When I was growing up in the 80s, no one was really collecting coins either, yet that market seems to have held up just fine. I'm not saying that some segments of the hobby won't collapse, but I think in those areas where there is true scarcity and an area where a lot of folks would want that card, then that area will hold up just fine. However, if you have a low pop PSA 10 common, where there are hundreds of PSA 9's, I think that area holds risk. Or if you have a manufactured short print of a player like Mike Trout where there are 5 different short print refractors in that same set, and multiple other sets do the same thing, and year and year, they come out with more of these "short prints," I think there will come a time when collectors wise up that these really aren't true short prints.

A lot of it is a matter of fashion. Some sets just become popular at certain times, some formerly obscure and some mainstream.

Also, think out of the box, as it were. If you're saying "what baseball card is a good investment," you're already limiting your choices and picking from an already popular area. Be wary of today's hot areas and fads. The best investments are quality and rare items no one is paying attention to right now.

I always say the best investment is what you buy today and sell tomorrow for a profit.

My last two cents of investing advice is remember that you're return is based on what you pay. Many people pick a card (So and so's rookie cards) they think will increase, but overpay for it. If you overpay, you can lose money on a card that increases in book value. If you buy at a bargain, you can make a return on a card that doesn't. A card isn't an investment. It's the amount of money that you put into the card that is the investment. It may be the same card from the same issue in the same grade (etc), but one person buying it for $100 and another for $150 are different investments. Or as Benjamin Franklin said, a penny saved is a penny return on your investment.

Build the Brand
 

IMO the MLB is in it's resurgence. The future is bright. Out with steroid era and in with Trout, Harper, Bryant, Correa...et al. With the wild card, the race to the playoffs and the playoffs themselves have been amazing the last few years. The list of World Series contenders is long. MLB needs to push the history of the game on the audience, show the pictures, tell the stories. Every ball park/team should be celebrating the past. Take the vintage cards/memorabilia out of the vaults and show them, there are millions of future collectors out there. They should be able to see the cards/uniforms/bats/original photos etc. of Jackie Robinson or whoever we are celebrating that day and be able to buy them or be educated on where to buy them. Every game should be a card show. Let the dealers post up at the park, especially the minor leagues. People are followers...look at us and the green Cobbs, ridiculous. It wouldn't take much. I am a vendor for the Dodgers and have been going to the park for 30+ years...only when I became a vendor (last 3 years) did I get to see the stadium from the inside out, amazing. Get the kids to the park on off days to see the history, the hallways, the trophies, the pictures, the work out gyms, the dugouts. Have the players available. Supply and demand - create the demand.

All good suggestions. I know many board members and myself help out our youngest collectors quite a bit when we can. Here's to paying it forward.....

Leon, do you know the demographics of the board? What's the youngest member and who lives half way around the world ?!?!

This might be biased considering I love the set, but I honestly think lower-caliber HOFs in the E107 set could be very valuable one day. While cards like the Wagner and Mathewson are already reaching six figures, I believe decently graded cards of Eddie Plank, Cy Young, or Joe McGinnitty could get there one day. Not because they are the most attractive cards �� but simply their scarcity

RaidonCollects (hi Owen) is one of my fave members and a good hobby friend. I met him and his grandfather at this last National. Owen lives in England and is 12 or 13. I think our overall average age is probably around 40 (down around 4 yrs over the last 10 yrs). I am sure there are a few other teenagers too. I know we have some Blowout Cards forum folks and some of them might be younger too.

Sure we have ideas, and the formula is well-known in any form of collectibles: rare and significant in the best condition you can find or afford. Just remember the focus of collecting changes over time in every field, and with it the demand. Q. David Bowers said that with coins (and baseball cards have basically followed coin collecting trends in every major respect--coins have just been around as an organized hobby 120 years longer), the items in fashion in one decade are seldom the same ones as in the next. You have to look for those that are rare and significant in areas that are at present relatively quiet. As I've said before, you want to think a bit outside the box and be on the cutting, rather than trailing edge, unless you've got really big bucks to spend. You're right, Pete, insofar as your post indicates that no one really knows for certain what items are going to explode in value, but using the tools noted above can immensely increase our chances of finding them. It just takes work, but if its your passion, its not work at all!

As to what you consider rare and significant, that is up to you, based on reading, study, research and analysis of both the game of baseball itself, its history, and cards. I have my own ideas as to what items are in for a sizable increase in value when focuses change over time, and frankly don't need the competition for cards that I believe will fall into that category. It was hard enough finally obtaining a 1939 R303A Ted Williams rookie, after being sniped several times with seven seconds or so left in ebay auctions--seems quite a few others were thinking along that line too! Frankly, I was somewhat amazed that I didn't have to pay more for the '39 V351 Williams rookie in the fall PWCC auction, based on my guidelines (I got it for less than half my max bid).

Just my two cents worth,

Larry

Allegheny playing cards. Only one of each ever made as prototype. Can't get rarer than that.

Stamps are fascinating but in my experience a bust as an investment. I remember in the late 70s my Dad an I milling around a stamp counter in a department store in the mall. They had the famous three zeppelin airmail stamps in mint condition, something like $600-$700. Last time I checked forty years later they are going for maybe $1000 for the three of them. And forget trying to liquidate a large collection. From what I hear you might be getting 5 cents on the dollar of catalog value for some of that stuff.

I always did want the plate block of the upside down Jenny planes, but think that ship has sailed (not to mix metaphors).

The problem with cards like these is they are too rare, which usually results in little demand.
Val

agreed...in a thread entitled "cards to spend a buttload on today that will likely never inccrease in value tomorrow' id put allegenys there!!!!

keep going
 

I like this thread lets keep going with it:)

Just read through the thread to see if anyone mentioned Koufax, Clemente, Ryan, or Rose rookies. Guess we were all off. If you had invested 10k back in Jan you probably would have earned a 100-300% return depending on the card and grade you chose.

'33 DeLongs?

That's exscptt right...

Since I posted this thread in January

Clement, Ryan , Rose, Yaz... Heck even George Brett has maxed out...


Who's next? Carew, Winfield,???

I think the 51 Mays and Mantle, 39 Williams, 48 leaf Robinson and Paige, 57 Brooks and Frank, and the Goudey Ruth's are all decent buys right now. And don't forget the 86 Jordan. Time will tell of course. Maybe someone will bump this again in a few months and we can see how we did. Or in a couple of years.

Wow, love the mention of the 48/9 Leafs...kudos It has tons of great Hof players in the set
I am forseeing Hofers like Ripken and the sterioid era cards.
Thn, it may not be all baseball or even cards at all. along the lines of the memoribilla side or comic books.

Not me :D

$17.40 today.

Best buys today are the Star Basketball rookies of Ewing, Barkley and Akeem. Look and see what the Jordan is going for now. I still believe these are the true rookie cards.

I think there's a good chance that the answer to the original post is "none," that there is no card that will replicate the appreciation of the Baltimore News Ruth.

Rather than say this set or that one, I'd state it as a strategy:

if you don't just have a pile of cash to commit to a marquee card, you have to flip and reinvest and hope you get it right enough to be able to logroll yourself into some really choice items. To paraphrase Willie Keeler: I try to buy 'em where they ain't. This stuff is cyclical. E cards, T206 errors, etc.; all smoking hot once. That's when to sell those items. I sold most of my prewar error cards into the teeth of the surge in interest in them; wish I'd sold them all. I look for cards that are rare in absolute numbers, that are of iconic figures, that are attractive, and that are out of vogue with the trendsetters. For short term, I also look for cards that are hot right now but in conditions just below ones that are soaring high, on the theory that the dramatic price increases in certain cards in high grade will translate into collectors adjusting downwards to nice examples of slightly lower grade cards and being willing to pay up some for them. Check the price trends on midgrade 1954 Aarons; they've had a pretty stellar ROI in the last 18 mos. for a modest entry cost.

Demand is most times more important than supply in the value of our cards. The best cards seem to hold their value best. :) You can quote me on that.

Caramel cards are down a little but nice conditioned ones seem to hold their value. At least I hope they do., (..hey, at least it's been a few weeks since he appeared last....)

Hello Cy, long time no see:rolleyes:

Tickets & type 1 photos
 

Hopefully World Series tickets and type 1 photos will appreciate well!!! That's what I collect. 🙏

Wow!!! ........ And the Boston card at that

It's beautiful

Surprisingly, so far nobody has specifically alluded to the T206 error back craze that has sprung up over the last several years. If that one sticks around, I believe the other types of cards of that same era with misprinted ads on back will similarly find traction in the future. There are fewer of them available than the T206 errors, but still enough around to create some serious demand.

Adam mentioned it 5 posts above yours. I think that craze has fizzled out somewhat.

+1

I am always skeptical of phenomena that are unique to T206 collecting.

Stretching the time horizon from the OP a bit, I think 100 years from now Jackie Robinson will be THE GUY whose accomplishments have neither been forgotten nor written off as relics of a totally different game. Hard to pinpoint a specific card so maybe a game worn jersey.

Of course by then, counterfeiting technology and time travel will be so good that the whole collectibles market will be ruined.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

$19.89 today. Up 44% from my original post just 6 months ago.

Anybody else's suggestions in this thread up 44%?

I'm still very strong on POGS!!! ;) ;) ;) ;)

Spend a little now.....make a ton later!
 

I almost jumped on silver when it was languishing in the $14 range. Problem is there is a load of it out there that can be mined the moment the price goes up. There's no scarcity to the supply to make it predictable . I have a few friends that went long on silver back in the day and learned this lesson the hard way.

I actually took this advice when silver was $11.00 an ounce. I haven't checked it in a while, but am glad I put a few bucks into it. Thanks David!!!

In my opinion, the future price of silver is a difficult thing to predict and many factors play into its pricing. Somewhat interesting talking about recent move:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...-moving-prices

David, I believe that an investor would done even better by buying high grade Mantles, Clementes, Koufaxes, etc. six months ago! :)
Val

Yep... The silver turned out to be a great investment....

High grade rookies of
Aaron
Rose
Would have been better!

We've got to figure out who the next card with the crazy price jump is going to be. Seems like it's all about post war right now.... Maybe rookie Eddie Murray PSA 10's 😂

Pretty much a Brexit thing.....unexpected??

Didn't a Willie '52 Topps PSA 9 recently fetch close to half a mil? That has to represent a pretty fair price appreciation for the card's owner, or I am going to find another hobby.

I was at a card show about 20 years ago and remember drooling over a PSA 9 or Gem Mint 10 (I believe it was a 10 ) '48 Mikan rookie. This was the first time I had seen graded cards and the price was in $7500-$7800 range. I wish I could afford it at the time. That card would probably be worth 10X that today in that condition. It was being offered by BMW Cards .

I don't think I'm going to make 151 and my daughter is not going to keep my collection, so a 100 year time line is not too relevant to me. FWIW, though, I think Babe Ruth will outlive all the rest in terms of long term recognition.