Am I the only one?

[MikeFitzpatrick]

If you are looking at it from an investment point of view the most reasonable bang for your buck/value would be the SP authentic FW rc's. 60 RC's each year limited to /999 all hard signed. They "hold" their value well and go up reasonably as the years go by. Plus I love the look of them personally. With the YG's the UD series 1/2 set is a set a lot and I mean a lot of collectors do. They get the complete set and some hoard YG's because they do have a great value to them for a non numbered non signed RC. The YG's are more accessable to some collectors as well who can afford to get Hall yg's for 50 a pop but not his spa fw (which will probably be double or more).

[polacksrules]

The other factor that you would have to consider in all of this is that there are more collectors putting the a set together of young guns then there would be of the other sets that are serial numbered. That with play collecters, would make more demand for the young guns and better justify the value and prices that they go for then the serial numberd ones.

[ToHockey]

Very interesting, thanks for the input and replies.

[TheIronHorse4]

One other thing not mentioned is that Young guns are technically SP's. They fall 1:4 packs. In a given case you can expect to probably get a complete set of YG's and a few extras. You're not even guaranteed to get every YG per case. That still makes them somewhat "rare" in comparison to the rest of the regular base print run. That coupled with everything else that was said is why they get the price they get.

[pacadie]

Another thing: set collectors.

Not a lot of people will try to build the UD Artifacts sets, SP included. But a lot of Upper Deck S1 & 2 collectors will. A LOT. This is probably the most collected hockey set since 20 years. And to build a complete set, you have to buy YG. All of them. So, a lot of people are going after YG to build their set. This push the price higher.

Another thing: the market is flood with YG right now. But when collectors have build their set, they put it in a box and those YG never see the light of the day again. If you know what I mean.

Just for the heck of it, try to find an Eric Staal YG, a Jay Bouwmeester YG or a Dany Heatley YG. And try to pay half of BV on eBay. Good luck with that. Even Ron Hainsey YG is hard to come by at BV price! I even saw a Stanislav Chistov YG (or what is Alexander Svitov YG?) going for more than 20 $ on eBay last week. The guy is not even playing in the NHL for what... six years?

So, people buy YG now because they don't want to overpay in a few year, when what is an obscur player right now will caught in fire. Take Ryan Kesler for example. Good luck finding his YG eBay for less than 10 $. It worthed 5 $ three months ago...

[ColtsD21]

to be honest Young Guns are what got me collecting hockey. Being a Football collector I understand how cool it is to pull a Superfractor or a card /25, but it's cool that a Gem can come out of such an affordbale product. Im pretty sure the top draft picks, like Travarse last year are short printed compared to the others,. Correct me if i wrong? Just because they arent stamped with 1/10 doesnt mean they cant be rare. Look at the topps football products. They arent stamped but because Topps tells me so, I know a Tony Pike auto is /50. Pretty cool if you ask me.

[xirxious]

They also have a history. They've made them for 20+ years. Back when Lidstrom was a rookie, that was THE rookie card to get, top of the line. They've built a following over the years and are relatively inexpensive to break compared to spgu, cup and Ultimate. Aren't they also the first set to come out each year? Peopke are chomping at the bit for the new product that time of the year.

[Kipper_Backlund]

Okanagan peaches Mmmm...

As has been noted, the Upper Deck Young Guns have the longest track record any rookie card (except for OPC) in the hobby today. They have been a part of hockey for 20 years now. There is instant brand recognition with these cards which fuels the demand. While there is a steady supply of them, as you noted, the increased demand for them ensures that prices always remain high.

You mentioned some of the serial numbered RCs from other products - when you think of a product like SP Game Used (where there's RCs #'d /99) or Artifacts or some of the others out there, the rookies are not what fuels the demand for these products. Very few people open up a box of Artifacts hoping to get one of the better /999 RCs, they want to hit a sick patch. When I open up SP Game Used, I want a By The Letter or some 8-player jersey card.

Think of it like this....

There is a bin with 5,000 delicious Okanagan peaches in it.
Beside it is a bin with 499 papayas.
Beside it is a display of 99 dragonfruits.

I don't mind papayas or dragonfruits, but I love Okanagan peaches. I grew up eating them, they taste fantastic, there's nothing better out there. Even if they're trying to blow out the papayas and dragonfruits at rock-bottom prices, I'll still pay a premium price for those peaches because they're simply awesome.

[theboxbreaker96]

honestly i wish all cards would go up in price indv. people who bust boxes most of the time lose money and sometime lose a lot of it. but to your question i understand it but the young guns have been around for a while people collected them when they first came out and still do.

stated earlier i like spa auto fw /999 patch version just a sweet product wish there were more patches

[bmoy88]

It's the "Nike" mentality.

While it may not be the most SP'd or best looking rookie out there, it's the one everybody has to own.