90s basketball boxes drying up; current b-ball hobby trends commentary

[WilyWestbrook0]

I check Charm City, DACardWorld, and Steel City periodically, and man, the 90s basketball boxes are really drying up on the wholesale and quasi-wholesale distributor sites. I'm glad I was able to pick up a few the last couple of years before they started disappearing en masse in these recent weeks.

The basketball hobby is really going through an interesting phase right now. For current cards, collectors are drooling over the Prizm/Optic type stuff (about the only Panini things really popular), but they are also having a big nostalgia bug for all things pre-Panini, especially the big 00s rookie years (09-10, 08-09, and 03-04; 07-08 sort of simply because of Durant), and mid to late 90s basketball (not so much the junk wax era, though even those have picked up a little thanks to the Jordan grading craze, but especially 95-96 onward because of the better rare insert/parallel hits and rookie classes).

I'm keeping a list of boxes I might want to look into once my new job officially starts (I have two more of 12-13 Limited coming in, but otherwise need to save until employment starts up again), but other than stuff from the 12-13 rookie class that I've been getting periodically (Limited and Timeless Treasures), the only ones I think I can get are 96-97 Stadium Club 2 and 01-02 Stadium Club. Most of my other favorite sets from bygone years I've either gotten, or else have disappeared (good luck finding any Finest left on these sites, for instance!).

[jordan23]

Are you collecting wax to store away for future re-sale? Maybe try eBay rather than the usual sports card retailers.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Breaking them for the fun of it. I'm usually a little skeptical of eBay sellers. I haven't purchased a box on eBay in years.

[JustinMetallica]

I never collected/bought basketball stuff until around the LeBron era (Im a NE Ohio guy) I have been buying any lower cost 90s inserts even if they're not the good ones just because I too enjoy those 90s style inserts. I would trust eBay for the most part but I can see being skeptical about certain products on there. There's a major mark up though on those boxes they'd be a fun break but for most of the chase cards unless you're going for MJ you miswhile just buy the singles.

[jordan23]

Breaking them for the fun of it. I'm usually a little skeptical of eBay sellers. I haven't purchased a box on eBay in years.

Well i would say its worth the gamble. Purchased many 90's boxes off Ebay and never feel disappointed at all.

[pwaldo]

I think it is a combination of two things that is creating the perfect storm for this. First the newer Panini stuff is junk and the stars do not compare to the past. Second the older stuff contains better cards of better people (Jordan in a Bulls uniform is a BIG driver of this). I mean let's say you break a box of basketball cards from 1999 and have the chance to hit a 1/1 you could possibly hit one of Jordan, Kobe, Iverson, Shaq, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, Barkley, Stockton, Pippen, Kevin Garnett, Grant Hill, etc. Plus the rookies that year would be Dirk, Vince Carter, etc. If you gave me the option of that versus the all time crappy draft class from this season plus no Jordan or Lebron, etc I'm going with the 90s stuff every time.