While the pandemic dealt a blow to many industries, the baseball card hobby experienced a resurgence in interest and trading card sales increased dramatically from 2019 to 2021. According to industry insiders and market reports, the increased interest was driven by new collectors getting into the hobby, as well as former collectors rediscovering their interest during quarantines and downtime at home.
The rising prices seen in vintage cards from the 1950s up to the late 1980s helped spark new interest, as headline-grabbing auction prices in the tens of millions of dollars were regularly making news. This created greater awareness and excitement around the high-end vintage card market. At the same time, modern card products released since the early 2010s have consistently appreciated in value for star players like Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Juan Soto. Being able to imagine an investment holding or increasing in value fueled additional collectors pursuing modern cards of rising stars.
Card shops and hobby stores that sell new and vintage cards were swamped with demand they hadn’t seen in decades. Online trading card platforms like eBay, Beckett Marketplace, and PWCC also saw huge increases in new registrations and monthly active buyers and sellers. The spike in new collectors stretched the availability of some popular modern card products released in 2020, creating sellouts and aftermarket price spikes. Upper Deck’s The Cup football cards launched in early 2021 and sold out instantly online, with boxes fetching thousands on the secondary market within days.
While the pandemic played a role in the enthusiasm, the underlying factors appear sustainable beyond any short-term impacts. A younger generation of collectors in their 20s and 30s has embraced card collecting and investing. Many of these new collectors were first exposed to the hobby through opening packs as kids in the late 80s to 90s boom, and are now reconnecting as adults with greater discretionary income. Platforms like TikTok have further exposed younger audiences to the high-end card market.
At the same time, teams, leagues and card manufacturers have done more to combine cards with new digital and tech products. Partnerships between Topps and digital platforms like MLB’s Blockchain platform have created new areas of interest bridging the physical and digital card worlds. The NFL entered the market with its exclusive license to Panini in 2020. And collectors now have opportunities to get cards autographed and verified on the blockchain.
While the economic outlook remains uncertain, long-term trends appear favorable for the continued strength of the baseball card and overall trading card market. The growth of internet marketplaces sustains interest and competition for rare cards. An established vintage market that has been growing for decades provides a proven long-term investment asset class. And new collectors finding the hobby provide an injection that replaces collectors who move on. Although retail prices for new cards, boxes and cases have increased noticeably in the last year, the increased demand and competitive marketplace has ensured supply availability and collectible options remain plentiful across all budget levels.
Of course, there are always risks for any speculative market. A deeper recession could cut into discretionary spending on cards. Long-term, any significant decline in the popularity of baseball itself might negatively impact the sports memorabilia space over decades. But with strong international growth in baseball now, the aging out of old collectors seems mostly offset by new and returning collectors engaging with the current era of players. This dynamic suggests the 100-year old tradition of collecting baseball cards has a solid foundation and remains an active part of the broader collectibles market. While volatile like any collectibles market, the sustained interest at all levels indicates baseball cards will continue drawing collectors and traders for the foreseeable future.
