The sports collectible market, known for its passionate community of collectors and investors, faced a significant decline in 2023. Altan Insights, a company specializing in monitoring sales across various collectible markets, recently released a report shedding light on this downturn. Their analysis, based on data from Card Ladder, revealed a downward trend that began approximately 18 months ago and continued throughout the year.
One of the key findings from Altan Insights’ report was the drop in sales for ultra-modern cards, those issued from 2009 to the present. These cards experienced a staggering 34.8% decrease in sales compared to the previous year. Modern cards, spanning from 1984 to 2008, also saw a decline of 30.8% in sales. While vintage cards were not immune to the overall decline, they fared slightly better than their modern and ultra-modern counterparts.
Interestingly, during the fourth quarter of 2023, vintage and pre-war cards outperformed modern and ultra-modern cards. This performance further widened their advantage in the collectible market for the entire year, as stated in Altan’s report.
Altan’s report highlighted specific segments that faced more substantial price declines, namely football, soccer, racing, and basketball cards. Football, in particular, saw a significant decrease in the value of high-end cards featuring quarterbacks, both young and veteran. Injuries to popular quarterbacks in the latter half of the season further exacerbated the situation.
Additionally, Altan noted a marked dip in the top 50 sales at most auction houses between 2022 and 2023. However, the decline was less pronounced in the next tier of sales, suggesting a slightly stronger demand in the mid-range market segment.
The 41-page report provided by Altan Insights also unveiled other key findings. In the fourth quarter of 2023, there was a significant drop of 40% year-over-year and 27% quarter-over-quarter in the number of six-figure auction sales, marking the lowest total in the past three years.
On the brighter side, Altan recorded eleven sales of baseball items exceeding $1 million in 2023, with eight involving cards or memorabilia of legendary players Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. These sales were spread across five different auction houses.
However, the basketball segment showed a stark contrast compared to the previous year. In 2022, there were twelve seven-figure sales of basketball cards, but in 2023, there were none. Altan highlighted the disappearance in demand for modern patch cards at high price points, which did not bounce back throughout the year.
The list of top-selling cards of currently active basketball players on eBay during the last four months of 2023 featured renowned players such as LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Interestingly, the market for LeBron James and Steph Curry cards across all platforms dipped by over 40% last year, whereas the values of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant cards remained relatively stable.
Altan Insights also observed that 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 displayed only modest growth compared to the previous year, the top 25 and top 50 sales in this category in 2023 more than doubled the levels achieved in 2021.
Altan Insights’ comprehensive report offers a detailed overview of the shifting dynamics within the sports collectible market. It highlights the fluctuations in sales across different segments and provides valuable insights into the evolving interests of collectors and investors in this ever-changing domain.
