Can someone get me up to speed on the basketball card market?

[BrewCityBucksFan]

Hello everyone,

I have been out of the basketball card market for a couple of years now because I have not had the money or time to grow my collection.

Well, now that the Bucks almost have as many wins as last year, I am back in. I found out quickly though that things look way different than when I left.

When I left, I don't recall Panini making cards at all. Upper Deck and Topps were all that really existed.

I have been reading a lot on the forums about Upper Deck going down, which makes sense at first glance because Panini has a countless number of products that didn't exist five years ago.

So I have to ask...what happened? And, what does this mean for collectors, especially in light of Panini and their new collegiate contract I have read about?

And on a side note, is the quality of products the same as it used to be? I was looking at getting a nicer hobby box to break, intrigued by all the new sets with a lot of autos...but it seems to me that a lot of these products guarantee x number of autos...and watching countless breaks of the last few years, the autos are usually rookies who didn't make the cut in previous years. I also seem to see A LOT more autos from retired players as well. I feel like competition has driven companies to make a lot more cooler patch cards and the like, but the quality of player pool seems to be on the decline, and even the best of the best (with the exceptions of Lebron and MJ) don't seem to carry the value they once did.

Does anyone have light to shed on that topic?

I would be happy to hear what anyone has to say about it. Opinions and short comments are welcome too.

Thank you in advance for helping me get back up to speed.

[pwaldo]

Basically Panini the European sticker company bought Donruss/Playoff for a ton of money. They then used their money to buy an exclusive in the basketball card market. Thus forcing Topps and Upper Deck out of the NBA card market. Upper Deck still has exclusive rights to Jordan and Lebron so they made products of college athletes, high school (for those guys who didn't go to college Lebron and Kobe mostly), and retired guys. That might be in doubt now though because Panini went around gobbling up over 200 college team rights or something like that over the summer.

So to sum up the basketball card market it stinks right now. No Topps. Panini with no Lebron or Jordan autographs. Upper Deck being squeezed out of everything left and right. It is a mess. Eventually Panini wants UD to be in such financial hurt so that they can buy them up and have Lebron and Jordan for their struggling products.

Also I would say the majority of collectors prefer the stuff from before Panini's entry into the NBA market than the current stuff now. Many collectors have left or have just flat out refused to open Panini's products thus causing them to sit on card shop stores shelves and collect dust and negatively hurt the eBay resale market.

[AndyG23]

Pwaldo sums it up perfectly. The exclusive license has done nothing to help the hobby. Football collectors will begin to know what it feels like once Panini's exclusive license with the NFL kicks in.

Retired veterans autos have been overproduced by both Panini and UD which have reduced the prices. Autos of players such as Grant Hill, David Robinson and Penny Hardaway can now be picked up for less than $30. MJ and LJ college autos aren't that desirable. Their NBA autos are holding value though.

[BrewCityBucksFan]

Hello everyone,

I have been out of the basketball card market for a couple of years now because I have not had the money or time to grow my collection.

Well, now that the Bucks almost have as many wins as last year, I am back in. I found out quickly though that things look way different than when I left.

When I left, I don't recall Panini making cards at all. Upper Deck and Topps were all that really existed.

I have been reading a lot on the forums about Upper Deck going down, which makes sense at first glance because Panini has a countless number of products that didn't exist five years ago.

So I have to ask...what happened? And, what does this mean for collectors, especially in light of Panini and their new collegiate contract I have read about?

And on a side note, is the quality of products the same as it used to be? I was looking at getting a nicer hobby box to break, intrigued by all the new sets with a lot of autos...but it seems to me that a lot of these products guarantee x number of autos...and watching countless breaks of the last few years, the autos are usually rookies who didn't make the cut in previous years. I also seem to see A LOT more autos from retired players as well. I feel like competition has driven companies to make a lot more cooler patch cards and the like, but the quality of player pool seems to be on the decline, and even the best of the best (with the exceptions of Lebron and MJ) don't seem to carry the value they once did.

Does anyone have light to shed on that topic?

I would be happy to hear what anyone has to say about it. Opinions and short comments are welcome too.

Thank you in advance for helping me get back up to speed.

Thank you. This explanation gave me enough background information to figure this out.

Now I understand after flipping through the advertisements UD products from the last few years why they are entirely NCAA driven...so without them, UD has nowhere to go.

Thanks!

[BrewCityBucksFan]

Pwaldo sums it up perfectly. The exclusive license has done nothing to help the hobby. Football collectors will begin to know what it feels like once Panini's exclusive license with the NFL kicks in.

Retired veterans autos have been overproduced by both Panini and UD which have reduced the prices. Autos of players such as Grant Hill, David Robinson and Penny Hardaway can now be picked up for less than $30. MJ and LJ college autos aren't that desirable. Their NBA autos are holding value though.

If anything, I suppose their NBA autos will go up in price as they are not being produced right now. And considering that UD really only has retired vets now, that makes sense.

Thank you!

[WilyWestbrook0]

Yep, that's the card market in full.

As far as collectors go, there aren't many older school, lower end collectors left. The modern hobby is now driven by very high end product. There is very little marketing toward children and us lower-middle class folk. The most active basketball card forum, on another site, is almost EXCLUSIVELY high end stuff as a result.

Even the good old day product is cheaper now. It's so easy to get Finest and Topps Chrome RCs from the '90s for cheap, and even semi and unlisted star autos and GUs can be had for a few bucks at a crack. Makes it neat for older school buyers who can now acquire those once highly desired items with ease; not so much for traders, who have mostly disappeared.

My best cards are an MJ GU and a Bird patch. Back in the day, those would have been considered high end ($100+). Now they are just ho-hum $60 and $80 dollar cards.

[jordan23]

i must add that the Jordan card market for Bulls auto's/patch/90's rare serial/ desirable inserts has exploded this past 4 years. Cards which could be had for $5000 earlier on such as the 97Jordan green precious metal gems is now selling for over $100000

Good luck with deciding what you need to get the most out of the hobby. Feel free to post any other questions.

[BrewCityBucksFan]

Thank you both for the insight!

You have been very helpful. I was wondering if my take on everything was a bit conservative, so it is nice to hear other people's take on it.

[pwaldo]

I'd also add that the basketball market is now dominated by non US buyers. If you were to sell a high end Jordan on eBay and only sold to the US you would make way less than you would if you opened it up to China, Japan, Europe, etc. There are probably as many collectors on here outside of the US that collect basketball than inside the US. That partly explains why you can still find very rare and now expensive basketball cards at card shops and card shows. They sell like poop there but online and especially outside the US there are tons of fans of basketball.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Glad to help. I've been collecting hoops since 1993, so it's been a crazy ride. Just when one thinks the hobby has settled in, it changes again, that's for sure.

This is a good, inquisitive, well-written thread.