There are several fundamental things to keep in mind when determining the impact of the economy on our credit card collecting hobby.
The size of the hobby
First, consider the hobby’s size. Unlike several large hobbies, where a 10% decline in the number of collectors can translate into thousands and even tens-of-thousands of lost buyers, we have no such problem.
If this hobby were to experience a 10% drop in the number of collectors, it would probably prove to be a relative non-event. Remember, the collectors that drop-away here are usually the new ones that are just “checking-out” the hobby. The dedicated collectors usually stay around, and that’s what counts.
Growth rate of dedicated collectors
The second thing to keep in mind is because of this hobby’s size, most of the “big” buying is done by a few dozen collectors, and those people are constantly being added to.
Since we continue to add new collectors on a regular basis, some of those novices become dedicated collectors. So, the number of dedicated collectors is constantly growing, not in leaps-and-bounds but in a good slow steady growth.
The way to understand the importance of slow and steady growth is by relating it to the St. Louis Cardinals NFL Visa price increases.
It took two years for eight Mint cards to sell. Obviously, not a runaway growth. But when you look at the numbers, an item that initially was free or had a low cost of $6.25 per card you start dealing with mind boggling percentage gains when considering the recent price of $250.00.
But remember, a slow steady growth in that one card’s popularity equates to one of the hottest items ANY collectible field will probably see this decade.
So, a slow and steady growth with the addition of new dedicated collectors on a regular basis translates into a strong and growing hobby with rising prices.
Quality of collectors
The third thing to keep in mind is the quality of the people in this hobby. This is mainly an adult hobby. The adults we attract are mainly credit-worthy. That’s why they’re often attracted and have an interest in credit cards.
When you’re dealing with a group of adults who are credit-worthy, and generally highly credit worthy since the nature of this hobby is to amass as many new accounts as possible, then you’re dealing with people who probably have lots of money or at least have access to it through credit lines.
It’s not unusual to talk to collectors who have 20 to 50 current bank card accounts. Credit lines of $5,000.00 to $25,000.00 per account is common. As you can see, many collectors have large sums of money available to them. It’s just the nature of the hobby.
Number of buyers
The next thing to keep in mind is that many “high” priced pieces have only one or two buyers for them at a time. Basically, all this hobby needs is a handful of buyers at any one time. That will cover most of the major specialization fields our hobby offers.
In other words, there are always buyers, not great numbers of them, but we don’t need large numbers since credit pieces are scarce, particularly the high priced ones.
Again, think about the St. Louis card. Just a few buyers over a period of time and you have a prized piece in strong hands. Examples of other areas in our hobby can be given, maybe not as dramatic, but still this is just to illustrate what adult collectors with money, whose numbers are being added to on a regular basis can accomplish.
Market supply and demand
One last important point to be made about our hobby’s strength is since we’re dealing with collectors with money, there doesn’t seem to be much selling pressure. The pieces are bought, locked into collections and most of these buyers have no intention of selling those pieces in the next 20 years.
A hobby with a growing number of collectors that have money and no intention of selling is the basis of a very strong collectible that could have an extremely bright future. At this time, the bad economic health of this country appears to have little impact on collectible credit piece prices.
Copyright 1991, Greg Tunks
