Living in the US

[Burkina2008]

I am not so active in the forum, but wanted to share a bit of a collecting experience.

Born in Portugal in the mid 80s, I began collecting in the early 90s. My first collection was Futebol 93/94 and then the World Cup 94. I think like any other kid, the hobby died down in my adolescence years and I only collected Euros or World Cup.
My university was done abroad and in 2010-11 I reconnected with the hobby and started collecting again. Basically I was abele to complete all WC and Euro albums except for Mexico 70. Did some other collections Women World Cups/Euro, some portuguese ones, CL when done by Panini and that was it.

After 12 years working between Germany and Denmark, this year I moved on a delegation to Calfornia (Palo Alto) and I had no idea on how big and expensive the card market was. I always imagine how was it possible that a full album from Mexico 70 was at 3000+ Euro pricepoint (when one or two where rarely auctioned)...but then you come here and random Jordan PSA 10 graded cards (with populations in the 1000s) daily sell for 1000$+ and there are literally hundreds of card sold for over 10,000$ per day.

I was intrigued and started looking at some football cards and came upon Panini Obsidian 2021-22...each box has only one pack with 7 cards. Price tag: 350$
Is it worth it? Maybe...but this really stopped being a hobby.
Dont get me wrong, I am buying some because they are absolutely beautiful but somehow feels immoral...

 

[Guinness]

I can definitely agree that americanization of the hobby had killed it, in a way. Just look at the rookie sticker madness. Recently F1 cards madness too... I really hate that stuff. Because of that I am unable to complete some albums as I collected as a kid during 2000s. Also when something new comes out I just hate the fact that CR, Messi and now Mbappe and rest will be impossible to get if I am not lucky enough to get it in the package.

 

[dantzig]

I am not so active in the forum, but wanted to share a bit of a collecting experience.

Born in Portugal in the mid 80s, I began collecting in the early 90s. My first collection was Futebol 93/94 and then the World Cup 94. I think like any other kid, the hobby died down in my adolescence years and I only collected Euros or World Cup.
My university was done abroad and in 2010-11 I reconnected with the hobby and started collecting again. Basically I was abele to complete all WC and Euro albums except for Mexico 70. Did some other collections Women World Cups/Euro, some portuguese ones, CL when done by Panini and that was it.

After 12 years working between Germany and Denmark, this year I moved on a delegation to Calfornia (Palo Alto) and I had no idea on how big and expensive the card market was. I always imagine how was it possible that a full album from Mexico 70 was at 3000+ Euro pricepoint (when one or two where rarely auctioned)...but then you come here and random Jordan PSA 10 graded cards (with populations in the 1000s) daily sell for 1000$+ and there are literally hundreds of card sold for over 10,000$ per day.

I was intrigued and started looking at some football cards and came upon Panini Obsidian 2021-22...each box has only one pack with 7 cards. Price tag: 350$
Is it worth it? Maybe...but this really stopped being a hobby.
Dont get me wrong, I am buying some because they are absolutely beautiful but somehow feels immoral...

Indeed, I knew card market in the US was massive, but never realized how big it was because I honestly didn't care... they had their own market scene, we europeans had our own... but as always, whenever americans "smell" money, they just leech everything till it dries and in this case, instigating also europeans to be as greedy as them... the pandemic was terrible for health in general, but in our hobby, inflicted a massive wound that will hardly ever heal.

In the end, we have to admit it's really hard to not accept a deal from someone willing to pay you 100 or 1000x more for a sticker or card you got for pennies.

I can definitely agree that americanization of the hobby had killed it, in a way. Just look at the rookie sticker madness. Recently F1 cards madness too... I really hate that stuff. Because of that I am unable to complete some albums as I collected as a kid during 2000s. Also when something new comes out I just hate the fact that CR, Messi and now Mbappe and rest will be impossible to get if I am not lucky enough to get it in the package.

As long you keep up with the sets coming out, you can still easily complete the albums... for me, this rookie madness blew almost all chances I had to make some extra sets with cheaper packs/boxes that were usually available around a year after release... Loved doing that just for the thrill of opening packs, organize sets and still try to swap with late collectors like me... now I almost don't bother to even check ebay or online sites for these deals, a waste of time to find zero.