I understand the space problem and see that you are trying to work in more Pop Century for the 2021 endition. It was hard not to notice some prices for the 2011 set such as for Elvira (one sold for $159.99 as a BIN in early June; another one sold in an auction for $112.61 with 16 bids in late May, and earlier this year, yet another sold for $149.99). That's a card that should be documented. Maybe you do just a sample of the higher-value cards for each year Pop Century has released a set.

Maybe you dump the dog tags listings (Star Wars, Walking Dead, others?) or skip a year for those.

quote:

Originally posted by BeckettBible24:

As for the question about Americana and Pop Century, it's similar to the Bench Warmer issue. There is only so much space to work with year-to-year. Even with the pandemic this year and last, there were a lot of franchise products that were added to the database. I'm constantly working to figure out ways to incorporate these products into the almanac but things like Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Fortnite, Marvel/DC, GPK, Wacky Packages, and our extended vintage listings are always going to come first. That doesn't mean Americana, PC and BW aren't important, it just means they don't the priority that the others do. No worries, though. You haven't seen the last of them in print publications, I promise. I'm working to get at the very least Pop Century back in this year since it was omitted (save the 2019 set) last year.

This Almanac seems to be a popular item people seem to think that there is going to be a rise in prices all over .
I think that the general collector thinks that it is going to make the Non Sports world prices explode and there will be a boom like in the Sports Card.
Recently i have seen cards that have sat for a long time being sold ( this is in the Inkworks issues only ) Notably the rare Godzilla P1 card .
And the Ghost Whisperer unsigned auto cards being sold wich have been on the market for a long time and being unsold
Is this buying in expectation that these cards are going to have a large rise thusly selling at a large profit or the buyer getting in and pulling the trigger before the expected price hike.
Also the UK seller that has the Inkworks cards for auction has lately had a large number of lots that previously did not raise a bid being bid on in their auctions.
There is also a US dealer that has had a lot of sealed Preview sets sell very well at auction
Is this an indication that there are people, collectors purchasing in the hope of cleaning up ? should we follow up on this or wait and see if we can sell our cards at last and make a profit?
To me there seems to be expectation that this almanac is going to start the boom.
My opinion only

For me, I would hope that the revised Non-Sport Almanac is more reflective of existing card market prices, not that it will start any boom. The boom has already happened and maybe is still happening. Contrary to what may have been assumed, the COVID period hasn't tanked trading cards at all. Of course in non-sport its most apparent in the big individual cards that are autographed, or drawn, or numbered, or have relics and many need updating, but vintage products have also seen jumps, some less sensible than others.

Any price guide is working in the past off of verifiable sales and isn't by its nature supposed to drive anything. Now if hot lists or up arrows attract speculators and flippers, that's a different angle. Card collecting the way I've always know it to be isn't about cleaning up because then you don't have the cards anymore, you have sold them to someone else. That's card dealing or liquidating or getting out of the hobby.

All a true card collection does is cost us money and profits are all on paper, but not in the Bank. Not until you really go to sell and see what you can get for a card, which may be very different not just from a price guide, but also from other similar items for sale.

There are a variety of factors involved and one of the most important is having access to all these big spenders that are supposed to be out there. If you have your fishing pool dipping in the wrong body of water at the wrong time, you will never catch a whale.

Card collectors have a love/hate relationship with raising prices because they are great when its on cards they already own, but not so good on cards they don't. It makes more cards you want unaffordable for you and everyone wants the hot new cards. No price guide makes them that way, the secondary market and buyer money sets the prices before they hit the guides.

Every card speculator has to sell to a card collector eventually, so its the card collectors who are driving prices and themselves, sometimes right off a cliff.

quote:

Originally posted by piko:
Is this an indication that there are people, collectors purchasing in the hope of cleaning up ? should we follow up on this or wait and see if we can sell our cards at last and make a profit?
To me there seems to be expectation that this almanac is going to start the boom.
My opinion only

I don’t believe that this upcoming Almanac can be influencing the purchasing of those cards since the price guide within it’s pages aren’t in book stores yet.

Although perhaps you are on to something, those buyers could be utilizing the OPG (Online Price Guide) and are “cleaning up” on some under valued cards before the release of the updated Almanac printed pricing

But as price guides are a reflection of past market activities and are chastised as being “out of date” moments after being printed, it’s hard to believe that collectors and speculators have expectations that the upcoming Almanac is going to start a boom. Most of today’s collectors, especially those that didn’t grow up collecting during the heyday of the Beckett and Wizard magazines to get pricing info, would rather use online resources to find “comps” for the cards that the want to purchase. After all, to most contemporary collectors with a smartphone, a price guide hardly even matters . . . if the cards can be found in the complete auctions.

quote:

Originally posted by piko:
Regarding the new price guide
I realise that we all want to know what our cards are worth but as we are all supposed collectors and know our hobby I can not see the need for this to be a detailed issue
After all the price guide dose not matter at all

Checking completed listings is a quick and easy check but it has a limited range. It goes back only three months. That might be as far as you want to look anyway (get the freshest numbers), but if you're checking for the range of an older and/or rare card, you have to be lucky to catch a sale within that interval. Some cards we look for are so rare that one might sell only once or twice in 12-36 months. That's where a guide that's been around for a few years comes in handy.

I was looking forward to the Nonsports in Sports section. Imagine my surprise when I did not see Stan Lee listed in both "2004 Donruss World Series" (Auto and non-Auto) sections nor in a "2015 Topps - First Pitch" section which appears to be missing completely.

quote:

Originally posted by Bassam Abdul-Baki:
I was looking forward to the Nonsports in Sports section. Imagine my surprise when I did not see Stan Lee listed in both "2004 Donruss World Series" (Auto and non-Auto) sections nor in a "2015 Topps - First Pitch" section which appears to be missing completely.

Hopefully more non-sport cards like that can be located in sports releases and included. That could be something to look forward to next year

I kind of wish card makers would stop mixing products with sports stars and celebrities in non-sport fields. I think its easier for sports fans to find a pop celebrity card because at least they may know who it is, even if they have no interest in the person. If you are a non-sport collector, you may have no clue who you got when you pull a sports star's card. Both ways, the buyer may be disappointed, so why do it when card makers have plenty of leeway to add various people on either side of the fence.

I would never buy a sports product with the hopes of getting any non-sport person included, if for no other reason than what would I want with the rest of the cards in the box? Plus I probably wouldn't get the non-sport card anyway.

Very surprised to see the new 2021 Non-Sport Almanac waiting for me at my LHS. I didn't think it would be published so fast. Will leave some comments once I can sit down and look at it a bit.

I saw a notice that it was released late last week or early this week.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Very surprised to see the new 2021 Non-Sport Almanac waiting for me at my LHS. I didn't think it would be published so fast. Will leave some comments once I can sit down and look at it a bit.

So there is a lot to digest in the new Almanac and its fair to say that prices have been revised in a major way, almost entirely upward. I haven't tried a side by side comparison with the 6th edition yet, but some autograph cards I know well have jumped 50 -100% and even more in the high column. Nearly every Game of Thrones autograph I looked at in early seasons rose significantly. Lord of the Rings went the same way.

It was good to see Pop Century included and for the most part the font is readable. A small section for Non-Sport in Sports is there and while I don't think its comprehensive, its better than nothing.

All in all I think its a big improvement because of the pricing corrections, but I will voice a couple of criticisms, with the main one being because I hate wasting space that could be used better, and I think the Almanac still does that in places.

I don't like the way sets in the same general title or a series in the same title are listed. To me they are easier to find if you just go by the year of production. List them chronological, not alphabetically. Sets like James Bond bounce around all over the place. It's hard either way to find certain hits when neither the set name or year are on the cards, think RA among others. But I have a better sense of what I'm looking for when the sets are laid out by order of appearance.

My pet peeve is seeing lines that use space and provide no information. There is huge lost space in the headers, usually talking about parallel colors, that all say "Unpriced Due To Scarcity". I'm not talking about one line, some sets have ten and more lines like that under the main title. It tells no one nothing. Just say there are parallels that can't be priced due to scarcity, if you must acknowledge them, and skip listing every color available. In fact if it can't be priced, why list them at all. No one expects 1/1s to be priced in a guide, why should an Almanac keep mentioning what it can't do?

Less noticeable but still there are separate card lines for really minimal cards. A lot of the Non-Sport in Sports section has cards that are $.20 - $.75 or $.75 - $2. The hits are important, not sure anyone is focused on base cards. The increased Marvel interest looks to have expanded that section also, but there are an awful lot of small valued cards listed in there. Again when space is at a premium its something that can be omitted without anyone missing it. Like it or not, everyone is checking for the hits, except maybe for vintage issues which have truly earned their collectible status with unmanufactured longevity. Most of the vintage sets are very light on details.

The price changes are going to keep me looking at this one for a long while. It would be a good time for card collectors to update their library if they don't go in for an Almanac every year.

Ok the new 12021 almanac is out and I have read a few previews none of them very complimentary about the almanac
As I live internationally is it worth the purchase price etc
As my main interests are Inlworks inserts and Promos and Breygent Promos
How dose the Almanac deal with these how much is devoted to these two franchises and would I get anymore information from it than I know now
Thank You
Piko

All mainstream sets from Inkworks and Breygent are pretty much represented. Data on insert sets are mainly confined to the header breakdowns. Some promos are mentioned, like for Buffy, others seem to be omitted, like for Game of Thrones. I don't really see a whole lot of promos in general.

Because your main interests are very specific and don't include the types of "hits" that really needed the adjusted pricing, my sense is that you probably won't find enough of what you are looking for to be satisfied with the purchase.

If it were to be a general overall reference, then there are plenty of changes to warrant replacing old editions.

There might be some updates on promo sales for Buffy, Charmed, Golden Compass, and Supernatural. Sales info for singles was hard to find for Alias and other promos because sellers often offered them in lots. You could get them for a buck a piece or less that way in some cases. Some sellers wanted too much ($6-10) for singles so they went unsold. If you are looking to add Alias promos to your collection, this is the time. Even the Gummie (G1) goes for just $3-4.

One suggestion that I don't think has ever been mentioned in regard to the Non-Sport Almanac is the possibility of including promos or exclusive cards. It may not sound like a big deal, but some card collectors really like getting extra cards with a purchase and, for a fairly minimal expense or even an advertiser donation, it could make the difference of whether they purchase the Almanac or not. If its good for NSU, why would it not be good for an annual guide?

Almanac exclusive cards would be a game changer! Could you image if there were one of the promos of the 4 proposed Fortnite covers in this Almanac?
Or if there were multiple 5-10 card sets from different properties? The chase would be crazy!

Lots of good information to take in on this latest Almanac. It’s almost information overload. Will have digest the contents a little at a time over the next few days.

I liked the Non-Sports in Sports section. Good to see what those products had to offer. Because of future space considerations, not sure if all the various parallels necessarily need to be listed in the next year’s edition.

Thought that expanded price listings for some of the Marvel products was a definite improvement to capture some of the next level characters besides the usual suspects of Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Deadpool. Definitely a good reference point for those jumping on the PMG bandwagon. Although those Precious Metal Gems have been so volatile lately that even these updated HI column prices might start looking like they should be shifting towards the LO end of the pricing range spectrum for the some of the more popular characters soon enough. Good stuff though!

Thank you all for your input to my question
As the almanac will cost me quiet a large sum mainly in shipping I will have to make my own mind up about purchase if the almanac
Thanks All

As a correction for future Almanacs, please review the section "2019 Twilight Zone Rod Serling Edition Autographs" starting with Ann Jillian. Jillian should be A154.

All autograph cards in that section are listed as NNO, when in fact they have A# in the RA sequence. As an example Morgan Brittany has both A166 and A167, but shows as NNO for both. I think the confuse is in the Inscription listing for this set, but signers like Barbara Barrie who is A157 had no inscription cards.

Cards A150 thru A171 were released in this 2019 set. For the next 2020 TZ set, the Almanac does pick up the numbering at A173 - A174.

Is there a digital edition of the almanac?