Card market has hit bottom?

I think it's a great time to start getting in to the hobby. Lowest prices in years on vintage cards. I've been collecting since 1990's (a little, i was more interested in girls and beer parties than cards) and really got in to it in 2005. Some PSA 4 T206 are available for $27, and M116 commons are dirt cheap.

So buy low....won't see them drop much lower.

Mark

Hi Mark,

My thought is that the low point was earlier in 2009, but some things have recovered a bit already. Of course, I'm not an expert on the entire pre-war baseball market - I only look at a portion of what is sold.

But a few months ago I subscribed to VCP. Since I was not actively buying in 2006/2007, I did not fully realize how high the prices had gotten on some material. Wow! It is quite clear when you look at VCP and see the results from those years that we are WAY off the all-time highs right now.

However, I think today there are stronger prices realized for some stuff than early 2009. One example I was following was an E92 Dockman Honus Wagner in PSA 2, but very nice for the grade. It (the same exact card) flipped 3 times this year. It first sold through REA this Spring for about $1250. Then it was sold on Ebay later this summer for about $1800. And finally, it just sold again a few weeks ago for about $1700. Of course that is just one card - but it is in keeping with some of my other observations that the market is a bit stronger now than it was earlier in 2009 (which was a very low point).

Boy....I really wish T216's would have taken a hit during the down time. Seems like prices for Kottons are stronger then ever!

As far as rebounding, big name HOFer cards in many sets E94, E101, E102, E106, E98, E93, etc. are doing much better then they did earlier in the year. I'm talking about the Wagners, Cobbs, Matty's, etc.

For T206's, prices are still way down. I think that trend will continue (though they can't drop much more) for many of those cards since they are so abundant. Obviously the exceptions to the rule are: Wagner, Plank and Magie (error), and the rare backs which have defied the market.

I think a good way to look at the situation is to look at what you are now interested in compared to 2 years ago. Different sets tend to be trendy at times, than the masses move on to another that tends to be popular. I personally have focused my collecting to T206 Cycle 460 backs and the T202 backs I still need.

To me the T206s are the set for the masses because the majority are obtainable some every can get involved. To me this makes the novice Pre-WWII collector it is a great place to start. With the economy as is it has slowed down the flow of new blood in the T206 market. The advance T206 collectors have moved on to collecting the tougher backs because it offers a little more of a challenge.

This latest Huggins and Scott Auction shows the boom in tougher backs, the initial bid to me was at least $200 more than each card selling would have got, not including Buyer Premium. the tougher backs are the in thing right now on T206s:

http://www.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=16204

Lee