Who will be the buyer of our vintage cards in 20 years?

[mark evans]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Hi Bob- nice to see you on the board, and hope you are well.

You said what I have been saying for a long time. The hobby is changing, the world is changing, and there will surely be a different landscape twenty years from now. My guess is there will always be collectors of vintage antiquities of all kinds, but there may in fact be less baseball card collectors than we have today. We baby boomers collected cards as a kid, and it was a rite of passage. That no longer exists today. A great many 8-12 year olds never even bought a single pack of cards in their lives, so when they become adults they will have a different perspective on collecting them. Yes, it will change, not necessarily for better or worse, but different for sure.

The issue I have is that everything in the world changes too quickly. Look at technology, everything becomes obsolete in a year or two. I can't keep up with that, and really have no interest in doing so. So my point is we should expect things to change.

I agree with Barry but would go a step further. If indeed there are fewer card collectors in 20 years, then I should think values of all cards, as a rule, would decline. It's hard to imagine adults, who never collected as kids, picking up an interest in cards of any vintage. Certainly there will be exceptions, but not enough in my view to reverse a downward trend
in values.

[Jayjones82]

People like myself will be buying your cards. I'm a 27-year-old professional who has been collecting for almost 20 years. My dad bought me my first pack when I was 8 (ah, the 1991 Topps Frank Thomas) and it quickly became a hobby that brought us closer together. He collected as a youth in the 50s and 60s (one of those unfortunates whose mothers tossed their collections) and enjoyed re-living a part of his youth with me. As I've gotten older and could afford it, I've moved into collecting higher-end items (Cobb, Ruth, an e95 set I'm slowly trying to build, etc.). As my earnings, presumably, continue to increase, the scope and depth of collection will increase and, hopefully, I will be able to enjoy the same type of bond with my son (should I have one) that my father and I had. I'm sure there are people out there with situations similar to mine who will end up the same way and probably own your cards someday.

[iggyman]

According to the U.S. census there are currently 310 million Americans. It it expected to reach 439 million by 2050. From a pure numbers standpoint, I just don't see how their could possibly be fewer card collectors in 20+ years. It's a simplistic view, but to me it sums-up the reality of the situation.

Lovely Day...

[Robextend]

Like Jason, I am a younger vintage collector (28 yrs old) and I plan on doing so for as long as I can. I wish I knew more collectors around my age near where I live...

[ethicsprof]

Welcome aboard, Bob.
In 20 years, some of us will be happy to be buying cards, at our advanced ages!
best,
barry

[Anthony S.]

Originally Posted by iggyman

According to the U.S. census there are currently 310 million Americans. It it expected to reach 439 million by 2050.

Wow, parking is going to suck.

[bcornell]

Easy one. I'm taking the cards with me, and I'm going into an unmarked grave. Too many years reading this forum to take foolish chances...

[Rich Klein]

Namely; in 20 years will we as a society even be interested in "stuff":

I use book replacements such as "kindle" and "nook" or IPods which have replaced old records, etc. as examples

Regards
Rich

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Namely; in 20 years will we as a society even be interested in "stuff":

I use book replacements such as "kindle" and "nook" or IPods which have replaced old records, etc. as examples

Regards
Rich

Interestingly, while high end old records are getting hurt price wise due to the idle rich shrinking in number, collecting "normal" old records and releasing new music on vinyl is surging right now. A really popular thing is to sell the record with a download link for the digital version. I think a certain branch of collectors likes the tactile satisfaction in the having the object (or totem, if you will). I believe new vinyl releases are multiplying by the month right now it's such a popular format.

I still try to buy CD's and not just get downloads unless there is no CD release or if I'm trying to get one rare track without paying for a full album.

[barrysloate]

Here's an example about one area of collecting that has done poorly in recent years. As some of you know I collect rare baseball books, and when I wrote my article in 1995 in issue #3 of VCBC, baseball books were a hot collectible. Today, fifteen years later, many rare baseball books can be bought for 50-75% of their 1995 levels! Not only has there been no price appreciation in nearly a generation, but prices have actually come down.

Why? Because there are less serious book collectors today than there were then. When the big collectors sold their collections, there was nobody to take their place. I can recall buying a very nice copy of Peverelly's 1866 America's Pastime in the early 1990's from a private collector for $3100, selling it some years later, and then buying the exact same copy a couple of years ago from a major auction house for $1675! Today it might even be worth less than that.

Now the baseball card market is deeper than the book market, and it is likely that the same thing won't happen with cards. But it goes to show that if the pool of collectors got smaller, it would have a major impact.

[jbsports33]

I really do not think things are starting to change more now than say five years ago, my perspective is that you will have less and less kids coming into the hobby. What I do feel is many will start collecting later in life such as most of us do now. I started collecting vintage items because I did not know much about it, so later in life I kept getting more interested and learning more which as kept me going. The crazy thing is I still feel that way and will continue in the years to come. The best thing we can do is at least introduce our kids to hobbies and let them decide on their own what they would like to collect, and hopefully someday they can get the same pleasure we all enjoy today.

Jimmy

[donmuth]

My 3 year old daughter was watching me put a bunch of 50's and 60's cards in 9 pocket pages the other night. I mean watching intently. I can't say she understands baseball or my interest in cards yet, but she loves to sort stuff into containers of every kind (pots, bags, ziplocks, boxes, etc.). I think I saw a glimmer of interest in her eyes as she watched me sorting those cards. Maybe she'll be one of the people buying cards when she grows up.

Or not... who knows?

[birdman42]

Originally Posted by mark evans

It's hard to imagine adults, who never collected as kids, picking up an interest in cards of any vintage. Certainly there will be exceptions....

Mark,

You can count me as one of those exceptions. As a kid I never got beyond cutting the cards off the back of my mom's Raisin Bran boxes. It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I really got going on collecting.

I think I've told this story here before, but what flipped the switch for me was working in a coin shop where Wayne Miller had a card concession.

I will say that I have been a fan of the game itself for as long as I can remember. The connection was always there, I had just never gone the card route before then.

There are still plenty of fans of the game, even students of the game, who will want the deeper connection they can get from this old cardboard.

Bill

[Rich Klein]

I believe we also had a thread earlier in which we were gathering store names; street addresses; etc.

Please feel free to post your Store Name and address in that thread (or in here) to join the Net 54 list of stores

Regards
Rich Klein