Saturday, May 23, 2020

The State of the "Hobby".

Hope all is well with everyone out there. It's been a crazy last two months or so. The world has transformed. So has the sports card industry and "hobby". I put hobby in quotes because it feels less and less like a hobby every day. Sports cards are more popular now than they have been in a long time and that's a good thing, right?

With everything going on in the world due to the coronavirus, I think most people would have assumed that spending on things likes sports cards would decline drastically. They would have been wrong. Boy, would they have been wrong.

I mentioned in a previous post that I stopped spending money on cards in January, so I haven't been buying during this sports card boom, but I've been taking advantage of the extra dollars in the market by unloading some of my duplicates and other unwanted cards.

One of the contributing factors to the surge in sports card sales has been the ESPN documentary The Last Dance. I've always been a big Jordan fan and had a bunch of duplicates that I've been selling on OfferUp. I've sold several lots already and each buyers has mentioned The Last Dance and how it has brought them back to their youth and the hobby that they had left behind. I love hearing this and I love unloading my dups for a nice profit.

The Jordan effect has spread from Michael Jordan basketball cards to Michael Jordan baseball cards, to 90's inserts of all sports to "junk wax" gems. Cards that you could routinely find in dime boxes, are selling for dollars. Unless they are graded and then they are selling for hundreds of dollars.

Topps and Panini are selling certain products exclusively online and have so much demand that their websites can't handle it. Retail outlets can't keep their shelves stocked with toilet paper or Mosaic.

Then you have the Topps Project 2020 cards. I haven't bought any. Not just because I'm on a strict budget. I just don't really see the appeal. To each their own though. The dollar amounts they are bringing in the secondary market are mind blowing. The last sports card boom lasted about 10 years. I'm not sure that this one will last more than 10 months.

Why do you think about all the craziness that has recently transpired within the "hobby"?