When people think of sports cards as an investment they think the cards have to be old to be valuable, i.e. a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth card. However, in large part due to the pandemic, modern cards have taken off in value. Those cards sitting in your attic or basement from the 90’s could be worth some serious money. In 2020 there was a perfect storm of circumstances that drove the price of collectibles, especially sports cards. With everyone on lockdown, a lot of people had time on their hands. Around that time Kobe Bryant died tragically in a plane crash, and a show called The Last Dance featuring Michael Jordan became very popular on Netflix. The nostalgia people had for those two players drove the price of their memorabilia.
Many people started “side hustles” and sold items online for a little extra money. Before long “flippers” were noticing a trend and started buying cards (and packs of cards from the store) and flipping them within a week for profit, similar to a day trader. This caught the attention of Wall Street and investment firms who started really putting money into the high value cards driving up the prices even more. Now even brand new rookie cards, of players who haven’t even played a game, have become speculative assets worth thousands of dollars.
Grading a card creates another component to rarity and scarcity. Receiving a high grade could 10x the value of the card ungraded. Grading companies exploded during this time. Typically sending a card off to be graded might take 6-8 weeks, at this point in time it was taking 8 months to get your graded card back. The interest in these collectibles remains at an all-time high.
Estate and Downsizing Specialists have always offered a service to consign your collectibles. We’re excited to now provide screening of your sports and trading cards for grading and selling. Seth Inlow, our Collectibles Specialist, has loads of experience as a Sports Card Grader and can make sure you know what you have and what it’s worth. If you have cards or collectibles you’d like to grade email Seth at [email protected] to set up an appointment!
