What the heck happened to Philly Gum cards?

[nolemmings]

I'll admit I've been sleeping when it comes to adding to my Philly Gum (or any football) sets the past two years. I've even decided to liquidate most or all of them, as incomplete as they are. But the prices for my PSA 8s were in the $10 and up range when I stopped buying. Now I see that most commons can be had for $6-7, and some as low as $2-3. We're talking cards that are 40+ years old that are not even close to meeting the cost of grading. Is this the state of the hobby for most 60's and 70's football?

[Leon]

That is quite a big drop, percentage-wise, but with those low (total value) amounts I wouldn't think it's necessarily indicative of the whole market (but I certainly don't know for sure). Heck, if 2 people wanted one I can't imagine $10-$15 would be out of line, for anything in general, not just those cards. The lack of response to this post might be telltale though. best regards

[Chris Counts]

The prices don't surprise me at all. Getting a T206 or a 1933 Goudey graded makes sense to me because there is a very limited number of authentic cards available in very nice shape and there are lots of reprints and fakes around as well. But getting a 1965 Philadelphia Gum card graded doesn't make any sense. There are tons of originals around in great shape, and there's no market for creating fakes or reprints. It's like the Dot Com boom in the late '90s ... because some companies made money, people invested in every internet startup, even those without business plans for making money. PSA 8s of 60s commons are like internet startups in the late 90s, nothing but hype. There's no logical reason why they should be worth worth more than a few dollars each, even in great shape ...