The pandemic has impacted the country and world in many ways. Some things have been quite tragic, and others have been quite unexpected.
For example, no one could have predicted that the pandemic would cause a surge in the home gym industry, and no one could have predicted a boost for the card-collecting industry, which is what you’re going to learn about here.
The Fall of Card Collecting
Card collecting has been around for a long time. When it started, the focus was on adults. In the 1880s, cards were stuffed inside cigarette boxes, but adults didn’t seem to care about them.
The adults would purchase the cigarettes and throw away the fun cards inside, but their kids saw value in those cards and started collecting them.
It took card makers some time to realize how much kids loved these cards, but they eventually figured it out. By the 1930s, the Goudey Gum Company included baseball cards in packs of gum. Of course, kids were getting the gum, but they were also interested in the baseball cards.
In 1952, the company Topps changed things. By now, the card-collecting industry had gotten so popular that cards were no longer included in candy packages but rather candy was included in card packages. In essence, the cards became the stars.
The kids who collected cards in the 1950s became adults by the 70s and had more money to play with. By this time, the card-collecting industry started making some big bucks, but the trading world was largely unregulated.
Collections sold for thousands of dollars, but prices weren’t universal. If someone was willing to pay, then they paid. Yes, that is how capitalism works, but regulation ensures that people who don’t know much about card collecting can start without feeling like someone might attempt to take advantage of them.
It was in the 70s that card collecting was finally cataloged so that every collector had an idea of how much something was worth. Card makers began to pump so many cards into the market by the late 70s and throughout the 80s that it was only a matter of time before everything fell apart.
By the 90s, kids were no longer collecting cards because it became an expensive hobby, and there were so many cards that the value of cards fell. By 2008, the card-collecting industry had fallen to historic lows. There were still some hardcore collectors out there, but there wasn’t big money in this type of collecting.
Card Collecting and Its Resurgence
The pandemic birthed the meteoric rise of the card collecting industry in 2021. It’s sort of obvious why this started to happen. People wanted to do something to entertain themselves.
For many years, people entertained themselves with other things, but the pandemic closed everything down, so people had to find other forms of entertainment, which is where card collecting came in.
The internet gave this industry the tools it needed to meet today’s demands. Sure, many stores closed because of the pandemic, but some companies were able to sell and trade cards online.
On top of that, individual sellers decided to start selling some of their collections. Some people might have had enough time to go through their garages or closets to find their old sports cards. They may have gone online to see if their cards were worth something. The pandemic gave people plenty of time to do the research and make some money.
A chunk of people who bought or sold cards were new folks. These people never cared about card collecting and were simply bored. The pandemic stripped away several activities people loved, so they turned to something that couldn’t be taken away.
Keep in mind that sporting events were canceled during this time. No one was playing anything, but there were a lot of fans hungry to watch games and sports. Some of these folks turned to old games and rediscovered some of the most important players and plays in history. If the people weren’t aware of the games, these videos excited them as any new game might have. This phenomenon created a new flock of fans who were hungry to learn about older players.
It’s easy to see how people who fell in love with old players, and they got curious about collecting these players cards.
The industry is doing so well that it’s attracting people who don’t even care about these sports. It’s attracting investors who are starting to see how important these types of collections and cards could be. These types of folks are buying cards for a lot of money, and that helps fuel the industry. There’s no telling how much this industry is going to continue to grow with this newfound love for it.
COVID19 is going to go away at some point. The vaccine should be able to eradicate the problem, and that should be able to push the industry forward. Stores will open, so traders and card collectors might be able to go into stores once again. They’ll be able to meet with fellow collectors.
The more card collectors meet each other, the stronger the community gets. This isn’t to say that people weren’t meeting each other online because there are a lot of card collection-focused forums online, but the in-person community is still special. Hopefully, the pandemic just lit the spark in this industry, and it keeps growing.
