I like to stay nimble. I have just two packs.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:
Things getting crazier and crazier. Now adults are hoarding Happy Meals at McDonalds to get pokemon cards

https://www.yahoo.com/news/adu...kemon-182833057.html

Wonder if PSA will grade these?

How did you pay for your kids college education? - From McDonalds Happy Meals

First of all I have the Marvel Sticker cards. Do they have a different value compared to regular cards?
I was bored sitting around the house so went on "the" auction site. I was getting some good deals when I decided to try to complete a small set of cards that was recently out if print. The first 7 cards I bought were under $5 each. The second 7 were averaging $7 to $15. At the same time sellers were posting cards from the set for up to $1000. From that point on the prices went up on the cards I was trying to buy to $25 and up. It looked to me that the prices were being manipulated.

quote:

Originally posted by Ace of Hearts:
It looked to me that the prices were being manipulated.

You could say that the whole trading card market is being manipulated and I don't think that anyone would disagree with that statement right now.

As far as the Marvel cards or stickers go, I can no longer believe certain posts or forums I am reading in other places. There is a level of insanity that can't possibly be real or is real only among a core group hoping to lure in unsuspecting others.

There is the whole gem-mint graded best of the best card thing, then the raw card search and now the sealed boxes and packs going for hundreds of dollars. Everyone is selling. Who is buying, why they are buying, or if anybody is buying is less clear.

That the Marvel card prices have been manipulated would be true for any kind of short term hype. That the prices can't be sustained over a long period of time is another matter. That's if they even exist as the value now. That's if it's not just a bunch of smoke and mirrors in the first place.

I'm not buying any of it, both literally and figuratively.

quote:

Originally posted by Ace of Hearts:

It looked to me that the prices were being manipulated.

What?..ebay auction prices being manipulated you say, i can't believe it.

Folks on Blowout are now saying that 1991 Impel GI Joe boxes are selling for $200 on eBay.

I can't say I'm happy to see prices jump so high so quickly. I'm scrambling to complete my master sets of 1992 and 1994 Marvel Masterpieces before I'm priced out. I put off doing so last year to focus on other sets and now prices have skyrocketed. Base sets are twice as expensive as they were two months ago.

The 1992 five-card "Lost Ladies" insert set was selling for $40-$50 on eBay last November and as recently as early February. One set sold for $199 two days ago; another for $399. There's currently a set at $140 with three days to go.

If we're looking at speculators manipulating the market, maybe prices will settle down in the next few months. If this is the new normal, small time collectors like me won't be able to afford much.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Folks on Blowout are now saying that 1991 Impel GI Joe boxes are selling for $200 on eBay.

Next will be Star Trek and Terminator

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Folks on Blowout are now saying that 1991 Impel GI Joe boxes are selling for $200 on eBay.

Next will be Star Trek and Terminator

I was thinking about trying to sarcastically hype the Batman movie cards because Michael Keaton was the best Batman of all time!

I didn't because I was worried people wouldn't get the sarcasm and would pump up yet another set.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Johnson:

If we're looking at speculators manipulating the market, maybe prices will settle down in the next few months. If this is the new normal, small time collectors like me won't be able to afford much.

Bob! Welcome to the hobby.

It does suck right now that this plague of locusts has descended on the hobby chewing up everything in its path with no regard for the collectors.

The good news is that the hobby is VAST. There are a lot of cards out there and a lot of sets, and these speculators can't focus on all the cards. . . so while some stuff might get pumped up for a while there are plenty of other things to collect.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Johnson:
If we're looking at speculators manipulating the market, maybe prices will settle down in the next few months. If this is the new normal, small time collectors like me won't be able to afford much.

Don't discount the effects of the pandemic on everything, including what is happening with the card market. There is no new normal yet because absolutely nothing has been resolved.

People are sitting home with their PCs and they are bored. Some are going stir crazy. Some have been hurting financially, but an equal or greater number have been doing quite well for themselves. I personally know plenty of people who are working at home, doing less than ever and making more than ever. They are buying lots of stuff they don't need and getting into online activities they never had.

If you can't pay the rent, you don't give a darn about $200 GI Joe boxes or gem-mint Marvel cards. You aren't running around looking for Pikachu either, you're looking for work. These speculators or investors or card collectors with too much stimulus money are not those people. This is not going to be the new normal because it isn't any kind of normal.

So much going on now is the product of a particular set of circumstances that has come together like a perfect storm and was unthinkable prior to a world wide infection that affected every aspect of society. People have adjusted in the short term, but the short term is growing longer. We aren't going to stay where we are, but how long it will take to pass is still unknown. Some things may not return and some things are already gone.

My point is, enjoy the cards you have, don't do anything you will regret in the spur of the moment and don't think anything going on is the final say on anything. Don't follow the crowd, they don't know where they are going.

As a child of the 1980's I sometimes dabbled in collecting the unopened toys I grew up playing with - like He-Man, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Thundercats, etc. I would buy a few things whenever I got bored with cards, but I would get discouraged because it would cost too much for me to keep going. A lot of the pieces I wanted to add to my collection were just too much money, even then. I had no idea how many people there were with very deep pockets who collected these disintegrating pieces of junk plastic from the 1980's. So I would get frustrated and go back to non-sport cards - where things were a bit cheaper. But I always thought that if the situation was right, I would go back to collecting action figures as I really did enjoy it. But those days are now over. Almost all toys from the 1980's have seen a dramatic spike in value of late too. I couldn't go back now if I wanted too as everything costs a fortune. Figures that were once $50 are now $250. So it's not just cards. This "boom" has spread across a lot of the collecting world.

And yet the boxes of die-cast NASCAR cars my dad left when he died are still just junk . . .

You can get some tiny Marvel stickers and see if they sell with those on them.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
And yet the boxes of die-cast NASCAR cars my dad left when he died are still just junk . . .

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
You can get some tiny Marvel stickers and see if they sell with those on them.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
And yet the boxes of die-cast NASCAR cars my dad left when he died are still just junk . . .

Nah, then they aren't mint in the box.

I know the feeling. Everyone swears the collectible markets are going crazy with money, but somehow it's never for the stuff you have. Or if you do have it, there is always some reason why its not the right one that you have.

Whenever I pull some odd item out of box and check it on eBay, I can get it for half of what I paid on a BIN and there are 15 pages of open listings. They kept telling me its junk, so at least no one is expecting family heirlooms, but how come everything is so valuable until you actually try to sell it?

E Bay lot #233900423288
is this trying to get prices up or
Ignorance and greed
Seller has no selling feedback only buying car parts feedback

I don't know how you keep finding some of these wackjob listings piko, but I can't believe that one would get any consideration from anybody.

It says it is "extremely rare only 1 out there this one" and it was (quote) "one in a contest."

Can't even spell won.

I was never comfortable with that COA -- the seller who used that COA seemed to have an endless supply of dirt cheap autographs that no one else could get.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
I was never comfortable with that COA -- the seller who used that COA seemed to have an endless supply of dirt cheap autographs that no one else could get.

Yes I remember that also. Tons of Buffy and Charmed, and I think Hunger Games too if I'm not mistaken. I remember going through their feedback looking for anyone calling them out as fake, and I saw a buyer actually left them a positive feedback saying something like, "the autograph is obviously fake, but it's well done". And just when I thought I had seen everything.