future price direction on baseball and hockey cards

I sold a couple of hockey cards this week on sportlots. Some early 1980s Edmonton Oilers o-pee-chee. A guy in Ottawa bought them. I hope they are to his liking. They were the highest individual priced cards I've moved on that site.

There's a fair market it seems for o-pee-chee hockey cards from the 1970s through early 1980s, the era that I have some listed. I only listed my hockey relatively recently, years after I'd listed baseball cards.

On the buying side, my 1973 O-Pee-Chee hockey collection is under 60 cards remaining. I've been able to chip away at it with site credits from the baseball and hockey I've sold on sportlots.

I got thinking about collectors and prices and which way prices might move in the next few years. There was an Investors Group commercial where the prosperous client speculates about selling his coin collection to acquire an even nicer property. In the commercial the protagonist decides against it, at least for now.

So with baby boomers and baseball cards. A boomer born in 1950 or earlier would be over 70 years old now. Inevitably they have been and will be dying off in increasing numbers in the next 2-3 decades. You see it in the news now. 66 year old rock star dies of natural causes.

Now back in the 1980s the same boomers fueled the increase in demand and prices on baseball and hockey cards. Some were motivated by speculation, seeking to invest in future higher prices - not sure how that turned out. Some bought as genuine collectors, nostalgia for the players they cheered for as kids and teenagers in the 1950s through 1970s boomer era.

Gil Perreault 1973 o-pee-chee hockey card

So as these boomers die off, their card collections acquired in the 1980s will fall to their heirs. Many of the boomer estates and heirs may only wish to liquidate the collections for cash. So I expect in general some cards from about 1950-1980 will become less scarce. It may become easier to find Bobby Orr or Johnny Bench cards in the future than today. With more supply, and motivated sellers, I expect prices on this era may come down.