The sports collectible market saw a significant decline in 2023, as reported by Altan Insights. The company, which monitors sales across various collectible markets, analyzed data from Card Ladder and identified a downward trend that began about 18 months ago and continued throughout the year.
According to Altan’s report, sales for ultra-modern cards, issued from 2009 to the present, plummeted by 34.8% compared to the previous year. Modern cards, spanning from 1984 to 2008, also saw a decrease in sales, dropping by 30.8%. Vintage cards experienced a decline as well, although they fared slightly better than their modern and ultra-modern counterparts.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, vintage and pre-war cards outperformed modern and ultra-modern cards, further solidifying their advantage in the collectible market for the year, as noted in Altan’s report.
The report highlighted the most substantial price declines in football, soccer, racing, and basketball cards. Particularly, high-end football cards, especially those of quarterbacks – both young and veteran – failed to recover their value, with injuries to popular quarterbacks in the latter half of the season worsening the situation.
Altan’s report also pointed out 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.
Key findings from Altan’s 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, representing the lowest total in the past three years.
– In 2023, eleven baseball items surpassed $1 million in sales, with eight of them being Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle cards or memorabilia, auctioned across five different houses.
– In contrast to 2022, where there were twelve seven-figure basketball card sales, 2023 saw none. The report noted a disappearance in demand for modern patch cards at high price points, which remained consistent 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 dip 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.
– The market for game-worn and game-used memorabilia showed modest growth compared to the previous year, with the top 25 and top 50 sales in this category doubling the levels achieved in 2021.
Altan Insights’ report provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in the sports collectible market. It emphasizes the fluctuations in different segments and sheds light on the evolving interests of collectors and investors in this domain.
