Hey everyone !
I've been staying away from blogging and reading blogs (for a lot of various reasons mainsly connected to life, I suppose), but I still miss you all (you know who you are) and hope you're doing good and ready to tacle a brand new year ! (yay)
I subscribe to a digital magazine service, and was reading the latest Beckett issues, and they actually made me mad. Because the content is really poor, for one, but also because of the insane prices that are advertised in it. It's 96 all over again. Beckett used to bring me joy....
I'm a little bummed, here in France. I used to enjoy getting a few boxes a year, a hanger pack here and there, some 7 or 8 pack boxes and something nice for our year long box breaks with Matt and Brian. I'd buy on Ebay trade fodder to make my trading partners happy, and all was well.
But now, I'm priced out.
I traditionaly congratulate myself on a job well done in December at the book store with a start of the year binge, but there's really nothing I can buy, and I refuse to pay over $100 for a box of flagship, or $3 packs in blaster boxes. It's close to x2 compared to a couple of years ago. Even old 90s boxes with nothing much to be found in them are twice as expensive as before (and basketball is a real joke).
Prices on Comc seem stable enough. I actually bought some cards yesterday. ETA is May. That's 5 months from now, for those counting. The good news is that I'll have completely forgotten ordering cards by then and they'll come as a total surprise.
I suppose flea markets and card shows are a no-no right now in the US, but I wonder if there'll be a revival there too ?
Anyway, I was wondering how everybody was living this newfound popularity ? Is there excitement ? Resentment ? Impatience ? Are you selling your collection and cashing in ? (not really the blogging mentality, but who knows?) Has it affected trading ?
I hear you on a lot of what you said. It's happiness when I see SOMETHING on the shelves, and pure joy when it's something I would want to rip. Chrome Garbage Pail Kids and anything WWE just doesn't do it for me. Not does the latest POS Leaf release ($40 for a guaranteed 1/1 proof? WTF is that?)
ReplyDeleteSo I made a COMC purchase. I too was one with a March del date, but it arrived last week. SO I don't think it will be 5 months for you. At least, I hope not. Many have been singing the praise of baseballcardstore.ca cuz of virtual dime boxing. I need to go through and see what sets I can complete at a decent price. Otherwise, when I have played with my cards, it's been reorganization and coming up with new ideas for them. I started a couple A&G mini frankensets - one of retired players and the other is all the oddball cards. makes for new search options in the world.
I'm trying not to get down because of the pricing out of the hobby right now. Thankfully, for me, the worst seems to be football and basketball, two sports I don't collect. If I ever saw anything of those on the shelf I would pick up and resell to fund my own pocket.
Overall, the new normal is more affecting me than anything. Love my family but damn I need to get the hell away from them and feel safe doing it!!! Going to the store is a break, only to be filled in with dread cuz the damn MAGAts can't be bothered to wear a mask or the ones that do can't seem to wear it properly. I have a household of high risk - I don't need this shit.
Anyway, I'll stop here. I think I have a stack of cards for you somewhere. Let's see if I can beat COMC to your mailbox.
I know there's a lot of resentment out there towards flippers... but that's only one aspect of collecting. There a renewed interest... and I don't see anything wrong with that. I love seeing our hobby thrive.
ReplyDeleteI decided to cut down on spending at the start of the year before the lockdown and hobby craze... so I haven't been impacted as much as other collectors. And although... I probably should have sold a lot of my big ticket items and cashed in... I didn't. Not my style. But I don't frown upon others doing it. If people are paying high prices, it's because there's demand and somebody needs to fulfill it... otherwise the prices will continue to soar.
I'm priced out of anything new, I will keep filling in some singles of specific stuff and whatever trades come through TCDB, but interest is as low as it has been in 10 years. Most of my "hobby" budget has gone to music in the past two months and I am pretty ok with that at this point.
ReplyDeleteStill going strong in the hobby but that's because my declining interest in "new" coincided with nothing new being available. I'm a bit miffed there's nothing in the card aisle when I show up, but then I think about what would be available and it's truly nothing I'm collecting.
ReplyDeleteThe stuff that I really like, vintage, oddballs from 40-50 years ago and random team needs are still plenty available. It seems flippers go for all the cards that are super well-known and that's not me.
I've been staying home and avoiding stores, let alone shows, although in some cases they're happening. So that's what's affecting me, but that would be true even if prices were lower. I have a couple of times gone into a Walgreen's or dollar store when they weren't crowded (and during times when there were few cases in my area) and found no cards, so there's that.
ReplyDeleteI did buy a blaster of Update online from Wal-Mart, and I've been buying from some online sellers. There are still cards to be found at reasonable prices.
Welcome Back. I came back to blogging at the start of last year, but its been a tough year. I'm not into collecting much these days, or buying much new, if I can ever find anything new on the store shelves. I plan on focussing more on what I already have, as far as the blog goes.
ReplyDeleteIt's not affecting me too much because I'm mostly interested in vintage anyway. But I don't think it's good long-term for the hobby for prices to be so high right now. Either the bubble will burst, and a lot of people will leave, or it won't burst, and then most people will get priced out. Oy vey.
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