OK so baseball cards nowadays are worth very little. Even if you get a future hall of famer such as barry bonds in a pack, it is worth only a few cents. The only cards than are really worth anything are old cards or some special insert (jersey, autograph) cards. The reason is because there are so many of these cards out there from so many different companies that they completely overproduced and overdid baseball cards in general. There isn't really anything special about them anymore, unless of course you get one from the past. Is this bound to happen to coins in the near future? Look at the state quarter series, the presidential dollar series/first ladies, sacs, all the commemoratives, mint sets, proof sets, bullion sets. There are so many collectors' items out there that the collectors' value is becoming insignificant, especially for the modern coins. Hey Joe so what coins do you collect? I'm collecting the President's First Lady's brother's wife's sister's friend set. Any thoughts?
Um perhaps you should look at some of the high end cards, then tell me they sell for cents LOL Look at the cost of UD's 2007 Ultimate for starters cheapest I have seen it is $299 for the box, now thats 4 packs with 4 cards per pack OK you are guarenteed two memrobilia & one Sig in every box LOL You will allways find rarities in the coin world as well as with cards Sure a lot are produced but for the most part that has allways been the case
The fun is in collecting them - not what they will be worth in the future. But yes I expect in 150 years things like the states quarters will still be around in abundance for future collectors. Now commemoratives and things like that might not be so easy to get depending on mintages and the demand.
It's been touched upon before in a thread asking where all the stamp collectors are. Overproduction has had serious effects on the hobby of stamp collecting. One of my local coiin dealers used to sell a lot of baseball cards as well. Very few any more. I have a co worker that collects cards and has all types of "high dollar" cards but unless he sells them for same I find it hard to believe. By the way baseball cards are going through the same "slabbing" problems as coins to an extent and counterfeits are popping up. Back to subject though. Yes, I believe the mint is putting out way too much crap these days. I don't think it will affect coins as much as baseball cards or stamps though as the collector base is much larger. I do NOT actively pursue modern issue pieces other than silver proof sets and that's hit or miss. On the other hand, I do not see older series' taking a serious hit - guess that's one of the many reasons I like them. Those that dump money into modern stuff can, at times, do very well. In the long run though the "classics" will prevail. Just an opinion. clembo
Baseball cards have a much higher bid/ask spread than coins. You may have to pay a fairly high price for some of them, but when you go to sell the discount from retail just about always seems to be higher than for coins. Maybe Ebay is a better way to sell them. I never checked it out. I have doubts about whether modern coins will appreciate like the older ones. More high grade examples are being saved these days.
Baseball cards are nice, used to collect them myself when I was a kid, but one thing to remember also is intrinsic value... a baseball card in the end is a piece of colored cardboard with its value attached to speculation, rarity etc.... A coin on the other hand has some metallic intrinsic value (with actual value based on the same factors above) and a legal tender value... Even if the mint makes 15 million silver eagles, each one is still worth atleast the price of silver! I am saying this keeping in mind that you are talking about modern coins issues, most of which contain silver/gold. I do personally think that most issues will end up being the metal value of the coin or face value....
The biggest difference is that anyone with a printing press can make baseball cards. Only the US Mint can make US coins.
Trading cards lost any edge they had when the price to purchase them exceeded any price they could realize after just a short time. I used to collect. I had a card, number 4 or only 10 made of Payton Manning's rookie. It was worth over $700 at the time I found it. Two years later, it was a mere $175 value, so I sold it. That was the only card I ever owned that ever sold for more than I paid for it in the pack, and I collected for a good 15 years. With modern coins that I save, I'll never lose a cent, because there isn't one I would pay over face for. When I tire of them, I don't have to sell at a huge loss. It's still worth what I paid for it. This is why I don't buy from the mint. Why pay premiums on coins that are made in the billions that I can find anywhere for face value? Thats the difference between cards and coins, in my opinion. Guy~
Growing up in Detroit, we were Yankee haters. Oh how I long for the days when I would put the Yankee cards ( including Mickey Mantle ) on my bike front fork with a clothspin to get that clicky sound from the spokes when you rode. When the cards wore out, you just put on new ones. Im talkin mid 60's cards too, OUCH !!! My grandpa would give me and my brother a new wax box to share every time we visited. All of them cards and all I have is a 1968 Al Kaline to show for it, found that in a book a cpl years ago. Those were the days.
I agree with your thesis. Just look at the state quarters. Even the rare ones have over 100 million+ minted. Just look at some of the wheat pennies that were more common. Those aren't really worth anything - maybe $0.02 if you're lucky. As for the commems and proof sets, I've heard rumors that much of the apparent appreciation is attributable to price manipulation by dealers. Not sure if I buy that or not, but in general, I'm not interested in items with mintages so high.
I have been thinking about the same thing will the Mint over due it I have a ton of baseball card from the 80's and early 90's many not opened I think I will get rid of them just taken up space
Of course there's inflation, but a cent will always be a cent and a quarter a quarter, regardless of their purchasing power. I don't know of any currency you can trade at face plus a premium for inflation. Guy~
I forgot to mention the nickel series also... Pennies probably will change in 2009... Probably new quarter series after the states...
Some are still rare, less then 500,000 canadian 1991 quarters were minted. They are allready getting high prices. Luckily I have one in a proof set
