Has anyone else noticed the increase in Card Prices?

**theboxbreaker96** · 07-14-2020, 01:37 PM

It seems to me that in 2020 card prices have increased significantly for some players. Some examples are Draisaitl Pastrnak Mcdavid YGs and Rookies, All Ovy Rookies have skyrocketed, Crosby Rookies have jumped significantly in the last few months. As a Pens fan Ive noticed the last few months Crosby and Lemieux Autos have jumped. Also have noticed Lemieux Rookies have gone up recently. What else have you guys noticed and why do you think prices have increased in 2020?

**30ranfordfan** · 07-14-2020, 01:58 PM

It's not just a hockey thing. The entire sportscard market has seen a boom in the last few months.

To a degree, I think it was a long time coming. Crosby Rookie Cards had a big uptick a few years ago... but the rest of hockey didn't follow suit. Eventually someone is going to say "Why is Crosby $600, and Ovechkin only $150? There's value to be gained with Ovechkin!" When enough people think like that, the value jumps quickly.

At a broader level, consider that a lot of rookie cards are being snapped up by "investor" types. Doesn't mean they're not collectors, but it is people looking for new cards to snap up, because they think they'll rise in value. If Mike Trout's Topps RC can sell for $1000s, why can't Crosby's YG go for (at least) $1k ?

Then mix vintage into it. If you see Crosby YGs breaking the $1k mark on a consistant basis, shouldn't high grade Lemieux be doing the same?

COVID19 has also helped. People are home, and board. No sports to watch. They remember the good old days, and their favorite players growing up. There's been a huge boom (baseball, in particular) in high grade RCs from the 80s & early 90s. Of course when one sport does it... the others follow suit. People sitting at home, and needing to do something with the money they'd normally spend at the casino, sporting events, etc.

Don't even have to go to the RCs. Look at 2012-13 Panini Prizims. Crosby base cards are selling for over $50. Why? Prizim is going like crazy in Basketball right now, so for some people it only makes sense that the hockey Prizim stuff should do well too.

**shockwiresports** · 07-14-2020, 04:34 PM

I agree!

I could not believe that before Ovechkin won the Cup a few years ago, his YG could be had for less than $100, absolutely crazy

The top players seem to get astronomical pricing and yes it seems the $1000 price target is held for such historical figures such as Gretzky, Crosby etc. and from other sports like LeBron, Trout, Brady

**pwaldo** · 07-14-2020, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by theboxbreaker96 View Post

why do you think prices have increased in 2020?

If you give people free money and trap them in their houses with nothing to do and no where to go they will buy stuff on the internet at prices they would have never done before. The US economy is still strong we are just severally limited on what we can do with our money right now. All the money from trips, sporting events, movies, etc has been pumped into things like sports cards and collectibles the last couple of months. The question is will these prices sustain or collapse when everything gets running again.

**RGM81** · 07-14-2020, 06:17 PM

Yep there has been a nice boost in cards lately - in addition to the reasons cited above, I'll incorporate another: the cost of breaking is up, and people aren't willing to eat their lunch anymore. When a box costs $140 for two cards, people are much less likely to assume the position and let go of anything for stupid cheap.

I was looking up some cards of Colin Kaepernick last night -- I still have a few left over from when I dabbled in football cards for a while -- and was surprised to see how well some of them are selling. His RC's are going for more now (how many years has been out of the NFL?) than they were when he was leading the 49ers to within 2yds of the Super Bowl. He's become a transcendent figure and an icon in America, and perhaps bigger than the game. So in all likelihood I'm going to cash out on those cards and turn that into some hockey. I wish that I'd hung on to a couple of the cards I had sold previously, but if we could all have a dollar for each time we wished we could go back in time and un-do a sale, we'd all be cracking tins of The Cup. LOL

Blame it on that Netflix series about Michael Jordan, but it has brought forward another hobby resurgence, which is a good thing.

**Blargh** · 07-15-2020, 04:05 AM

I bought a Jagr OPC Premier PSA 10 last year for $80 Cdn shipped. I have 1990 OPC PSA 10 as a saved searched and it keeps getting e-mailed to me daily. I started seeing them being listed for $150. I assumed people were fishing for suckers. But I kept getting the e-mails and the price kept going up. They are going for about $200 Cdn, +/- $20 on eBay now. Some are going for $250 Cdn!
Last year bought a PSA 8 Yzerman OPC rookie for about $60 Cdn, Now it's selling for $150+, and as high as $200. Even my Bossy Topps RC PSA 7 has more than doubled in less than a year. So there is a trickle down and not just PSA 10s
The climb in PSA card has been shocking of late. Just check the sold listings of 1990 OPC premier rookies on eBay and sort by oldest first. You can see the price rising with almost every auction. Sundin OPC Premier rookie has gone up by 50% over the past two months! I haven't seen the same clear ascension in looking at Raw cards.
I was going to start collecting PSA cards last fall but my work relocated me and I never did get back to it. All the more reason to hate that job.

One thing I will add is the absence of fantasy sports, which for some was basically gambling. Some of these high rollers in fantasy sports have turned to the stock market to scratch the itch, others sports cards.
I think the biggest question is when, or if, there will be a market correction and how far back will the cards fall. Will it be as ugly as the early 90s fall.

**Savard18** · 07-15-2020, 07:55 PM

Well, I read an article about this in my local paper of all places..... The point of the article is that due to Covid and those "shelter in place" or "stay at home" orders are essentially boosting the hobby because people are bored and stuck at home hence buying cards, that and former collectors are now getting back into the hobby out of boredom....

I bought/traded for my Crosby, AO, McDavid, Kane & Toews YG's and YG Canavs a few years back, I did pull my Auston Matthews YG, and YG Canvas along with the Eichel YG..

I suppose I was ahead of the game, lol.....But cards fluctuate in value all the time, and sometimes it takes time... Look at the season Pasta and Marchand just had??? of course their cards are going to go up in value .... This is what makes modern collecting so fun actually - if you know your hockey - it could payoff big time... In baseball they call it "prospecting".... Tho, I will admit I really don't follow Beckett values so on occasion I'm shocked at what some cards book for, I usually just look cards up on ebay because I feel a card is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it....

To be honest from my perspective cards have both plummeted in price and sky rocketed in price... I only got back into the hobby 4 years ago after a 20 year hiatus.... One day 4 years ago I bought a fat pack of 2016-17 UD out of the blue er for perhaps nostalgia reasons, but I kinda felt drawn to buying a pack really... Anyway I opened the pack and pulled a "shining stars" Seabrook, a few other stars and an Auston Matthews YG... I thought the SS Seabrook was the "hit" of the pack, because back in my day Young Guns were nothing special really so I figured the Seabrook was worth - you know - $10.00 or something, lol - looked it up on ebay and was pretty disappointed and felt I didn't get my money out of the pack at least - well until out of curiosity I looked up the Auston Mattews YG, lol - I figured it was worth $3 bucks or so, I damn near fell out of my seat when I saw people were buying them left and right for $250.00....... That really blew my mind....

And I bring that story up because 25 years ago it was unheard of to pull a $250.00 or $300.00 card out of a "modern (for that era)" pack......However as I started to get re-assimilated to the hobby I was really disappointed to see that rookie cards from the late 80's early 90's are essentially worthless.... Cards that would regularly sell for $20 or $30 bucks are now selling for a buck, if that - and we're talking about rookies of Hall of Famers, not one hit wonders like Joe Juneau or Ken Hodge Jr etc.....

So yea, IMO when it comes to modern cards their value is really dependent on the performance on ice - and sometimes off ice.

- Nick

**Savard18** · 07-15-2020, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by Blargh View Post

I bought a Jagr OPC Premier PSA 10 last year for $80 Cdn shipped. I have 1990 OPC PSA 10 as a saved searched and it keeps getting e-mailed to me daily. I started seeing them being listed for $150. I assumed people were fishing for suckers. But I kept getting the e-mails and the price kept going up. They are going for about $200 Cdn, +/- $20 on eBay now. Some are going for $250 Cdn!
Last year bought a PSA 8 Yzerman OPC rookie for about $60 Cdn, Now it's selling for $150+, and as high as $200. Even my Bossy Topps RC PSA 7 has more than doubled in less than a year. So there is a trickle down and not just PSA 10s
The climb in PSA card has been shocking of late. Just check the sold listings of 1990 OPC premier rookies on eBay and sort by oldest first. You can see the price rising with almost every auction. Sundin OPC Premier rookie has gone up by 50% over the past two months! I haven't seen the same clear ascension in looking at Raw cards.
I was going to start collecting PSA cards last fall but my work relocated me and I never did get back to it. All the more reason to hate that job.

One thing I will add is the absence of fantasy sports, which for some was basically gambling. Some of these high rollers in fantasy sports have turned to the stock market to scratch the itch, others sports cards.
I think the biggest question is when, or if, there will be a market correction and how far back will the cards fall. Will it be as ugly as the early 90s fall.

WOW, those 1990-91 OPC Premier's are really going for that much? I have a ton of the Jagr, Roenick and Modano's - not to mention the Sundin and Owen Nolan......

Yea last year I bought a Topps Yzerman RC that would probably grade out to a PSA 8 for only $3.50 shipped (I always check new listings first because you can find some incredible buy it now steals like I did with this Yzerman)..

Several months back I also bought a Topps Lemieux RC, it's pretty nice and I got it for only $20.00 via best offer...

But like I said in my OP in this thread - I read an article in my local paper about the hobby exploding because of Covid and the fact people are stuck at home and focusing more on their hobbies or picking up new ones or getting back into old hobbies...