Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

[darylv1]

I know this is a "vintage" memorabilia thread, but i have a general question about memorabila from the 70's and 80's. i have a considerable Mike Schmidt collection. i am looking to part with some items that to even a very advanced schmidt collector would be pretty interesting (not your typical "oddball" cards). why is it that items that generated a ton of interest two-three years ago are generating little to no interest at all now? one example is and item that i currently have listed from schmidt's days in college that i fought to get 3 years ago and have never seen or heard of another existing, and at a minimum bid of $10 has generated very little interest.

My question is this - has something happened to this side of the hobby in the last year or two that i completely missed, or am I just having a run of bad luck on the ebay scene?

[mjkm90]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

Very interesting question. The reduction in value of items from the 70s is probably based on a few factors. One is that the supply of items from the 70s is almost limitless. Stars like Schmidt (although as many people hate him or are indifferent about him than appreciate him), George Brett, Jim Rice, etc. are collected, but there is so much product available that the value of all of it his dropped with the advent of ebay. Ebay increased the supply while the demand remained flat. Gloves from the 60s and 50s used to sell like hotcakes, now they are extremely cheap.
Prewar items on the other hand, have more of a mystique, feeling of quality, and nostalgia that items from the 70s lack. Maybe it's the design of the pieces. Compare a 1978 Sport Magazine to a 1930s famous slugger yearbook and you will see what I mean. There may come a day when the kids from the 70s are 50 yrs old, have money, and want to get into memorabilia from their childhood and the prices will go up. Again, ebay has made the supply limitless. Do a search for Hack Wilson then another for Mike Schmidt...big difference in what you find.
Also, items from the 70s aren't viewed as a good investment for the above reasons. Before someone plunks down $300 on an item, they want to be pretty sure the value will go up or that the item will always be liquid. I avoided most non-card 70s stuff (which is when I was a kid) and went directly to the oldest stuff I can find and afford.
I don't know about you, but I have never seen anything from the 70s that made me stop, pause, and so WOW that is amazing. If there is no wow factor for more than a couple people, there will be no value attached.
What do the rest of you think?
Post the link to your item. We can give you our honest feedback.

[darylv1]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

Thanks for the reply! I totally agree that ebay has made the supply of certain items seem "limitless". I remember my father taking me from show to show back in the late 80's or early 90's looking for the perfect Schmidt rookie for my birthday - - - if we had only waited until ebay - he would have saved a ton of $!

However, there are still items from that era that i would think should generate some interest, since the supply simply doesn't exist. To go along with that are collectors that did grow up watching those players (Schmidt, Brett, etc) that are now in their 30's and 40's. My thought would be that the crazy amounts of junk that show up on ebay would only generate more interest in the truly hard to find items. It definitely has for me. I got rid of my collection of MSA discs and other "oddball" items quickly and started focusing on either game worn items or stuff like Schmidt's high school yearbook, or a letter sent to him from the first Pres Bush. That's the stuff that makes me say "wow".

If it would help members give me honest feedback, here's a link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mike-Schmidt-1971-Ohio-University-Baseball-Brochure_W0QQitemZ8803784062QQcategoryZ73430QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[ryan4fregosi]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

This poses a good sidebar question -- what would be an acceptable cutoff date for something to be considered "vintage"? 1950? 1960? 1990??

[mjkm90]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

That is a nice Mike Schmidt piece. I would guess the right people just havn't seen it. Maybe it just needs more time to season.

Another part of the allure vintage pieces offer is the physical link they provide to a time we can't or didn't really see. Other than Ken Burns' series, how can we see Grover Cleveland Alexander pitch, or Honus Wagner swing a bat. We can't. Players from the 70s on were seen by millions on TV so the sight of on a piece of memorabilia doesn't have the same affect. Even if you were around in 1910, you probably would never see a player from any distance from your home unless you lived in a big city and could afford a ball game. Once in a while you would see a picture in the paper.

Regarding what is vintage. That varies for every collector. For me, cards need to be pre 1950, gloves pre 1960, bats pre 1940, pennants pre 1960. With everything, the older the better. Anything Paper made after 1970 doesn't get a second look from me.

[vintagesportscollector]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

What is vintage varies by who you are...and that's OK. You should collect whatever you enjoy collecting. I collect "vintage", and for me that's 1860-1960, with a focus on pre-1930....as Mike said the older the better.

-Joe

http://www.geocities.com/vintagesportscollector/

[Kid4hof03]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

Great Schmidt piece! I think it will end up doing fairily well, there are still some Schmidt collectors that fight over hard to find items such as this one.

Personally, I collect 1970's memorabilia, baseball, football and basketball. I love the stuff. I'm in my early 30's and this is the era that I enjoyed as a kid and that I have the greatest connection to. I've tried collecting "vintage", but it just doesn't appeal to me. I guess that's what makes the hobby great, it has over 100 years of material to appeal to many different personalities, budgets and interests.

I think the biggest change for items like the Schimdt is ebay. As has been mentioned ebay has shown the true scarcity or lack thereof of all these items. There are items in my player collections that I paid hundreds of dollars for 15 years ago because they were "rare", when ebay hit it's stride I found out they were not rare, it's just that they were in everyone's attic and now you can buy one for $25-$50 any time you'd like. It means in the long run I'll lose money, that's a chance I took, I'm not upset about it, I just don't plan on selling any time soon.

Sorry to drag on, my opinion is that I love this stuff, it doesn't have the "value" it did pre-ebay but it's still worthwhile to the collectors that enjoy the era of baby blue road uniforms and Afro's.

Abe

[mjkm90]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

GREAT post Abe! An excellent follow up to Joe's. Love what you collect and don't compare your collection to others. We are all renting this stuff anyway, and it will all go to other collectors eventually. Don't worry to much about taking a loss on the bottom line. If you enjoy an item for years and years and lose a few bucks on it, you are a winner in my book. Some guys blow $100 or more a week on gambling or knock a $100 off a tee each week. We buy memorabilia that has a chance of being free over time or actually making a few bucks when we are done with it.

Mike H

[vintagesportscollector]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

Not me Mike...I am being buried with my collection . Kind of luck an Egyptian pharoah. The only people that will get it eventually are grave robbers a thousand years from now.

Seriously.. I hope to still be collecting for the next 50 years and when I pass on my my grand kids can inherit my legacy. (and if those stinken kids sell my stuff on ebay or in some estate sale I am going to come back and haunt their ass-s.)

[slidekellyslide]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

I'm hoping my 5YO will enjoy this stuff enough that he will want to pass it on to his children....of course I now have another kid on the way so it may be a fight. I have no desire to ever sell this stuff if I don't have to.

As far as vintage goes my breakdown is pretty much anything older than 1970, but I have to say there are 1970's items that I really enjoy...I like the Kellogg's 3D cards as they combined two of my favorite pastimes as a child, eating breakfast cereal and baseball...I can still remember opening up those boxes of cereal and digging my hand all the way to the bottom to retrieve the treasures..Oddly enough the Topps baseball cards don't hold the same kind of nostalgia for me even though I was collecting them all the way back then....I also think that there are many deals to be had in that era like World Series Ticket Stubs and Programs.

[trsent]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

This poses a good sidebar question -- what would be an acceptable cutoff date for something to be considered "vintage"? 1950? 1960? 1990??

In the store people come in all day and ask if we are buying sports cards. I keep telling them we are aggressively buying older cards and they usually reply, "I have old cards from the 1980s and 1990s".

Needless to say, vintage for me (and it doesn't mean people can't post 1970s or 1980s stuff in this forum) is 1960s and back.

I guess being born in 1969 has something to do with that, but I figure if it is older than me it is vintage!

[WHITESOXJEFF]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

My question on vintage stuff is, who's going to collect it 10-20 years from now? I'm 28 years old, and for some reason love old White Sox flannels from the 60's (Pete Ward, Joe Horlen, Carlos May etc etc) but none of my fellow Sox friends are interested in that stuff, they like current stuff (Thomas, Guillen etc) the guys they see at the park day in and day out. So who's going to be buying older flannels, bats etc in the next 20 years? I almost feel now is the time to dump all that stuff and get current stuff that people my age will want 30-40 years from now, since they will still be alive, unlike collectors of 50's-60's stuff. I just see the guys buying the older stuff, as "older" fans. They grew up in the 40's-60's and those are the players they liked. When there gone who carries on the torch for those old jerseys?

[slidekellyslide]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

There will always be demand for older items...most of the people on this board collect stuff that is way older than they are. If I were you I certainly wouldn't be selling off the older stuff to buy the newer stuff.....but that's me and every collector is different.

[vintagesportscollector]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

Jeff- You love the older WS flannels, so please don't dump them just becuase you think you can make a buck or two years down the road on other stuff.

I am a collector, not an "investor". I collect stuff because I love it NOW...like you do. I don't buy crap that doesn't interest me just because It may make me a few bucks down the road. Some may call me foolish, but I love what I do TODAY..so who can argue with that.

[mjkm90]

Re: Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

If you are considering selling for financial reasons, you are making a huge mistake. The newer product supply will always exceed demand. You know how tough it is to find the Sox jerseys from the 60s today. It will be much harder in the future. Nobody alive saw Mike King Kelly or Cap Anson play, yet anything and I mean anything from those players is golden and always will be. Players today go through dozens and dozens of jerseys. Players from the past used few jerseys and those were sent to the minors when the guys in the bigs were through.
Another consideration is this. Most of us begin as collectors of our favorite team or player. As we grow in the hobby, we start gaining appreciation for history and older players. Most of the advanced collectors are students of the game and history. I can't say they are always more sophisticated, but that is a bit of a trend I've seen. They also tend to have some extra cash. They aren't investing in Ozzie Guillen jerseys. If the Sox stink in five years, nobody will be buying those shirts. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Jackie Robinson etc, aren't going to strike out, get busted doing something illegal, or piss the press off. Advanced collectors know this. Ask the guy who paid over a million bucks for the McGuire, Sosa, and Bonds balls how many offers he's received to purchase them. They are worth less than a 100th what he paid. Scarcity, novelty, and history drive value for the most part. Older is almost always more valuable (assuming like condition). I don't care if A-rod hits 800 home runs, a Jimmie Foxx game jersey will always be worth 10 to 20 times more.
Again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the new stuff. I have some new stuff and assume we all do. But, do not think that just because one of your or my buddies who know squat about baseball history want a Frank Thomas jersey that a common player from the 60s isn't going to be a better long term investment.