Sounds like both groups were chasing the players they were connected to.

Couldn't have said it any better. Some special times in Toledo for me. I still collect 🤣. That one kid at the end had it right.. I was the one collecting Conseco and Fedorov and should have been going vintage 😆. It's true tho, while I'm nostalgic, it sure is more fun for me collecting players I can actively watch.. If I could go back in time, first place I would go is to some of those big, old card shows tbh ☺️

If you are in it for the money then you missed the point

@jasonsmith2439 then I guess I missed the point then . Sounds ridiculous. I have an extensive collection and yes I worry about value it's part of the hobby

I caught it at the tail end when we still had some card shops in my town and the odd card show here and there (not the biggest town). My brother got me into it. Idk what it was-something about the rush of pulling a card of your favorite player, or this idea that you were going to find a card that would become historical, like the next OG Honus Wagner or something of that ilk. It was an exciting time. And then baseball took a major blow that I personally don’t believe it ever fully recovered from: the revelation that many top players were using performance enhancing drugs. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was like fans of baseball had been duped. This high-flying era of left-and-right dingers was a lie. The card values soon began to plummet in the aftermath. After the MLB cracked down on the PEDs and other ethical trespasses (like using corked bats), baseball fell into a boring dead ball era, and so the market tanked further. I didn’t enjoy watching baseball as much anymore. I was buying cards, but not connecting with the hobby like I had been. It didn’t sit well with me looking at the now-disgraced juicers and HGH’ers. I also didn’t enjoy the new crops of players coming in either. When you’re conditioned to watching guys like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa crushing it all the time thanks to drugs, legitimate play doesn’t do much for you. I also learned that I was decisively crappy at baseball with no chance of making something out of the sport in my own life, and that definitely had an impact on how I viewed baseball and card collecting. It was like I waking up from a beautiful dream into a harsh reality. I still bought packs here and there, but almost exclusively of Topps Allen & Ginter because at least Topps could read the room and knew that the mediocre players wouldn’t sell the cards; the packs featured really rare pulls that included hair samples from legends like Abraham Lincoln. Then I pulled my grail: a Stephen Strasburg rookie card. It was worth $50k at the height of its value, but settled around a cool $10k for a while. Not sure what I was thinking at the time, but I somehow believed holding onto it would pan out better in the longrun. After all, what if Strasburg became the next Nolan Ryan?? Nope. During his first, over-hyped season, Strasburg became injured, needing Tommy John surgery which requires a 12-18 month recovery time, which coincidentally was also more than enough time for the card to lose a tremendous amount of value. Several years later, I sold it for a paltry double digits of dollars, a far cry from its five-figure height. Baseball burnt me again. And here I am, about to pull the trigger on getting rid of my collection. I still have the collector’s spirit, but I’ve moved on to collecting retro music gear and electronics. Baseball and its cards gave me some heartbreak, but it’ll never take away the joy that it had also given me...what a magical time.

Exactly. The internet has added protection for buyers. Easily look up comps and not get over charged. It’s also added bad aspects to the hobby. All in all, just be happy the hobby is still around!

Exactly, I remember my dealer was charging $7 a pack for 1991 Stadium Club series two baseball because you could pull a Bagwell or Plantier rookie card. And yet I still bought them 🤦‍♂️

@@carolinatarheels7903Haha dummy. 😂

I was 13 in '90 and started ripping packs of 86 Topps but only started getting serious about it in 89 with that year's Topps, Donruss and Fleer. Oh, let us not forget the wonderful inaugural series of Upper Deck! Amazing times and the great memories that still help carry me through hard times. Take care, friend.

worthless now. haha

I think there is nothing new or good about this era. 90s was the last greatest decade in my opinion.

Good luck buying Canseco's 1986 Topps Tiffany for buck. Even the 1986 Donruss still demands $10.

@@bravesfandevotee23 Topps Tiffany holds value because they were printed in such short numbers. 86 Donruss definitely wouldn't be worth $10, not raw anyways. I could get them for maybe $4

@2682shark yep, think we were all guilty of that. I'm 40, started collecting in 87, and I still have all my old cards, binders, etc. and I have tons of up and comers from that era set to the side, I was certain I would be able to retire early from these cards. Tons of Jeffries, Maas, Van Poppel, Zeille etc. and now they're not worth the cardboard they were printed on. 20 years from now people will likely be saying "who the hell is Luis Robert, Wander Franco, Yordan Alvarez, etc."

crimsontide1980 I dont think it will take 20 years for people to forget those big name but it might take 2 gennarations for them to not be comman names

This video made me sad, watching all these suckers wasting their money on cardboard thinking it was an "investment," having no idea that almost all those new cards would be worthless.

I was one of those suckers. I loved collecting and putting sets together and didn’t so much invest but thought that they were going to be worth something. I probably spent thousands in the 90’s and ended up selling a pallet full of 5000 count boxes for $5 a box. I should have been buying original Jordan’s each year for $125 a pair rather than buying worthless cards.

Basketball card collecting as well as football and Hockey got big in 1989. But yes, lol that was great!

If anything it's progressed almost completely to an investment market and true collectors are almost nonexistant. The only real collectors are the guys who have been doing it for decades. All the people newer to the hobby are in it for gains and that's about it

@@crimsontide1980 not true

@@johntutugang From what I'm seeing and hearing daily I stand by my statement. Not many people out there at all collecting purely for the enjoyment of collecting , it's all about what a card is worth, it's about whether it's gradable, if it doesn't have 4 perfect corners, perfect centering and surface then people don't want it. People are investing in players that haven't even had a minor league AB yet, just based off of potential and nothing else. And if they don't play to potential then the value drops off significantly. If a talented player gets called up and he knocks the cover off the ball but he's older than 24 then people won't invest in him because the likelihood of said player getting in the HOF is slim to none since he will be past his prime before he can hit certain milestones in his career. People rarely invest in players just be abuse they're fun to watch or exciting , it's all about Hall of Fame probability and that's about it. Sure there's a small handful of people out there who complete sets and checklists but it's so few and far between its almost nonexistant.

@@crimsontide1980 I think your right but I also think your wrong - I think good mix of both.

I agree. It's hilarious because it's so similar to today.

Now they sell for 20 a box. Crazy what the pandemic did!

Dude I had cases upon cases of those rack packs from 88. Toys r us had them for like next to nothing and I bought them all. Ugly cards too.😂

Fellow junk wax collector - Cheers!

Just like stocks

I had that one

I was buying hockey, Gretzky rookies for $50 Lemieux for $10, the Beckett had to exploit it and make a monthly magazine and suddenly 1990-91 O Pee Chee Premier were selling for $15 a pack when they were supposed to be $1.29.

Do you still have them?

@@AnthonyVenutolo No my fucking neice destroyed them. I spank her with a stick and i almost got kicked out of the house for disciplining her. 1994

Yes. He’s still around in Livingston, NJ. Great guy.

That all the cards after 1980 would be worthless?

@@mobus1603 I love vintage as much as the next guy but, there are new cards that are worth thousands and old cards that are worthless.

4sight is a hell of a thing.

Lol not all them are worthless and i sell junk wax from the late 80's and early 90's all the time the demand is high plus a psa 10 of any HOF rookie or the ped rookie's from the era are worth a lot more then penny's you might want to look the market up sounds like you haven't in a few years....

@@johnsmith-oh2xo PSA is limiting the amount of 10s they put out because they look like morons for having pop counts for Luka and Ja rookies in the 5-figures.

The amount of wax boxes that you see at the show in the video look exactly like all of the modern junk where every table has 50 of the same box and then there is more with retail boxes. 30 years and it’s exactly the same.

@@carolinatarheels7903 This is junk wax era 2.0

I came here for this comment. Fortunately, some of us expected the “new boom” and its certainly paying off. I scooped up LOADS of 80’s cards/boxes over the past several years, thank goodness!

@@Futureman75 i did too I just don't know what to do with them all

Especially the lady that said that Topps is coming out with more and more sets each year. If she knew how many cards and sets Topps produces now her hair would be straight. And that they are the exclusive with no competition.

@@carolinatarheels7903 I wonder that myself

Yah I loved my older players back in the day

Dewey Oxburger Thanks. Glad you enjoyed.

Wow ... You had this on VHS?

As someone who builds and collects sets, hasn’t bothered me one bit since I finished my first set in ‘97. Lot of ups and downs in the 24 years I’ve been in the hobby but the same set builders/collectors haven’t gone anywhere

Exactly and why I have repeat customers on my eBay store because people want complete sets. Anything from 1995 and on that didn’t have short printed rookies always do well. Heck I can even sell 1993 Topps football sets for $50 Buy it Now no problem.

Gandalf Giacobbe ya if that kid kept a few sets he'd have a few bucks.

@@12thman75 He probably sold them a few years later for weed

He’s was probably talking about baseball. Couple good cards in those sets.

Back then the Canseco rookie was huge!!!

When dealers had stacks of 100 of 1987 Topps Barry Bonds Rc's.... Should have been an eyeopener.

This is when Mr.Mint Alan Rosen was buying everything from pre 1980 for next to nothing. He made millions off a bunch of schmucks who wanted to sell their childhood vintage collections to invest in Jose Canseco's and Ken Griffey Jr. Rookies.

Look at the ads in old Baseball Card magazines. You could preorder 100 of any player you wanted and that was through just about every dealer that advertised in there alone.

1988 Donruss. There was an article in Beckett one time of a guy that wallpapered his entire two story house and basement with them.

@@carolinatarheels7903I have literally tons of 88 and 90 Donruss.

Upper deck was still printing 89 Griffey rookies on 1990 stock. Sheets at a time. Lol And they were still producing 89 cases in 1990 because they were like printing money.

Great point But there is a difference between having a passion for something and going into that business in which you are passionate about to make money as opposed to just going into that business just for the money.. I believe that most that go into a business they are passionate about have a greater success rate especially when it comes to collectibles and things of the like, rather than the guy going into the business just for the money with no passion for the cards etc.. I think that was the general point and sentiment of the older guys saying that and I agree because I was a kid back then and now I'm a bit of an older guy ha. That is my take at least.

Exactly, yet the dealers today weigh 400 pounds and stink up the show and not just with the crap they spew.

Didn't need this comment..