Lose Value?

Posted by Joe Published in Collecting Trends

As I was reading through the Collector’s Universe forum yesterday, I came across a great thread that asked whether certain types of baseball cards would gain or lose value in the next 20 years. I agreed with basically all of his predictions except for three.

All modern cards in all conditions will decrease in value, even PSA 10’s. Nothing made after 1975 is truly scarce: This just isn’t true. There are rare autographed rookie cards and insert cards that are worth a fortune and people will always be willing to pay a premium for them. Yes, the hobby has changed from looking for regular Topps cards in good condition because they are old to looking for inserts and autographs placed into circulation, but that’s how the hobby has progressed. Placing these cards into boxes is kind of like stocking a lake with a few carp, but rare is rare. I can’t see people not willing to pay a premium in the future for limited print cards such as a 1994 SP Die-Cut Alex Rodriguez rookies or Albert Pujols rookies to name a couple. Yes, modern cards that aren’t scarce will probably decrease in value because people nowadays save everything (as opposed to people throwing out their cards because they thought they were worth nothing in the ’50’s), but they’re not all that valuable now to begin with.
High-grade vintage commons will decrease in value once the set collecting fad fades away: The set collecting fad simply won’t fade. PSA started it all with the PSA Set Registry, which forced SGC and Beckett to follow suit in order to keep up. As far as vintage commons, they may level off to a lower price but they will be still sell at very expensive prices because they are so rare.
All superstars in all grades from 1951-1975 will hold or increase in value: He is party right but the range of years is just too wide to predict as a whole if they’re going to be worth money. In addition, low grade cards from the early 70’s may not get the money that older cards from the 1950’s currently get.