It has been a busy month for the personal collection, so I haven’t had as much time to write. I found and purchased a rare 1946-47 Cuban winter league album and spent days on end removing and drying them. It’s a cool set with several HOF (O’Neil, Minoso, Dihigo, Dandridge) and loads of other Negro Leaguer cards. Many are now at SGC for grading (subbed through Cardhound partner Boca Card Subs). Check it out:
But I wanted to give a quick roundup of recent news within the vintage hobby. It has been a busy month with lots of headlines and announcements.
SGC Slide Continues
In November, SGC continued its downward slide in volume. In short, SGC output is down almost 3/4 from this month last year. It is a forced slowdown, with most SGC graders moved over to the PSA side. The public word is that SGC is severely understaffed and retooling–with the latter being the real question. Time will tell.
For what it’s worth, my most recent return is looking like 33 business days for what is still advertised as 15-20 day service. Not horrible, but not good. Info per Gemrate:
Rabbit Hole Inaugural Auction
Cardhound advertising partner Rabbit Hole Auctions successfully hosted its very first auction this fall. The focus is “attainable vintage,” though each auction will feature a few premium items to keep things interesting. Congrats on a cohesive, interesting catalog and a successful close! Rabbit Hole is now consigning for a spring auction here. Tell them Cardhound sent you!
Vintage Trending Down?
My pal Tyler at Sports Card Investor / Market Movers let me curate a Cardhound 100 vintage card “index” of sorts. You can check it out here. While not foolproof, this particular index is trending down a bit for fall. Is this a wider trend others are experiencing in iconic vintage overall?
For full functionality, a Market Movers subscription account is needed. And if you follow that link and subscribe, 3 cool things happen:
- You get a 14 day free trial and
- You get a 20% discount forever with code CARDHOUND and
- Cardhound receives some affiliate cash for sending traffic their way.
Tallboys Coming?
Coming soon . . . a new grading option for your Tallboys collection. In the meantime, here’s Easter egg #1: a Pro Mold package of 5 Tallboys holders! Drop a comment and they are yours, first come first served!
Mantel Marketplace Beta
I have been running a vintage group on the Mantel app for a few months. It is a small but growing platform–think of it as Facebook but for collectibles only. Mantel is now integrating a Marketplace, which is the missing link on the platform in my opinion. Currently it allows users to drag in their eBay listings, or to list cards within Mantel as part of its “Mantelpiece” feature. The plan is a cohesive Marketplace experience that allows appp users to easily browse listings of other users. I’m rooting for them.
(Easter egg #2: If you download the app and join the vintage group, you’re entered to win some cool Mantel swag, If you’re XL, take this awesome Mantel / Mantle tee off my hands. If not, I’ll send you a nice hat).
The Bad and the Ugly
In case you missed it, probably the biggest headlines of the past month were Snype and PSA. Probstein-owned startup Snype closed its virtual doors mid-auction amid data breach and shill bidding claims. Probstein then limped back to eBay.
PSA found the appearance of a scandal when it “upgraded” several PSA 9’s to gem 10’s only after the client received and accepted offers at PSA 9 prices. Cardhound covers this story here.
If you made it this far, enjoy Easter egg #3: drop a comment and I’ll send you a Cardhound care package! First come first served.
Great roundup!
Always learn something new here, Matt. Great diverse coverage of the hobby, it’s trends and more. Thanks for helping make sense of the evolving hobby
BTW, curious, are you able to salvage the albums when you remove the cards? Seems like like there could be some value in those as well. Congrats on the find!
Great info, especially on SGC. I would love those tall boy holders for early 70s hoops cards! Thanks
Yours! EMail me your address matt@cardhoundvintage.com
email sent. Thanks!
Great info. Apparently I have alot to learn yet.
The Cardhound 100 vintage card “index” is a fascinating idea. Thanks for sharing!
Please forgive my ignorance, but what’s a Tallboy?
That’s the name given to some 1960’s / 70’s (football / basketball / hockey) cards that were just a weird size, 2.5 x 4 11/16 (??) cards. Ever seen a Kareem or Namath rookie?
Okay, thanks. I had a few (and I mean a literal few) of the little basketball cards that came three to a “sheet” but that was a loooooooooong time ago. I guess I do have some mid-late 1980’s Celtics and 49ers cards (plus a random Franco Harris), along with some St. Louis Blues cards from when they won the Cup (finally!!) but that’s it for sports other than baseball for me.
Round Up is always interesting and I learn a lot.
Matt, the vintage price index is interesting, but it is only 3 months. A trus picture would be to compare 1, 3, and 5 year trends. As in the stock market, 3 months is just a blip.
You can click on the index and look at 1 year or “all data” (which at this point is a few years in terms of what is available in their database).
Another awesome read.