Topps NOW released a 10 Card Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker set after Star Wars Celebration a few weeks back. The 10 cards are your first look at the 9th and final movie.

Topps Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer 10-Card Set - Print Run: 3597

The set was available on the TOPPS website for $9.99

I ordered a copy and received mine in the mail today

Just out of curiosity, I looked and now see a whole lot of these up on the auction sites ranging from $19.00 to over $50.00

I'm guessing people purchased sets just to turn around and try and sell them for profit?

The set cost me $10.65 with tax, and then to have to resend it, plus site fees, doesn't seem worth it to me

Also, what is the resale window for these? Will you get the most now from people who realize they missed their chance and need to have it now, or if you hold on to them, would they be worth more a few years down the road?

That's the question for anyone who invests in a given market. Do I sell now when it's hot or is there an even bigger payday 5, 10, 15, or 20 years down the road? With trading cards and particularly with these sets Topps is short-printing and selling every week, I would say check "Completed Auctions" and see how they're selling. If sales are brisk at $20-30 or more per set, the smart money says get 2 to 3 times your money now. You might regret it later because you sold the one set you had and the average selling price did go over $50 before the year was over. You just don't want to be the guy who buys at $75 if the set peaks at $60 unless you really like the cards and don't care about the resale value in the future.

Keep in mind Topps is likely going to keep pumping out "rare" Star Wars cards at least until the new movie comes out. The number of collectors who have to have everything gets smaller all the time as the original audience enters their 50's and 60's. Some younger collectors are just as passionate but they like "Harry Potter" or Marvel movies at least as much and they might not feel the need (now or later) to add every Star Wars card set to their collection. Who knows where the Star Wars franchise is going to be 20-30 years from now and how many people are going to be hunting those old cards from 2010-2020.

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:
Topps NOW released a 10 Card Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker set after Star Wars Celebration a few weeks back. The 10 cards are your first look at the 9th and final movie.

Topps Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer 10-Card Set - Print Run: 3597

The set was available on the TOPPS website for $9.99

I ordered a copy and received mine in the mail today

Just out of curiosity, I looked and now see a whole lot of these up on the auction sites ranging from $19.00 to over $50.00

I'm guessing people purchased sets just to turn around and try and sell them for profit?

The set cost me $10.65 with tax, and then to have to resend it, plus site fees, doesn't seem worth it to me

Also, what is the resale window for these? Will you get the most now from people who realize they missed their chance and need to have it now, or if you hold on to them, would they be worth more a few years down the road?

If you are not a collector, but are buying solely for resale, you buy early on a title with strong demand and sell as soon as you as can make a profit. My estimate, that window is open good for 3 months, starts closing by 6 months, long forgotten by 12 months. Hot products grow cold quickly. With a franchise title like Star Wars, new sets are being churned out all the time and the newest one is the hottest until the next one.

There are card products that go up. There are individual cards that go up. There are always exceptions, but that is not the rule we are seeing now.

If we are speaking in general, even within the range of higher and lower priced cards, a large majority of them will not appreciate in value over time, they will drop. They are getting stale, losing demand, and even when prices become fixed it is very hard to find any buyers on older cards because they just don't want to pay that much. They want bargains, which amounts to a small fraction of the book price.

That has been my experience when trying to downsize my stuff. So either keep the cards because you like your collection or flip them fast. Just my opinion.

I would've bought one set at even triple the price (if that's what it was offered at) just for my collection, so it was a no-brainer to pick up two sets for $20, which I did. I'm not in any hurry to sell, but if I could sell the second one for $25, I probably would, to basically get my own set for free. It's how I've been able to get a lot of stuff I probably wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.

I think trading cards will still be pretty regularly collected for the next 10-15 years, but after that, it's really hard to say. Were I selling, I'd make it a goal to have everything sold by 2030, just in case the world continues virtualizing and actual hand-held collectibles go entirely out of vogue.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
I think trading cards will still be pretty regularly collected for the next 10-15 years, but after that, it's really hard to say. Were I selling, I'd make it a goal to have everything sold by 2030, just in case the world continues virtualizing and actual hand-held collectibles go entirely out of vogue.

Well over here in NY, if you believe AOC, we only have 12 years left anyway, so we don't have to worry about our cards.

And have you ever seen a younger millennial or older Gen Z move apartments? They put their backpacks on and call an Uber.

However human nature is what it is and at some point the idea of owning things and having possessions take hold. A lot of it has to do with disposal income and not being a nomad. Collectible markets have always run in cycles. Who is to say that the 20 year old with a backpack now isn't a hoarder of something when they are 40 years old? Maybe not cards, but something.

Modern corporations want us to rent everything and they own it, while we pay for the service. That may be another reason why having something in your hand that is yours will seem appealing. People will still want stuff. How else can they prove they are better than their neighbors.

Yeah, I'm having fun with it, because the truth is I don't know what the world looks like in even 5 years, but how that effects the hobby will probably be the least of it for me. I will keep collecting cards until I don't want to anymore. If they stop making cards, there are still millions of them out there. There will always be antiques, there will always be art and there will always be hobbies. And BTW, it's not 12 years.