interest before doing so. A lot has changed since your departure from collecting. __________________ Collecting: Kobe Bryant - LeBron James - Michael Jordan Giannis Rare Base / Parallels / Inserts[COLOR="black"]

03-08-2019, 07:01 AM	#6
marinocollector Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Locally Posts: 8,290	10,000s Jordan RC made..... only 225 03-04 Exquisite base.... Card Collectibles should get interesting over the next couple decades as we've demanded our cards are so scarce it should never meet demand. __________________ There's 100 made! Lets hope that one of the .00000001% of the world population that actually own this card decides that today is the day they offer it for sale.

03-08-2019, 12:35 PM	#7
Mule5 Member Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: Victoria, Canada Posts: 54 tymuhly tmuhly	Interesting; so these got really popular, people started buying them up and hanging onto them rather than re-selling, hence the low supply. Figured these would be popular, but am a bit surprised they don't get circulated much. I realize that each card is fairly rare (225), but I didn't think the set was that rare as a whole (~42 x 225 = ~9500), so I naively thought more would be around. Clearly people who have bought these aren't willing to let them go, and 10,000 is a pretty limited supply for a very high demand. I guess if I'm going to go for it I'll need to be in it for the long haul... Thanks everyone for the comments and perspective! Indeed things have changed a lot in 10 years. Been listening to some of the cool podcasts and reading some of the interesting websites out there, trying to catch-up on things. __________________ PC: 2003-04 Exquisite Basketball Pascal Siakam, Chris Bosh, Raptors championship team player autos 18-19 Revolution Vet autos

03-08-2019, 10:57 PM	#10
BravesFan4Life Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Broomfield, CO(Its Really just a Suburb of Denver) Posts: 1,440 atlbravesfan4life BravesFan4Life	The first year of Exquisite, highly collected especially it being Lebron, Wade, etcs rookie years. People are love the set, it will be next to impossible to put together a base set in a timely manner going forward.

03-09-2019, 10:29 AM	#11
Beavers98 Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Ames, IA Posts: 11,024 beavers98	If you continue putting the set together you should do an update thread. Pretty sweet!!

03-09-2019, 10:52 AM	#12
the27guy Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 14,673 the27guy the27guy	Just looked at my email. In January 2018, there was a near complete exquisite 2003 set up for BIN. It had all of the base vets including MJ, Kobe, etc as well as all of the rookies with the exception of the best 5 cards. I Offered $2k. Seller ended up getting $2500. 2003 will always be the most popular year but I think the price point is beyond reasonable at this point - speaking to the base set. For anyone out there looking for a fun and cheaper project, I’d suggest another exquisite base set. 2005’s are considered by most the best looking of all. And at 10-25% of the cost on 2003’s, it has a better starting point. __________________ @thereal27guy Founder of Basketball Card Fanatic Magazine

03-09-2019, 03:25 PM	#14
KhalDrogo Member Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 41,149	The last MJ base that sold was raw and got $1000 in March 2018. I would love to get my hands on a copy. __________________ I love PSA!

03-09-2019, 03:35 PM	#15
elee712 Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Bay Area Posts: 2,635 elee712	I believe a lot of exquisite base in that year were lost in some natural disaster a couple years ago. It's the one where the collector died later on but he tried to collects as much as he could.

03-09-2019, 03:58 PM	#19
thecomebacker Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: CA, USA Posts: 2,043	05/06 gold is my favorite. Price on 03-04 base or gold is getting out of hand! __________________ lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Collecting Bulls Players 3 Color GU Patch Cards.

03-09-2019, 04:09 PM	#20
BC81 Member Join Date: Feb 2019 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,152 BC_Sports_Collection BC_Sports_Collection	Agreed 05/06 base was beautiful. One of the best looking sets ever. I always appreciated how UD tried to make each exquisite set completely different in design each year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

03-09-2019, 08:43 PM	#21
Mule5 Member Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: Victoria, Canada Posts: 54 tymuhly tmuhly	Just to clarify... I liquidated everything when I got out.... but was thinking of going for this set again. Prices are nuts though. But there are a few cards I sold that I can’t believe how much they are now. Good idea on 05/06. I still have my exquisite bosh base cards, so not quite staring from scratch __________________ PC: 2003-04 Exquisite Basketball Pascal Siakam, Chris Bosh, Raptors championship team player autos 18-19 Revolution Vet autos

03-09-2019, 09:06 PM	#22
dherm360 Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: wisconsin Posts: 5,422 archie44 dherm360	2005/06 is terrible, no one collect this

11-01-2019, 01:46 AM	#24
win23 Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 62	I still have the complete 2003 Exquisite base graded by psa and bgs for both MJ And kobe

11-01-2019, 03:50 AM	#25
k13 Banned Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 12,617	Is a 3 color Barbosa rpa worth anything? I assume about $100-$150 at best right?