We all know this past year the hobby has been crazy, and not in a good way. I refuse to play and pay the scalper game, so I got the lowest amount of cards during this season than any other season I've been collecting. I got some NHL and NASCAR before they disappeared, but I didn't get a single NBA card from the 2020-21 season.
That was something that was making me very unhappy, so I decided to do something about it. Since I won't pay the high prices, I went to Ebay, searched by season and selected "lowest price + shipping" and I found a seller with some cards for 99 cents with free shipping. Even that is too much, but at least I got a card from the season while the season was actually happening...just barely, as they arrived after the conference finals had already begun.
I also picked up a card from the Upper Deck UD Portraits insert from this year since I didn't pull any in the single blaster I did of each series, and of course, it figures, the first year the Portraits insert is actually worth having is the first year I didn't get any. It was the only one the dealer had.
This still isn't good...buying single cards from the current season is not fun at all. This is the wrong way to do the hobby, but missing the entire season is even worse. I went with the lesser of two evils. but I'm not happy about it.
Don't follow current basketball... so not being able to find basketball packs or boxes doesn't impact me. On the other hand... the only 2021 baseball cards I own have been sent to me by fellow bloggers. Wait. That's a lie. I just bought a 2021 Topps Gwynn insert on COMC, but that probably won't make it into my collection for a few months.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's if you shipped right away...
DeleteI did not buy any basketball this year. I am not paying $1000 a box for Hoops or Donruss No WAY
ReplyDeleteLast week I went into my local card shop...hobby box of Prizm, $3200. No way would I ever spend that, it's not even a good set.
DeleteI did manage to finish a 20-21 Hoops set,I paid way more than I wanted to pay.
ReplyDeleteI won't do that. I'd rather do without than support the scalpers.
DeleteBasketball skyrocketed for sure this year. Tough to play in that pool, no doubt. At least you got some...let's hope the market corrects itself sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I think I would actually welcome a lockout!
DeleteI've stopped collecting Topps flagship after 2020, and I may halt my Washington football collection at the name change as well, since I hardly have any from the last couple years anyway and they're hard to find and probably six times the reasonable price, even for base cards.
ReplyDeleteThat's OK, there are still weird and fun things to find like the variant holograms on the back of 1991 Upper Deck football.
Those hologram differences are such a pain. It affects at least three NHL and two NBA sets. While I appreciate the fact that it allows me to add more cards to the collection, I just wish it was a fun way to do it.
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