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]

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]

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

[ryan4fregosi]

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

[mjkm90]

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]

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/

[trsent]

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]

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?