What is wrong with some (most) of these National Threads sellers on eBay?

[bcubs]

I agree as its finally nice to see the HOFER/ESTABLISHED players talked about more in a product than unproven or newer MLB guys. Hofers Finally getting some respect with this Product.

I'm with you on this....I think it's an area that Topps hasn't done justice to in recent memory.

 

[hoopster3977]

The product we're talking about in this thread *is* indeed licensed as well.

Maybe I should edit my comment so that you *fully understand* my train of though. Yes it is licensed through the player's association but not through MLB.

Get it now?

Edit: Don't be a d*ck, knucklehead.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

Maybe I should edit my comment so that you *fully understand* my train of though. Yes it is licensed through the player's association but not through MLB.

Get it now?

Edit: Don't be a d*ck, knucklehead.

Don't try to put someone else down because you're unable to articulate your thoughts or didn't do your homework.

These cards are also HOF licensed. Which is appropriate for HOF players like Cobb, whom you were speaking of here, no?

 

[ballerskrip]

The price points make sense to me truthfully. Not all brands are created equally. Will an Andrew Luck National Treasures Patch auto /99 be worth the same as other patch autos /99? Nope, it is going to be worth more, without a doubt. The NT brand is highly respected, and is looked at as extremely high end. Secondary market prices will dictate that.

I was wrong about this product, it is MUCH better than I expected it to be.

 

[Topnotchsy]

Interesting points... I'd agree its at least partially because there are more baseball cards than cards from any other major sport (maybe combined?). I'd think individual basketball players would be more popular or valuable because there are fewer basketball players on a basketball team than baseball players on a baseball team; and that baseball collectors are more likely to be set collectors (at least traditionally). Other people have also made good points here.

This probably deserves its own post. I know some speculate that overseas buyers for the NBA has driven up prices there. I'm not sure why the location of the buyer matters, though it could simply be a matter of a few very wealthy buyers driving up prices.

Another thing to consider is the fact that there are simply so many more baseball cards available than any other sport since it has been around that much longer. Not sure how that would play a role (since I imagine the market would grow with it.

Two other thoughts that I believe merit additional thought:

1. The market dynamics (baseball vs. other sports) are really different. Baseball is the only sport where basically every huge hit is a player who is no longer playing (and often someone who has not played in half a century.) The biggest cards are Ruth GU, Gehrig GU, cut auto's of guys like Wagner, Mathewson, Cy Young, Mantle, Jackie Robinson etc. These are guys that almost no collector has seen play, and yet that is where the demand is. For basketball it's about Lebron and Kobe, and Jordan who is not current but is recent enough that many/most have seen him live, and there's tons of video footage and coverage to this day (especially with his 50th birthday celebrations.) I'm not sure why exactly this has played out this way, but I imagine it greatly affects pricing.

2. (This may partially explain the previous post...) Unlike other sports it is a lot harder to define the "stars" in baseball, and there are many more possibilities. Baseball has far more players on each team (other than by football and by football even though there are more players, only a few positions really get any consideration for hobby stardom). Plus there is less consistency in baseball and no one or two stats that "define" a star. In the NBA we can look at the top 20-30 players based on scoring and have a pretty good idea of who a star is. Extend that over a 5-7 year period and you are looking at a list who will likely be HOFers. Baseball there are many different stats to look at, more inconsistency, longer careers etc. and that makes it really, really tough. A guy like Justin Upton is an MVP candidate one year and mediocre the next. You rarely see that in other sports.

Baseball you can list the top 30-40 hitters and 20-30 pitchers and in any given year the best 5-10 will be totally different. This means money is spread out over way more players, and people may not be as quick to really buy in to one player and really spend huge money.

 

[hoopster3977]

Don't try to put someone else down because you're unable to articulate your thoughts or didn't do your homework.

These cards are also HOF licensed. Which is appropriate for HOF players like Cobb, whom you were speaking of here, no?

Nice play on words, knucklehead. Now go and spout your negativism somewhere else.

 

[hive17]

The price points make sense to me truthfully. Not all brands are created equally. Will an Andrew Luck National Treasures Patch auto /99 be worth the same as other patch autos /99? Nope, it is going to be worth more, without a doubt. The NT brand is highly respected, and is looked at as extremely high end. Secondary market prices will dictate that.

I was wrong about this product, it is MUCH better than I expected it to be.

I guess that's the part of this issue that I reject. If a product is well made or has name cache, it doesn't change the fact that "player X" only signed 99 cards in the set. I set the value of a card based on scarcity, and I think a lot of others do too.

But what we have here is a case where the price-point up front is dictating the value. But this release is the only place that seems to be happening. By the same rationale, Bowman Sterling hits should be valued more than Chrome hits, since the product price-point is higher; there should be a % correlation based on the MSRP. That is never the case in baseball, until now it seems.