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  1. #1

    Question about 70's and 80's memorabilia

    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?

  2. #2

    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.

  3. #3

    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-197...QQcmdZViewItem


  4. #4

    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??

  5. #5

    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.

  6. #6

    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/

  7. #7
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    609

    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

  8. #8

    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

  9. #9

    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.)

  10. #10

    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.

 

 

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