Housing / Stock Market Affecting Card Market ??

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Posted By: Mike

I am curious to get a few different opinions from board members as to whether the current softening in the housing and stock markets will eventually affect card prices.

It would seem to me that at some point there will have to be some belt tightening in a few family budgets and I wonder if card purchases might be the first thing to go?

I'm in Canada and mainly deal in hockey and was wondering if baseball card prices are still strong or has there been any weakening lately?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Collectibles are subject to the same market conditions that affect other sectors of the economy.

There are some people who are very wealthy and will not have to cut back, and there are some who will have less expendable cash to devote to their hobby.

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Posted By: Harry Wallace (HW)

There are also some who view their collections as an investment and will tranfer some of their stock assets to collectibles if they think that they will perform better.

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Posted By: Mark T

been saying this for the last 7 weeks and truly believe that when the stock market drops people tend to watch what they buy. So, if a collector was thinking of making a purchase then they might consider holding off after seeing their stocks, funds and 401k going lower.

I'm not saying there will be a hoard of collectors dumping their cardboard but if they need money fast then they might.

Remember, cash is King in a down market. The best way to get cash is sell a card when prices for baseball cards are high.

just my opinion...

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Posted By: Rich Klein

In new baseball cards was Black Monday in 1987. TONS of investors took their $$$ out of the stock market and put them into BB Cards both old and new. If you look at one of the Beckett magazines (I believe the March 1988 issue, but it could have been one before or after that one), you'll see an editorial from Dr. Beckett in which he mentions that there are NO arrows in the magazine for just about every price went up. This was especially true in the vintage section.
Also, in the 1979-80 time period when the economy was truly in the tank; baseball cards had their first major boom at that time. In fact, several publications, most notably CPU (Card Prices Update) and BHN (Baseball Hobby News) began publishing then.
A downturn on wall street is not automatically a death sentence for collectible baseball cards, in fact, it might actually trigger a boom as people who made $$ take their profit (if they had been in the market for a while) and put into an investment they think is safer (Pre-1980, but especially for this board pre-war cards in this case).

Regards
Rich

Edited to reflect a word change from a word which was spelled incorrectly to a word spelled correctly.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Rich, thanks for the good news -- so that means when I get wiped out in the stock and housing markets I'll find it harder to buy the cards I want, too?

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Posted By: Rich Klein

To take out what you own at a profit or a reduced loss

Rich

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Posted By: boxingbaseballgolf33

yes,

Anything that involves spending money is affected - my current situation with my mortgage is so bad - I have not been able to move forward in my side business or my collection. my house value has gone down 50,000 in the last few years - which makes it hard to get any kind of credit. Sure I made some mistakes, and I am improving the situation - but no one expected it to be this bad. The last few shows I did were very slow, lot of interest but not much in sales. I feel the hobby is strong and lots of opportunities, just have not been able to get a break. The situation is not the same for everyone, but I do feel that when folks are watching the news and reading about the people who are having problems - they are thinking twice about spending money. I am fortunate to have a hobby I can turn to for enjoyment and help me pay some bills.

Jimmy

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Posted By: peter chao

Of course a change in the general economy affects the Hobby. But my guess is different parts of the hobby will react differently, the vintage and high end stuff will continue to go up, the new stuff may have more difficulties being sold.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Jason Duncan

Considering I build new homes for a living the answer is yes that the housing market will have an effect on purchasing cards. Now if I get my current homes for sale sold the watch out!

Jason

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Posted By: Craig H

I'm glad to know someone has a theory as to why card values have NOT gone down when there is market turmoil. I've heard that cards values will likely lose value if there are problems in the housing/stock market, but I haven't really noticed it. Even if we slipped into a depression, there's no way you can get a CJ Shoeless Joe for a couple hundred dollars like if the world economy went down the toilet where I'd see the Mona Lisa sell for a couple million dollars.

They keep saying there are problems in the economy and there's little doubt that there is but there must be people with tons of disposible income. I keep getting outbid for really common cards let alone from the record prices set at REA and Mastro auctions.

Craig

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Posted By: jay behrens

Collectibles usually tend to be a good hedge against inflation. That was the big reason for the boom in the late 70s and early 80s.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.