Originally Posted by xxhu5sl1npnoyxx
I collect basketball cards. There was a time where cards pre-2001 weren't worth very much because the focus was on jersey patch and autographed insert cards. But over the past year, the rarer insert cards, specifically players like Jordan, Penny, Grant Hill, and older Kobe inserts have seen hikes in prices. A large reason for this is the over saturation of autographs and jersey patch cards over-saturating the market.
Before if you pulled a Jordan autographed card, that was a easy $2000, now you can get one for $300 because there are just so many that are inserted into packs. So a lot of collectors started going back to collect cards and inserts they couldnt buy when they were kids. We are talking people paying $10,000+ for a 97-98 Fleer metal precious gems Michael Jordan card.
But this is solely in the basketball card hobby, I barely follow football cards, and I know in baseball anything Matt Kemp is really hot. About 2 months ago, during Linsanity, Jeremy Lin autographed cards were selling for $350+ on average. Before Linsanity, all it cost was $3 for a Jeremy Lin auto. One collector on another message board had literally 200+ Lin autos, dude prolly spent less than $500 on his collection and sold it and made over $80,000. Last year something similar happened with Blake Griffin, though his prices have settled.
The basketball card hobby is a gamble. It was crazy a couple years ago, carlos arroyo base cards were selling for like $10-15 a piece. Now you couldnt even sell a lot of 100 for $5. Someties you just luck up, I collect Andrew Bynum cards, I've been selling my collection since All Star break, his stuff isnt super hot, but its at least tripled in value.
