Dealer price gouging....

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TribeBuckeyeFan

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We all know it happens, but I'm specifically referring to 2017 Bowman Mega Boxes. I never saw these in retail stores anywhere this summer. The cheapest I can find online is Dave and Adam's at $49.99 per box - and the box is clearly marked $14.99. This really gets my ******* in a ***. I understand they are a business and need to make money, but damn. I'm sure they have gophers running around to their local retail stores on release dates and buy all of these that they can get their hands, but then to increase the price by more than 3 times? Is that really necessary? I make a decent living, but that doesn't mean I can consistently drop a hundy, two hundy, etc., every month on cards just because I enjoy the hobby.


OK, I'm off my high horse now. Anyone else have any input or anything they want to vent about?
 
That's what I thought initially too, but honestly, they weren't going for what I expected on Ebay. Granted, they are high, but if my old memory serves me correctly, 89 UD Griffey, 90 Leaf Thomas, and anything Ichiro when he came over were going for higher values.
 
Best way to stop their hoarding & gouging would be not buy em when they're that high. Everyone's high on this Tani guy but he'll the ball & even his cards will fall.
 
I remember this happening to me at a card show back in the mid 80's. I forget what year eaxactly, but updates sets had just come out. It was a small show at a local firehouse and I went to the table of a dealer from whom I had bought lots of stuff. His price for the update set was way above book, and I told him so and that I could buy it from another dealer at much less. His response was that he would go over and but out the other dealers becasue they were undercutting him!
Never bought another thing from him.
Boots
 
All the Mega Boxes I've seen on Ebay lately have sold for $50ish so I don't think Dave and Adam's is charging too much. This happens with every product that has a hot rookie in it. I'm sure 2009 Bowman Draft boxes were selling for less than $100 when they came out back in 2009. Now they sell for around $1000 and a blaster box which was $19.95 recently sold for $249!!

This is nothing new to the hobby. It has always been this way.
 
I remember this happening to me at a card show back in the mid 80's. I forget what year eaxactly, but updates sets had just come out. It was a small show at a local firehouse and I went to the table of a dealer from whom I had bought lots of stuff. His price for the update set was way above book, and I told him so and that I could buy it from another dealer at much less. His response was that he would go over and but out the other dealers becasue they were undercutting him!
Never bought another thing from him.
Boots

Boots do you remember what Update set was involved in this price gouging? The first time I remember this happening was with the various 1986 Update sets because of Canseco and Bo Jackson. I had never witnessed this previous to those 1986 Update/Traded issues with a slight exception of a moderate craze over Mattingly, Strawberry and Gooden Rookies.

I'm surprised this gouging still happens today with the extreme contraction of the hobby. There can't be more than 1 or 2 percent of the collectors, dealers, card shows, card shops and card outlets that the were 20 years ago and yet this gouging still happens? I do see a frenzy here on the Bench over the newest hot players (ie Judge, Bellinger and the like) but it is minor in comparison to what occurred "back in the day". The last real card frenzy I remember was any issue that had Shaq's RC.
 
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Good way to put it, Jeff... The hobby had a huge contraction , big part of it was the fact that kids don't have the money to pay for cards, they have gotten crazy expensive in terms of retail, and on the secondary market, forget it! 30 years ago, it was so different, I had a couple bucks from Gram while I was waiting for her to get her hair done at the beauty parlor, I'd run next door to the card shop and buy a few packs, or individual star cards... No such thing as eBay in 1988!
 
I know it was post 1986, as I did not get back into the hobby until '86. I think it was the '87 Fleer Update.
I think it happens to the present because there are many who do not collect, but rather speculate.
Boots
Boots do you remember what Update set was involved in this price gouging? The first time I remember this happening was with the various 1986 Update sets because of Canseco and Bo Jackson. I had never witnessed this previous to those 1986 Update/Traded issues with a slight exception of a moderate craze over Mattingly, Strawberry and Gooden Rookies.

I'm surprised this gouging still happens today with the extreme contraction of the hobby. There can't be more than 1 or 2 percent of the collectors, dealers, card shows, card shops and card outlets that the were 20 years ago and yet this gouging still happens? I do see a frenzy here on the Bench over the newest hot players (ie Judge, Bellinger and the like) but it is minor in comparison to what occurred "back in the day". The last real card frenzy I remember was any issue that had Shaq's RC.
 
I know it was post 1986, as I did not get back into the hobby until '86. I think it was the '87 Fleer Update.
I think it happens to the present because there are many who do not collect, but rather speculate.
Boots

You nailed the reason with one word - speculation. It is why so many of the 2017 products were overpriced - Bellinger, Judge, Benintendi, Moncada, and I am sure I am missing a few. Everyone wanted the low number parallels or auto'd cards.

If Ohtani turns into Trout...great investment. If he turns into Brian Taylor.....junk bond status. And you can't discount the Asian community driving the price up, has happened for the majority of players coming over - Matsui, Darvish, Ichiro, etc. Especially with the proliferation of Ebay.
 
The 1987 Fleer Update is an interesting case for speculation in sports cards. If I remember correctly, that set was supposed to be "short printed" and 1987 may have been the all time year for insane speculating on rookies. The funny thing is the only 2 guys from the 1987 baseball issues that amounted to much was Barry bonds (who was moderately speculated on) and Greg Maddux who no one speculated on!! That year had a ton of guys who looked like "all time greats" but ended up being major disappointments or members of the Hall of Very Good. I know Barry Larkin made the Hall but I don't think the majority of the hobby cares about his cards.

I just realized that the first 5 players that I recall being highly sought after for investment purposes (Mattingly, Strawberry, Gooden. Bo Jackson and Canseco) not one of them made the HOF! And all had a much better shot at it than the 25 year old rookie who has 58 career home runs that everyone and their brother seems to be striving to acquire. I'm not a math **** but 25 years old with 58 career home runs does not exactly make me think "All Time Great".
 
We have had this conversation before, and it seems appropriate to repeat, you are EXACTLY RIGHT about the excitement that surrounds certain players, and they may be greats of the decade, or greats of the era, but all time? As a kid, I would have thought all 5 of those guys would have been Hall of Gamers. None did the things in their careers that pushed them over the edge. I will argue all day that Mattingly deserves it, but without a WS ring, it is unlikely.

Larkin cards dont generate a ton of interest, but Griffey is probably the most collected player in recent times, if not in history. If there is another more collected player, I don't know who he is!
 
As most people have said, this has been going on as long as I can remember. I started collecting in 1980 and really got into it around 1985. I remember a guy at flea market buying tons of 1986 Sportsflics Decade Greats cards. He was saying they will be huge and he will make a ton of money off them. Another guy was selling 9 pocket pages of hot rookies form 1987 Topps. Then there was another person hoarding Hoops David Robinson rookies and telling me they will be worth more than Jordan rookies. Can anyone guess how that worked out for all these guys? I know I can look back and say that if I knew then what I know now I would be the king of cards. But for the most part the guys who scoop up all this stuff are going to lose in the end. I could buy every 1960's set if I had a dime for every time I heard this guy was the next Jordan or was baby Jordan and I better go buy his stuff. Just wait these people out and for the most part they will be begging you to buy this stuff at a discounted rate.
 
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