What Caused the Trading Card Market to Bust?

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Contrary to what most people will say about the economy crash and all that stuff, the real reason for the bust was actually a HUGE growth in the industry...Brands on top of brands were being produced, and a with anything else this waters down the market a causes the value to go down as whole. In the 80's and 90's there were 5 or 10 sets and in 2005 there were probably over 100. Companies drove the industry into the ground by trying to do too much.

Yeah but growth caused Tulipomania.

The big cards reached all-time high selling prices and a crash is usually followed by that.

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Contrary to what most people will say about the economy crash

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The card market tanked way before the market...market.

Yep. There was just Topps from the mid-1950s through 1980.

Donruss and Fleer entered the market in 1981. I remember them coming out with Score in 1988 and Upper Deck and Bowman in 1989. Then Topps switched to the Series 1 and Series 2 crap in 1993.

Other problem was that kids in the 1950s and 1960s never kept their cards. They stuck them in the spokes of their bikes, their moms threw out their collections, etc. Then everyone learned in the 1980s and didn't throw away their cards.

Kids found other things to waste their money on.

I loved the Topps Finest and SPX cards.

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Over-supply. /thread

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You're trying to /thread with the only point anyone is making in the thread?

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Two things:

1) You had Topps and Fleer, then like 40 other card companies jumped in and started releasing sets every 6 months.

2) Due to that, people stopped giving a shite. It was cool to have one or two different kind of cards once a year - it blew to have 10 cards of one guy every six months.

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Perfect explanation.

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I get that for cards from 2000 and beyond but what about older cards? I mean you can get a Griffey Rookie Card on ebay for just $20 now. It use to be over $100. It's not like they suddenly started making more Griffey RCs.

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Because cards are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. Everyone who wants a Griffey RC, has a card by now.

When I was young I collected marvel and basketball cards. I have the entire 1992 Marvel Masterpiece Series with all special cards. In 1992, it was "worth" $500 for the set. Today, you can buy the entire set for $20 on eBay. As explained to me by the local comic shop worker, everyone who wants a set, has a set. There is no demand because supply was so great.