General Forum

well, i was always one to buy Hobby boxes all the time. I never bought from retail stores, because to me, the hits weren't there whether for a personal need or to flip. Speaking to my shop owner yesterday, i learned that many of the hobby boxes are going up in price significantly. I believe the Prizm is almost like $50 more a box and another brand that tyically sold for $90 is going up with a 100% markup. 

At this pace- can the normal middle class person even afford to buy like that? i think its forcing a lot of people to scale back or buy singles. Or possibly starting to see more group breaks (box and case breaks) in hopes a pull is there for you. There are many hobby boxes that are over $300 as is. And for some of them, only getting less an dozen cards. Its like playing Russian Roullete with a saved a paycheck. 

I was very lucky, the last box i bought, i paid $160 for it and pulled a 1 of 1 and a good rookie auto, and got my money back plus a little more. But that isn't going to happen on every box. I've been watching a lot of the team breaks on line and they are even coming in with bids close to or over $100 on certain brands. Very depressing, especially when you're looking or needing certain items. 

The "new" market is def bringing in a new style of buying/collecting. One way to overcome it is i guess to wait a couple years after the product is out and hope its a lot cheaper, but ...uggg the wait. 

Other than the typical trades, how do you plan to work around the $$$ hike?

Hobby boxes have been off my list for a while and honestly I haven't even bought a pack of etail for the better part of this year. I have been fortunate enough to find a few local auction items that were affordable and most of my buying has been locally on local Facebook market place. I suspect I may purchase a pack here and there when I get the urge but I have been able to get so much more for my dollar doing what I have been. The negative is that yes I don't get to buy the latest and greatest when it comes out but it works for me.

Unfortunately, I'm starting to get overwhelmed with the number of products out there. How many times can Topps put out the same photo with just a different logo and call it a new release. Give me a break. I'm not buying into it. As much as I'd love to just dump money into my hobby, I'm not made of money and the constant release of a new product every other week is wearing on me --- I can't keep up. From 1980-1990, there were 467 different/variant Cal Ripken, Jr. cards printed. In 2019 alone, for a player who's been retired for years now, there were 741. That's obsene.

tonym, you bring up a great subject, especially for this time of year......If you look around, SEVERAL online dealers seem to offer really good deals between now and Christmas. There are your typical DaCardworld and COMC deals, and also places like STEELCITY SPRTSCARDS get in the act. Yes, you may be buying Topps series 1 in December, but the price savings is really good.

As for me, my goal in 2020 is to only buy vintage. No more boxes. I hope to trade on this site for all of my modern wants.

I haven't really bought much after 2019 Series 1 Topps Baseball came out, and I probably won't buy modern for awhile, if ever. I'm on a fixed income now that I'm retired, though I do have a fulltime job now, but it's for our small church and the pay coupled with retirement is still about half what I was making as a school administrator. I am able to survive in the hobby with a $40/month allowance. That so far has provided for postage, supplies, and an ocassional purchase of vintage or small modern set.

I'll more than likely still trade for post-2019 cards on a similar trek as I'm doing presently, and that's going after my PC and team sets along with subsets or inserts as I'm able to. All in all it's a two-edged sword, I enjoy lots of the new product, but there's no way I can afford to buy it, so I just trade for it. It really keeps it fun for me.

I spend my time now buying old cards from the 1970's, and completing sets..In the modern era I find that there are just too many sets and parrallels to try to complete new sets of any kind. If I  buy newish cards now its off marketplace or my dealer, after the prices have dropped. I bought my first pack of cards in 1977 and now its just no fun and too expensive, maybe I am getting old.

Good new year resolution...no new boxes...

I have been on that plan for several years and enjoying the alternatives of buying vintage or modern singles

Mark

I bought my first pack of cards in 1969.  I certainly agree, it is too expensive, but I still have A LOT of fun opening a pack from time to time.  I have been buying a hobby box, Series 1 & Series 2 for Topps base for 10-12 years now to assemble a complete set and have insets to keep or trade.  Just waiting and buying a complete factory set would certainly be cheaper but just not as much fun.  I figure I'll keep my "routine" for at least a couple more years but I can see the factory set day approaching.

As a team collector buying brand new hobby boxes for big cash makes no sense for me.  It has been years since I bought a new hobby box. I pick up a blaster or two of the new products my local Wal-mart carries, but that is mainly to have inventory to trade here for the Tigers I need. Almost every card I get added to my collection comes from trading here. My LCS dosen't carry singles, and when I go in for supplies I am just shocked at the prices. Bowman Chrome this year was priced at like $190 a box. Vlad Jr was a big hit this year and being close to Toronto probably jacked it up price was a little, but c'mon.

I used to buy a box of every set released for both NBA and NASCAR. It's impossible now to do that, but there are hardly any sets to collect, it's mostly all memorabilia delivery systems. 

In a perfect world I would do 6 hobby boxes each year now....Hoops, Donruss in both NBA and NASCAR, Upper Deck series 1 and 2 and O-Pee-Chee. In reality I get one or two if I'm lucky. I did not purchase a single hobby box in 2019, and I will not...not for lack of desire but because the money is going towards other, more important things...like my trip to Ohio last month which required saving all year for and still going into catch up mode...and now in November and December and probably January I'll be spending all my money on dental bills... because I put off paying for the tooth repair I needed to have the money for Ohio and ended up needing two root canals.