Why Don't We Have "_____-Sanity" in Hockey Cards?

[comfortably9numb]

I feel like its just harder to call personally who will be amazing. Football players and Basketball players largely go right into action right? Hockey isn't usually like that for anyone selected after the 1st round. You usually sit in the minors I feel. Obv there are exceptions, but the longer duration allows for the hype to build. People can say "Man, did you hear about so-n-so? 60 pts in 40 games in the AHL." and the momentum just builds. Football I think is different, because players selected in the rounds 2-7 might instantly play, just my two cents though

[clearshot]

Basketball=Massive International/Asian market, hardcore collectors and fans in China, Japan, the Philippines, etc...

Football=All American market, with small but solid fan base in Canada and elsewhere

Hockey=Canadian market primarily, though dedicated, with the smallest following of the 4 major sports in the US.

Factor CDN population which is about 34 million to the population in the US, about 313 million, it just doesn't compare.

[OPCbreaker43]

I feel like its just harder to call personally who will be amazing. Football players and Basketball players largely go right into action right? Hockey isn't usually like that for anyone selected after the 1st round. You usually sit in the minors I feel. Obv there are exceptions, but the longer duration allows for the hype to build. People can say "Man, did you hear about so-n-so? 60 pts in 40 games in the AHL." and the momentum just builds. Football I think is different, because players selected in the rounds 2-7 might instantly play, just my two cents though

Look at baseball then. Autos of players who never played a MLB game go for $100 plus and $2500 plus for very low numbered ones.

[Estovia]

I think it has more to do with the fact that there are very VERY few players who's individual effort in hockey can sway a team's season, and when they do come along we know 3-4 years in advance what we're expecting from them. US college football is probably the closest thing any sport has to compare to the interest generated by Canadian Juniors and International leagues who are featuring these players 4, 5, 6 years before they're ever even considered by the NHL draft. In hockey you know far in advance which players are "big money" in the hobby, and it takes a HUGE amount of both personal and team success in the NHL to push a card value very far upward, and in some cases even to push a value down.

After that, yes.. the other major factor would probably be that there are not only more fans of the more US-centric sports, but with that breeds more BANDWAGON fans, who are typically the ones who cause those spikes in demand and price. Those people are the ones who want to grab the Jeremy Lin or Colin Kapernick RCs for as cheap as they can and try to flip them - I can't imagine any of these people genuinely think their Kapernick or Lin RC is going to grow or maintain value over any length of time. Most of the hockey fan/collectors I know are very devoted to their team, know who their prospects are and what to expect, are capable of identifying an albatross when they see one, and don't get involved in outrageous bidding wars over 3rd line players who have a good contract year.

[pwaldo]

One of the parts of the hype equation that you need to result in something going for big bucks is media exposure. Lin was in New York and the 49ers were in the Super Bowl. Hockey doesn't get much exposure in the United States so if Sportscenter isn't covering it and making it a big deal then the sheep won't go nuts over it.

I remember when Yahoo.com did a front page story on the 2007 Topps Derek Jeter error card. It was selling for under $10 on eBay and after the story hit for the next couple of days on eBay the card was selling for up to $300! It settled down a lot after that and probably can be picked up for less than a couple bucks now but if Yahoo didn't cover it then the casual collector wouldn't have been on eBay driving the prices to ridiculous levels.

[Crosby 87]

This is why I like to hit the .10 bins up. You only need to hit on about 10-15% of the cards you pick up in those bins to make a good chunk of change back. Football of course is the easiest to do it with here. Just find about 5-6 players and buy them all up in those bins as they are usually from case breakers. This season I invested in :
Ryan Mallett
Stevan Ridley
Michael Floyd
Brock Osweiler
Colin Kaepernick

[Crosby 87]

Look at baseball then. Autos of players who never played a MLB game go for $100 plus and $2500 plus for very low numbered ones.

this is so true last baseball season I picked up a Tim Alderson 2007 TRISTAR Prospects Plus Orange #15 /5 Auto for $5 . You probably saying who? This guy was at one time a big prospect in MLB and this was im sure a triple digit card in the prime but now just stuck in the bins.