Collecting Question/Survey…

[chris_ac]

Hi. I have an inquiry today for our collectorship here. Mainly player driven buyers but 1/1 buyers or certain team fans who are ambitious in their team PCs.

So to my ?, would you say or have noticed the ability to find NHL Shield Autos to be even more difficult than pre-2020 to locate and feasibly buy?

Remove costs from this for discussion sake. I know a lot less of the high end gets opened compared to years prior. Between UC and Cup, the breaks dwindled pretty fast over the last 2. More may get opened for Bedard when 23/24 comes out but depending on your player target for shields. Just curious for those who do get excited when they pop up FS, it is extremely difficult now?

I search generally speaking on ebay even including any players and just do not see too many ever surface from newer UC or Cup. Maybe takes 2 years. I have seen a couple interesting ones max, but are they largely sitting in unopened product?

Player collections are getting more cutthroat to build beyond the price differences now. So few 1/1s of any decent player with some potential and when you get excited to see one, 1 of 2 things could derail it. Ransom negotiations by seller and justification on why the player is the shizz or something truly detracting on condition like bad sig or very obvious foil/surface/corner flaw that stands out on an avg auction pic.

Just hobby thoughts I would hope to read feedback. This digs deeper than 10 best rookies/cards to own for a player lol

TY if you reply.

[stoopid]

I think you're on the right track with your hypothesis.

Products do take time to get opened. I would not be surprised if that's only magnified, despite breaking still existing, by the insane entry price for those top products. Also, some people buy and throw the boxes/cases on a shelf. With Bedard this will be exponential as everyone assumes he's the next One and holds for future resale.

On top of that, there's more online selling options than ever. eBay obviously, also my primary go-to, but also Mercari, Alt, MySlabs, MyCard Post, Greg Morris, Goldin, COMC, Fanatics Collects, Facebook marketplace, Instagram, etc etc. So much gets transacted out of view on some of those. And now card shows are seemingly taking off in popularity again, little of that is being tracked unless someone voluntarily gets the transaction vetted with cardladder.

With desirable case/product hit level 1/1 cards, you'd think those are mostly (and rightfully) ending up in collections. That would mean to me that they're effectively removed from the market for long enough time that you mind as well mark them down as 'gone'.

One caveat is if the economy continues to struggle or stagnate, we might see things trickle out as even well healed collectors find that money more useful in hand than in a safe. There's hope, but not the kind of hope we hope for. If wealthy people start liquidating, things are bleak and the card market is likely in really bad shape by that point.

[stoopid]

BTW, your Kopitar collection shown on IG is great.

[rizzeedizzee]

Consider also the proliferation of repacks. In the past, if a shield was pulled, you either kept it, sold it in person, or sold it on ebay. Now there are many who buy cards like that for repack purposes, meaning they might never get offered for sale on the open market.

[chris_ac]

Originally Posted by rizzeedizzee

Consider also the proliferation of repacks. In the past, if a shield was pulled, you either kept it, sold it in person, or sold it on ebay. Now there are many who buy cards like that for repack purposes, meaning they might never get offered for sale on the open market.

Good point. Another added aspect to availability.

[JanuaryRains]

I think yes - a lot of collectors actively try and make sure cards don't hit open market in the first place so it becomes critical to a) be everywhere on socials and b) be known as the "XYZ player collector." Just so much luck involved these days - right time, right seller, right price, etc.

Don't know how much this is true, pure speculation, but I feel Ultimate's gone downhill in popularity...? You still get a ton of it opened on Epack, sure, but the stuff that's out there in shops/stores, wonder if its just sitting there. Risk/reward ratio is so, so bad with UC, hitting even a top Ultimate Rookie /99 auto doesn't get you your money back and that's a multi-case hit with current UC. No one wants to burn their money away, just tough to justify UC when you can spend on SPA or something where you could get your money back more often.

Will be interesting to see how the 23/24 high-end product stuff plays out.

[Seahawks fan]

I can't add anything to the 2020 debate because I collect Kraken who came out in 2021/22. That being said I have only seen 3 Kraken shields pop up in the wild and the asking prices were ridiculous. $500-$1,999 for vets. That's hard for me to pay considering I have game used logo shields of Seahawks greats that only sell for $75-$300.

[NotGoSportsBall]

Originally Posted by chris_ac

Good point. Another added aspect to availability.

Counterpoint - repacks also recycle high end cards that may have been acquired by private sales, and gets them out into the open market. For example, I collect Flyers. I have been watching eBay for over a decade for a really nice Bobrovsky Cup RPA and the best I ever found was a typical three color stripe pattern patch. Then along comes a Hit Parade break on WhatNot featuring possibly the best patch from the set. Never saw anything that good on eBay EVER.

Repacks serve a purpose that is helpful to collectors by recycling cards back into the system.