Wondering what people's thoughts are about the direction that the game used hobby is moving. Seems like more and more teams are marketing their own items and the number of items being made available is increasing rapidly. Teams can set the supply and they are happy to put things out there Jerseys are worn for a handful of games (if even that much). GU balls are all over the place. Seems if you want an item you can readily obtain it. For a true "collector" I guess this is good. But will things hold any sort of value. Will prices plummet with the saturation of the market?
State of the Hobby
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Re: State of the Hobby
Wondering what people's thoughts are about the direction that the game used hobby is moving. Seems like more and more teams are marketing their own items and the number of items being made available is increasing rapidly. Teams can set the supply and they are happy to put things out there Jerseys are worn for a handful of games (if even that much). GU balls are all over the place. Seems if you want an item you can readily obtain it. For a true "collector" I guess this is good. But will things hold any sort of value. Will prices plummet with the saturation of the market? -
Re: State of the Hobby
I like it. I want the market flooded. There are plenty of baseball cards that I own that I could careless if they are basically worthless because to me they look cool. I would love to own a Chipper Jones game used jersey and I wish he had wore 162 of them each season I could get one for a few hundred bucks instead of the 1,000 they normally run. If your in the hobby to become rich and not because you love sports its a shame.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
If your in the hobby to become rich and not because you love sports its a shame.
What's wrong with wanting collect things that have financial value?? That's a shame? Really?
What's wrong with collecting stamps, coins, sports memorabilia as a Hobby/investment? I collect for the love of it, but my collection is also an investment to help pay for my kids college.
I'm pretty sure not everyone shares your opinion.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
Kelly-I do think things are changing for many collectors. I like Football Jerseys and there are many NFL teams that I longer want to collect because there is just too large of a supply out there. IMO we need either more collectors to join the hobby or fewer items available to keep it interesting and exciting.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
In regards to game used bats... Teams are now grabbing the cracked bats rather then letting the bat boys or players give them out. So there is not more supply of game used bats. Just that the bats will be available for the working adult rather then the kids with dreams.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
I was in an MLB ballpark recently where "Team Issued" jerseys were being sold by the team in part of their game used store. Not a big deal, but I had to scratch my head when I saw that they were from current players from the 2012 season. Can it be anything more than a cash grab when a team sells "issued" items 1/3 of the way through the season. If they sell, whats to stop them from cranking out jerseys, "issuing" them, then putting them up for sale????Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
The hobby is fine. People just need to use common sense. If your "investing" don't invest in stuff from non-historic regular season games from teams that sell their stuff through a game used department or partner. There are still alot of teams that don't have much out there. As a football collector I can tell you certain teams are very scarce. Steelers, Texans, Ravens (despite 1.5 years with JO) and Pats to name a few. And you can never go wrong with vintage stuff and stuff of stars who retired more than two or three years ago.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
In regards to game used bats... Teams are now grabbing the cracked bats rather then letting the bat boys or players give them out. So there is not more supply of game used bats. Just that the bats will be available for the working adult rather then the kids with dreams.
Dave MiedemaComment
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Re: State of the Hobby
I was under the impression the team purchases the bat order. I know they do it for the minors.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
If your in the hobby to become rich and not because you love sports its a shame.
What's wrong with wanting collect things that have financial value?? That's a shame? Really?
What's wrong with collecting stamps, coins, sports memorabilia as a Hobby/investment? I collect for the love of it, but my collection is also an investment to help pay for my kids college.
I'm pretty sure not everyone shares your opinion.
Not saying everyone has to... I do see it going the way of the baseball cards though and I thought most people would also.. Maybe because the most expensive thing I have bought game used was $500 that my collection is nothing of lasting value because I do not have any high end items?
I just see people pay $1,000, or $2,000 for a random jersey that was worn on any random day of the current "hot" player and a year down the road they are lucky to get back 1/4 of that.
Sure you might get lucky and pick up an item of a player before they become a superstar but I feel like the average collector is going to have more misses than hits. I am not sure what your collection consist of and I sure hope you can pay for your childrens college with it I just know with the things that I own anything I have recently tried to sell I have taken a loss on. Once that players time in the lime light has come and gone their demand goes out the window.
I've had baseball cards once worth $200 now sell for $5 or less on ebay.
I cant give away a Clinton Portis authentic signed jersey that I have over $250 in on here or ebay for even $60 bucks.
I have only been able to get back roughly 75% cost on the game used items I have sold recently. Who knows maybe if I kept them for another 20 years they will have gained value? I just think by at that time all of today's current players retire the teams will have pumped out so many game used items of theirs that it will be hard for anyone to get their cost back..Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
The focus of my collection is with football players from the University of hawaii. As you can guess most of what I collect would be considered common players. Most times I'm able to buy them at a bargain price but if it something I really want I would overpay in which case it would be highly unlikely to make my money back. I have no illusions of getting rich. I just enjoy tracking a jersey down and adding it to my collection. Because I'm a collector i rarely sell anything though I do consider trades. To me my hobby is to make me happy and not make me a profit which would be difficult if I don't sell anything.
LIKE THEY SAY: COLLECT WHAT YOU ENJOY.Comment
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Re: State of the Hobby
Hey, Mike (OaklandAsFan) and I saw Jemile Weeks give his bat to some guy about twenty rows back in the first inning of last Saturday's game, didn't we, Mike? I don't even think it was cracked when it left his hands, though I couldn't vouch for its condition when it stopped bouncing.
The Diamondbacks stopped selling bats and jerseys in the Team Shop two or three years ago, and now put 2-4 bats and the occasional jersey out for silent auction, for charity, during every regular season game. They start the bidding on the bats at $75-100 ($200 for a Justin Upton bat, I think), and they just about always sell. When they were sitting in the Team Shop, priced at $125 and up, they probably didn't sell one a week. They obviously figured out that highlighting a few select bats and introducing the element of competition into the buying process was the way to go.
Then, at the FanFest, of course, they put a few barrels out filled with guys who've mostly left the team, for ten to twenty-five, and some current players for probably thirty to fifty.
Even so, the team has got to have a huge backlog of bats and other items squirreled away down in the bowels of the stadium. I'm told there's a room near the visitor's locker area that has old bats and gear going back at least ten years. Sometimes I go there in my daydreams.
At least one good thing to come out of the increased availability of, say, current and recent players' jerseys is that it serves to suppress the urge of the card companies to cut those jerseys up for "memorabilia cards". Who's going to spend hundreds on several boxes of cards to search, in hopes of getting a swatch, when they can buy a whole jersey for less?Jeff
godwulf1@cox.netComment
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