I agree with you. In my opinion, a large amount of the buying is being done by people "investing" and that is driving up prices. It's unrealistic to think that prices can continue to increase like they are now. And once the growth and profits dwindle, many of those investors will leave. I do think that many collector/investors will stay, but they won't be buying in the volume we are seeing now.
I personally don’t see the prices cooling off. I believe the amount of new collectors we’re getting are going to keep pushing it up. Of course there is always a cool off period. Tons of new RU-vid channels like Jabs family, Eliteco, PSA collector, Gary Vee and more are bringing back collecting/investing to a whole new level. The junk wax era is not so junky anymore with the key cards. Boxes are harder to find in flee markets and local stores. Many wanna relive the stories of the players during there youth now. I also truly believe card collecting is the new GAMBLING TICKET for sports betting. As a result, many more will turn into collectors as a result over time. I see a positive future for key cards in collecting and investing.
Shaq rookie cards in general have been undervalued for a long long time like you stated and people finally realized it. I feel like the Shaq prices are here to stay because the market corrected itself finally. I wish I would have loaded up on psa 10 Shaq rookies in the past though. I have been buying a few psa 9 when I can find a deal but even those are getting harder to find at a reasonable price now. I feel like Shaq is a safe long term “investment” and will be less effected by any type of “bubble” burst that we may see.
I noticed the 1987-88 and 1988-89 Fleer sets went way up on Ebay sold listings. Full disclosure I have both sets. I kept telling people the 1988-89 Fleer set was way undervalued. They are nice little sets to have. Same amount of cards as the Topps Traded sets. I think the graded prices are ridiculous. The sets mainly 1988-89 Fleer being undervalued are because of what is in the set. It has Pippen, Stockton, Rodman and Miller Rcs. Then it has the 3rd year Jordan as well as the All Star Jordan. That card is in high demand as well. I think that set should be a $300-$350 set.
I've been thinking of selling the bulk of my cards and putting that money into some higher value vintage.like a high grade Brett RC in a PSA 8.5-PSAb9.. Maybe a Seaver RC in 7.5-8ish grade. You can buy a PSA 4.5 Hank Aaron RC for less than 2K. All of these are great long term bets. The Jordan is a great long term hold too but there will be a dip between now + then. I am trying to hold off for now as unfortunately we're heading towards a recession. There will be many buying opportunities when that hits
