QUESTION!! about the prices!!

[OsgoodnMason]

Just wondering been out of the hobby for a bit...wondering is the economy in cards gone up?

[OsgoodnMason]

anyone

[bfeather]

I would have to say NO but have heard of some big purchases about a two weeks ago.

Brian F-

[rudeboy]

if you diversify you stand a chance to make some coin. usually not in hockey cards tho, it seems to be the least collected major sport

[pacadie]

I am back in the hobby for five years now. From what I saw on eBay and on trading sites like this one, hockey cards economy have never been worse.

Less and less people are buying wax. There is still a pretty large and active group of high-end collectors, but mid-end and low-end seems rarer and rarer.

From what I saw, they've never been less singles offer on eBay. You are lucky if a card numbered to 100 pops more than four or five times. And trading for anything that is not high-end seems virtualy impossible these days.

Last week, I updated the BV on my RC PC. A lot of those have gone down during the last 12 months. Even for cards that are known to hold their value over time (like YG). You know things can be better when Beckett begin to drop BVs...

But some may have another opinion on the question, base on what they see in their respective hobby shops and in different expos and salons.

[P_Mo80]

I'm not sure either ... i just got back into it recently. I was overwhelmed with several things at first, parallels, inserts, SP, serial numbers, and was surprised at the cost of packs / boxes. When I was young (70's) cards were widely collected by kids. We carried them around in our back pockets, got them taken away from us at school, and made ridiculous trades with others. I wonder if the card industry has priced itself out of the market with the youngsters? Don't get me wrong ... I LOVE the cards I see out there today. They are beautiful and really innovative ... but I wonder how many 8 year olds can drop 3-10 dollas for a pack of cards these days?

[FrankToronto]

Tough to say... I believe there was a spike in 2005-06 with the Crosby and Ovechkin rookie card hype (a lot of collectors from the past returned and a lot of new ones were attracted). But it hasn't been sustained. There are too many things that keep this hobby from being mainstream like it once was and so not enough people get hooked on collecting.

Attendance at the Toronto Card Show has gradually increased year-over-year since we started in 2006. I don't think this is in correlation with the strength of the hobby however. But a matter of our continued improvement of the marketing and operation of the show. What I'd really like to see is a huge spike in our attendance due to a general increase in the hobby overall.

The Spring and Fall Expo at the International Centre has seen very good attendance, from my perspective.

I don't have a great perspective of what's happening on eBay and I can't speak for any card shop owners.

I think the hobby is generally healthy, but with that said it has it's weaknesses.

[FrankToronto]

I'm not sure either ... i just got back into it recently. I was overwhelmed with several things at first, parallels, inserts, SP, serial numbers, and was surprised at the cost of packs / boxes. When I was young (70's) cards were widely collected by kids. We carried them around in our back pockets, got them taken away from us at school, and made ridiculous trades with others. I wonder if the card industry has priced itself out of the market with the youngsters? Don't get me wrong ... I LOVE the cards I see out there today. They are beautiful and really innovative ... but I wonder how many 8 year olds can drop 3-10 dollas for a pack of cards these days?

This is a great example of why the hobby is far from growing and becoming mainstream again. While P_Mo80 may have been able to get back into collecting, so many more I imagine are too overwhelmed and exit just as quick as they entered.

[gatesnapper]

i am back into collecting after being a kid in the 90's. stopped around 99-00.

my initial reaction is how much of it is high-end now. very few low end traders/buyers.

[jester240]

The best part of dropping out and coming back is picking up the late 90's and early 00's cards I couldnt afford back then. Most of them sell far cheaper than they did back then. I just put together the 01-02 SPGU Tools of the Game set cheaper than I could even think of 10 years ago. There are some cards from then that sell for big money but over all they are cheaper. Most of the time early 00's card are only selling for a lot if you run into another collector putting together the same set.

I still have a hard time buying alot of the new stuff seeing as in less than 3 years you can usually get it for a fraction of the price. Some of it is hard to find cause its limited and often people are trying to get out of it what they paid. But usually after a while they drop the price.

Welcome back and good luck collecting.