General Forum

not sure if this was mentioned as I quickly skimmed the 50+ replies,

In Canada, the Dollar store sells 12 base hockey cards for $1.25 (it was 15 for $1 until the COVID boom was in full swing).  In the past every pack had 2-3 1990-91 Bowman.  Now every pack has 2-3 Upper Deck flagship from the past few seasons, and Bowman have become rare.  Back when it was 15 for $1, you rarely every saw recent upper deck cards, but now there's a few in every pack.  Flagship Upper Deck is today's 90-91 Bowman.  Upper Deck cut the base down with the new packs/boxes since people who buy the most boxes, don't care about base.  Some people literally throw the base in the trash.

I also want to touch on flippers.  There are basically two kinds.  The box/pack flipper and the card flipper.  The box/pack flipper clears out shelves at the local stores, creating a low/no supply-high demand, then jacks up his prices to resell.  Worked great during Covid, not so much anymore as a lot of Covid collectors returned to pre-Covid hobbies.  I have no respect for these people.  Not even for the hustle. 
I do have some respect for card flippers as they do need to some market research and buy low and sell high, as opposed to manipulating supply.  As long as they aren't making $5 offers on $20 cards.

I’m still enjoying the original Junk Wax Era! 

Very well said and straight to the point. I personally know people who have literally spent $40-50k this year "investing" in cards with only about $5k worth of product now to show for it.

Also, Idk how they are with their other sports cards, but Upper Deck seems to be getting lazy with their hockey cards (see my rant in the 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP forum) and only putting effort in the regular Upper Deck and O-Pee-Chee sets (not sure about some sets, like Ice or Artifacts, as I don't bother going out of my way to collect those since they're usually small).

I used to love collecting refractors. It was far more fun when they didn't come 50 to a box with 15 different parallels. Yes, that's an exaggeration, but I swear that's what it seems like. I just don't care for them, anymore. It's the same with relics. Even just base chrome cards have become almost worthless, despite the way higher initial price point. It makes me think of how much a new car's value drops once it's driven off the sales lot. What's the point of spending $1, or more, per card for a box of cards, if the post-purchase value of any one card is probably going to hover somewhere around 20 cents? It's insane.

"What's the point of spending $1, or more, per card for a box of cards, if the post-purchase value of any one card is probably going to hover somewhere around 20 cents?"

Exactly! The pack price reflects that chance at an auto, memorabilia, parallel, etc that one can get. Maybe, in the rare case, it's about the rookie(s) inside. Ultimately the base cards and even inserts can be gotten relatively cheaply afterwards in quarter boxes or in lots, so I agree, I don't see too much of the point of buying packs these days unless it's to try and get those rare cards (or, of course, ride the nostalgia which I understand). I definitely stay away from the $10 for 4 cards type of packs... yikes.