You are most likely correct that price point is the #1 issue for existing collectors. I don't think any Marvel card set is iconic. This hobby appears almost completely driven by "new" or whats next. This makes sense since #1 priority of trading card manufactures/LCS's is selling their next product. Only collectors care about old sets. I'm a collector, so I've actually been opening cases/boxes + buying singles of your 2024 set list and older product prices continue to fall... I'm having a marvelous time collecting right now
. This is cheapest hobby has been in few years for me.
Back to price point, you cannot really complain about quality of cards if you cannot afford to get them in hand or to experience opening the product. I think this is just an issue for existing collectors because there is an established expectation of cost/priced out for new sealed boxes/singles. I don't see this issue being solved. This is new normal and just the beginning. I think prices will continue to rise. Luckily this is just a hobby and not critical resource(ie, food/housing), so hopefully people can find alternative ways to enjoy hobby.
Upper Deck seemed to really restrict who could directly sell their Marvel products. I think this has restricted UD secondary value a lot in modern internet retailers/social/breaking market from exploding like Topps. The UD marvel products never had marketing like Topps is getting. Topps products you can find all over the place. More stores carry Topps products. This puts more eyes on Topps Marvel products and breaker videos act as hype/advertisement for the product. If I youtube search, "marvel trading cards" its almost nothing but Chrome and Mint now.
As someone that was new to card collecting in late 2018, it took me few years before I began looking at older Rittenhouse Marvel cards. I would expect any new Topps Marvel collectors that stays in hobby will have similar experience. They might not look at Upper Deck because they think "Marvel is Topps" or "Topps is Marvel." For this reason, I don't think UD Marvel cards will rise in value with these Topps Marvel card sales. I would actually expect some UD marvel cards to fall in value due to lack of interest or people offloading collections because of hobby burnout. There might be some renewed interest few/several years from now, but again hobby is driven by "new".
I imagine Topps is tapping into some new Marvel card collectors. New collectors are starting similar experience that I had; spending several thousands on sealed wax and singles with no worrying to cost. Its simply ignorance. If you are new to hobby, you probably don't understand difference in original art, comic book sourced art, or movie/show Marvel sets. You don't understand inserts vs. parallels. You probably won't understand how to price sketch cards for years because so many factors that seem to influence value. Also, there will be plenty people trying to exploit that ignorance... resellers, ebay/whatnot, dealers, influencers, etc.
Back to sorting cards. . .
