General Forum

I totally get that active player prices fluctuate a lot depending on if they are having a good year or bad year or if they break any records etc. but my question is more about retired players and older cards.  I was shopping online for a few of the older cards I need and while I was finding them under $10 just before baseball season started, now I'm struggling to even find a listing under $50 and we're talking early 1970s so these are players who are long since retired and some even passed away.

Any theories as to why online prices might have jumped so much in just a matter of a month or two outside of baseball being in season?  I would think Christmas would be a hot time and prices would have been up then.  Nope.

I am guessing it might be due to the added eyeballs on the sport itself, thus giving sellers more confidence that enthusiastic baseball fans will be just as enthusiastic with their wallet. Maybe this also leads to more listings, so while the offseason might dip the price back to a level many of us collectors are hoping for, it might also decrease the amount of listings given the waning of enthusiasm.

Quite a few factors can affect the pricing, even during the off season. Set collectors, team collectors learning about a player, and resellers among many others. 
 

One thing I learned a few years ago was resellers buying up common vintage cards in good condition. They would get them graded and pawn them off as low population count. My guess is that once the good conditions ones gets bought up it gets harder to find a card, even commons and thus driving up the prices. 

As the older cards go those early 70s really havent changed much until last year and they are turning 50 years old. In another 50 years they will double in value because they will be 100 years old just like the T206 and the T205 cards did in 2011. If I am still around in 2033 i expect the goudy double in value and in 2048 the Bowman will double in value 

reason for this the cards will be locked up in peoples collections and some will be destroyed by family members, natural disasters and house fires. So every year goes by i bet collections are destroyed.  Just how many cards were destroyed in the Texas wildfires.  This is one reason older cards have values change 

could also reflect like 2014 you could find literally 100’s of 1972 Thurman Munson cards and now you might find only 25 or so on ebay ( didn’t look it up but was trying to give an example)