The sports collectible market has encountered a notable downturn in 2023, as reported by Altan Insights, a company that monitors sales across various collectible markets. Using data from Card Ladder, Altan Insights observed a downward trend that began approximately 18 months ago and continued throughout the year.
According to Altan Insights’ analysis, sales for ultra-modern cards, which are defined as cards issued from 2009 to the present, plummeted by 34.8% compared to the previous year. Modern cards, spanning from 1984 to 2008, also experienced a decrease in sales, dropping by 30.8%. Vintage cards, although also seeing a decline in overall sales, fared relatively better than their modern and ultra-modern counterparts.
The fourth quarter of 2023 saw vintage and pre-war cards outperforming modern and ultra-modern ones, thus widening their advantage in the collectible market for the year, as noted in Altan Insights’ report.
Specifically, the segments of football, soccer, racing, and basketball cards witnessed the most substantial price declines. Altan’s report highlighted that football, especially high-end cards of quarterbacks, both young and veteran, failed to recover their value, with injuries to popular quarterbacks in the latter half of the season exacerbating the situation.
Altan Insights also pointed out a considerable dip in the top 50 sales at most auction houses from 2022 to 2023. Interestingly, the decline was less pronounced in the next tier of sales, indicating a slightly stronger demand in the mid-range market segment.
Key findings from Altan Insights’ comprehensive 41-page report on the fourth quarter and the year 2023 include:
– A 40% year-over-year and 27% quarter-over-quarter drop in the number of six-figure auction sales in Q4, marking the lowest total in the past three years.
– In 2023, there were eleven recorded sales of baseball items exceeding $1 million, with eight of them involving cards or memorabilia of iconic players Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. These sales were spread across five different auction houses.
– A stark contrast from 2022, where there were twelve seven-figure basketball card sales, while in 2023, there were none. Altan noted a disappearance in the demand for modern patch cards at high price points, and this trend did not reverse throughout the year.
– The list of top-selling cards of currently active basketball players on eBay in the last four months of 2023 featured LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
– The market for LeBron James and Steph Curry cards across all platforms dipped by over 40% last year, whereas Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant cards remained relatively stable.
– Notably, Jordan cards from the late 1990s accounted for five of the top ten Jordan card sales in the fourth quarter, including three of the top five.
While the market for game-worn and game-used memorabilia showed only modest growth compared to the previous year, the top 25 and top 50 sales in this category in 2023 were more than double the levels achieved in 2021.
Altan Insights’ comprehensive report provides a detailed picture of the shifting dynamics in the sports collectible market. It sheds light on the fluctuations in different segments and highlights the evolving interests of collectors and investors in this domain. The decline in sales of modern and ultra-modern cards, along with the contrasting performance of vintage and pre-war cards, shows the importance of staying informed and adaptable in the ever-changing world of sports collectibles.
