The sports collectible market has experienced a notable decline in 2023, according to a report by Altan Insights, a company that monitors sales in various collectible markets. Altan’s analysis, based on data from Card Ladder, reveals a downward trend that began around 18 months ago and continued throughout the year.
Sales for ultra-modern cards, which are those issued from 2009 to the present, plummeted by 34.8% compared to the previous year. Modern cards, ranging from 1984 to 2008, also saw a decrease in sales, dropping by 30.8%. While vintage cards also experienced a decline in overall sales, they fared relatively better than their modern and ultra-modern counterparts.
The fourth quarter of 2023 witnessed vintage and pre-war cards outperforming modern and ultra-modern cards, thus widening their advantage in the collectible market for the year, as highlighted in Altan’s report.
The report specifically points out that the segments of football, soccer, racing, and basketball cards experienced the most substantial price declines. In football, high-end cards of both young and veteran quarterbacks failed to recover their value, with injuries to popular quarterbacks in the latter half of the season exacerbating the situation.
Altan’s report also highlights a significant 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, suggesting a slightly stronger demand in the mid-range market segment.
Some key findings from Altan’s comprehensive 41-page report on the fourth quarter and the year 2023 as a whole 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 surpassing $1 million, with eight involving cards or memorabilia of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, spread across five different auction houses.
– Unlike in 2022, where there were twelve seven-figure basketball card sales, there were none in 2023. Altan notes a disappearance in the demand for modern patch cards at high price points, which did not return throughout the year.
– The top-selling cards of currently active basketball players on eBay in the last four months of 2023 included LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
– The market for LeBron James and Steph Curry cards across all platforms experienced a decline of over 40% last year, while 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’ report provides a comprehensive understanding of the changing dynamics in the sports collectible market, emphasizing the fluctuations in different segments and the evolving interests of collectors and investors in this domain.
