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Collecting Fads.... What's Next?

Anyone who is over the age of forty remembers how popular collecting baseball cards was back in the late 1980s through the early 1990s. For me, it was the 1988 Topps baseball set that piqued my interest in collecting baseball cards again. Unfortunately, the popularity of collecting baseball cards then was brief. Many of us spent a lot of our money on worthless rookie cards that ended up on the curb, along with the rest of our cardboard treasures from back then that amounted to nothing.

Baseball card collectors in 1988 learned the fate of a collecting fad the hard way. Hopefully, the same fate will not visit autograph collectors as well.

My collection of baseball cards from the past continues to rest in my son's closet. He, however, has moved to sunny California, and is enjoying his adult life without them. Only my 1988 Topps baseball set has survived my own personal disinterest. I continue to have the cards autographed to make up for my youthful naivete.

I started collecting autographs when I was very young. It was then that I asked Phil Esposito for my first in-person autograph. Years later, I also received autographs from Tom Seaver, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. It was in 1997 that I began to collect autographs as a hobby, and I have not looked back since.

Authentication stickers began to appear on autographed items in the early 2000s. Was this the first indication that our hobby would suddenly become popular with the masses? Would the cost of autographs suddenly double and triple over the years, only to suddenly plummet in value shortly thereafter? Only if the autographs were purchased by investors, or young naïve collectors, who were hoping to cash in on their potential returns.

Baseball cards were not the only collecting fad that I have witnessed in my lifetime, and it is not the only one that I have participated in. You can add 1990s comics to the list, as well as the first batch of new Star Wars action figures. I have also witnessed the demise of Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Kids and POGS.

By now, it is clear where my thoughts on this subject are. Will autograph collecting suffer the same fate as the others? I hope not. There will always be a market for vintage collectibles. Vintage baseball cards, comics and Star Wars action figures will always hold their values. Vintage autographs will undoubtedly retain their value as well. Unfortunately, that may not be the case for a collection of Game of Thrones autographs in the future. Then again, only time will tell. And only time will tell what the next collecting fad will be.

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Comment by crazyrabbits23 on January 25, 2020 at 12:30am: Speaking of premium sports card collecting, I wrote something about this the other night on a video showing a Topps Transcendent 2019 box break. Great product to watch being broken, horrible product to invest in (MSRP is $27,000 per case, with $5k of that being a party invite to an event with Ken Griffey Jr./unlimited food and drink/hotel for a couple nights).

What's happening to the premium sports card industry reminds me a lot of how the comic book market was just before the crash in the early 90s. Tons of "ashcan", "limited", "multi-cover" and "premium" comics that had variants upon variants, sets you had to collect, knick-knacks (trading cards, mail-away offers) and every other gimmick under the sun to keep you buying four-to-twenty versions of the exact same thing.

Now you've got the same thing, except with "VIP party cards", hundreds of different 1/1 variants, "(super)fractors", a "rookie card" for each trading card publisher AND set, and plenty of other tricks to keep you coming back for another hit. I saw another video of a Topps Transcendent opening (one of the previous years) where the case, which like this cost $20k+, come with an oversized cut auto of... Gordie Howe, a guy whose signature you can still get on the open market for $40 or less if you find a halfway-decent eBay deal. Everyone gets the same "set" of autographs, with the only difference being minor cosmetic differences (gold/red/purple/green borders). Mike Trout has had so many variants (including multiple rookies, printing plates, "Through the Years" sets, superfractors and others) that you can throw a dart and find a Trout auto for virtually every level of budget.

Comment by Mike Shepherd on January 25, 2020 at 7:31am: That is a great observation, Adam. I tend to agree with you.

Comment by Mike Shepherd on January 25, 2020 at 7:37am: I agree about the variants. If a hobby requires variants to keep collectors interested in collecting today, it may not be long until interest in the hobby disappears.

Comment by Jason Strecker on January 25, 2020 at 8:15am: I don't think autographs will be such a bad fad as the 1980s/early 90s sports cards or pogs, beanies etc...Those were all mass produced to a point that a few may be rare but anyone who wanted one most likely could get one. Autographs are quite a bit more unique. Now, shows themselves may eventually slow down if the prices go higher or if the star power lowers but I think the hobby itself will always be very popular. There are also enough different types of genres to collect such as multiple sports, multiple movie types, tv shows, local celebrities and more. Also, autographs are so much more unique than toys or cards. A Topps 1990 single is just a card but a What About Bob poster where Richard Dreyfuss scribbles on Bill Murray's picture is a bigger story.

Comment by Mike Shepherd on January 25, 2020 at 10:23am: Very true. Autographs are undoubtedly much more unique than the other collectibles mentioned.

Comment by crazyrabbits23 on January 25, 2020 at 11:50pm: Of course. When it comes to obtaining autographs in-person, it creates very unique experiences for the recipient. I can't think of many people where I live who had the opportunity to meet Sally Field in-person, for instance. There are also plenty of unique and memorable autographs out there that I don't see the general market softening anytime soon.

There are several markets, though, where the practice of obtaining autographs is catering more and more exclusively to whales. What publishers like Topps, Panini and Bowman have done to the market has taken a hobby that should have been accessible to everyone and gated it behind $100+ packs, multi-coloured refractors, an authentication industry that can be summed up as "get graded or die trying" and people desperately trying to sell signed cards that are worth 75% less out of the box at inflated prices. Are people seriously going to run out and drop $300-plus on a Don Mattingly or Matsui auto? And I know Zion Williamson may be a great player, but he just sat out a giant chunk of games due to an injury and has only played one game back so far, yet there are people charging $1-2k plus for a signature. It's all fueled by speculation instead of logic.

That's why I collect signed books (mostly from second-hand shops). If I'm going to be forking out dough for sigs, it might as well be something I can learn from too.

Comment by Mike Shepherd on January 26, 2020 at 6:34am: Great picture with Sally Field!

Comment by KARL on February 14, 2020 at 7:06am: I make a point of going out every weekend to an antique show, toy show, philatelic show, or flea market. I do this to keep my interest going. I mostly see older gentlemen at philatelic shows. Train and toy shows are people 50 and older. The only thing I see that seems to be of interest to today's youth is classic vinyl records from the 60s and 70s . I will point out that when I was in my 20s there were far more collectable shows on weekends compared to today.