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A Veteran Collector’s Observations On The Hobby After Attending A Small Local Card Show

Observations on the Hobby

I’ve been collecting cards for a long time. It started 37 years ago when I picked up a pack of 1987 Topps at a local gas station. Over the years, my collecting habits, the hobby, and so much more have changed.

As the hobby and my small place in it continue to evolve, it’s worth occasionally taking stock of where things are. The good. The bad. All of it.

There was recently a smaller 35-table card show at the local Elks Club about a mile from my house. I figured I’d go check it out and see what I would see when I saw a flyer in the window of my local pizza place.

Maybe it’s crazy to make broad observations on the hobby based on one small show, but let’s give it a go and see where it leads.

Observations on the Hobby

The Bad

In the interest of not making this into an “old man yells at cloud” article, let’s hit the negatives first and we’ll keep them fairly brief.

  • There was table after table of ultra-modern shiny stuff. There was admittedly a good mix of sports, but there was so much chrome I was starting to wish I’d worn sunglasses.
  • There was minimal vintage to be found. Maybe that was just this show, but when I finally found a dealer with a few vintage cards, I joked “oh wow, they made baseball cards before 2020?”
  • There were virtually no supplies available for sale. A few packs of top loaders and penny sleeves and a few one touches. No 9-pocket pages. No team set bags. No cardboard storage boxes. Again, maybe that was just this one show, but it seemed odd as shows are a great place to buy supplies so you can avoid shipping fees.
  • There were no junk wax boxes to be seen. Again, maybe it was this show. I can remember a show in 2019 where junk wax boxes were selling for $5-10 each. In late 2020 and 2021, those same boxes were suddenly $50. I was interested to see where they sat now.

The lack of junk wax and vintage cards is only an issue to me based on my collecting style, although I think that more variety is always best. So maybe the bad isn’t that bad in general.

The Good

OK, enough with the potentially negative. What are the positive takeaways based on my observations at the show?

  • The first observation was that there were a lot of people at the show. For a small show, there was a very steady stream of people in the building, and the place was hopping.
  • Among the many people in the crowd was an impressive number of young people. From kids under 10 to teenagers to folks in their 20s, the number of younger folks at the show was a promising sign. I can remember going to shows around 2018 or 2019 and you saw so few kids that it was downright jarring. The hobby’s future is looking brighter now if this show is any indication.
  • The few vintage cards available weren’t all super high-end, high priced items. They were mostly collector-grade graded and raw cards.
  • The action seemed to be fairly brisk, with plenty of deals being made. Even at the vintage table I came across, I watched a deal spanning multiple cards and approaching $1,000 come together as I was checking out the display boxes.
  • And the deal-making was actually not unpleasant to watch. People generally seemed like they were being pleasant to each other and willing to work with each other. No “flipper bros” looking to make a quick buck at all costs in sight.

Conclusions

Again, maybe drawing conclusions from one small show is absurd. But generally speaking, I came away with the feeling that while things aren’t perfect, the hobby is in a good place. The “the hobby is dying” vibe of the pre-pandemic decades is gone, but so too is the pandemic-era gold rush mentality.

Sure, wax boxes are way too pricey, and I don’t know how manufactured scarcity is going to age, but the hobby feels vibrant right now, and that’s a good thing.

What did I buy at the card show?

But enough of my general observations, what did I bring home?

What I didn’t bring home was a 1968 Topps Johnny Bench rookie card in a PSA 6 slab. That’s one card I went looking for. I guess I’ll end up picking one up online as I didn’t see any bench rookies (or any 1968 Topps at all) at the show.

After watching the dealer with the vintage cards make the big sale alluded to previously, I asked about a card he had in his case with no price tag. He pulled out his phone to look at comps, and said it comped at about $160. I had concerns, as I comped it closer to $125. But then he said “I’m in a good mood, how does $90 sound?”

We happily agreed and I became the proud owner of a PSA 6 1958 Topps Rival Fence Busters #436 card featuring Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Duke Snider.

It’s a great late 1950s example of a multi-player card. These tend to be really cool cards that don’t necessarily break the bank, similar to vintage league leader cards.

Observations on the Hobby

From the same seller, I picked up a couple of cheap raw singles. By cheap I mean $3 for the pair, which I couldn’t say no to.

Observations on the Hobby

As a Red Sox fan, I liked the Red Sox rookies card with Billy Conigliaro, who is the brother of the tragic Red Sox story Tony Conigliaro. It’s OC but otherwise quite sharp. The Burdette card is from the 1956 Topps set, which is in my opinion, one of the best-looking Topps sets of all time.

I’ll be sending that to a collecting buddy who’s a big Braves fan, but even if I didn’t have any Braves fan friends, I think I’d have bought the card. It’s a little rough around the edges, but a great-looking card from a great set.

If there’d been any supplies, I’d probably have bought a box or two, some team set bags, and some card savers.

Final observations on the current state of the hobby

So, there are my thoughts on the pulse of hobby based on attending one small show for an hour or so. How do your recent experiences align with mine? Where do they differ? Where do you think the state of the hobby stands in late 2024?

Tell us what we got right and what we got wrong in our observations on the hobby, and how you’re feeling about the hobby right now at CardLines on Twitter.

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Mike D.

Mike D

Mike D. has collected cards for over 35 years, since he bought his first pack of Topps at the corner store in 1987. His fandom,  collecting interests, and contributions to Cardlines center around baseball in general and the Baseball Hall of Fame specifically.

Mike's collecting focus is centered on graded cards, mostly rookie cards, of Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers. Lately, he's been enjoying dabbling in graded minor league cards. A collector/investor with a "buy and hold" approach, Mike takes the long-term view with his collection.

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