Sports Illustrated Blog #70 – Current Hobby Trends – What’s Going On?

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

Anytime even a minuscule piece of hobby movement is detected, the hobby tries to gage the what, the why, and the short and long term effects/meaning of the change.  Not much different than the stock market.

 But there’s always an information communication lag in the hobby market so there is always time for the very astute to make a buy or sell ahead market change.  And they do – this is where fortunes are made or lost.

But my readers fear not – following the lemmings is one path – we choose another.  The information you read in these blogs is ahead of the market and is based on actual firsthand participation and the most up to date ACTUAL trends as investors dictate.  Short of a crystal ball, this is as good as it gets. 

The first thing we take note of – CGC magazine delivery times.  They’ve moved out from 2 months to 5 -6 months.  Since I began grading SI’s 5-6 years ago, CGC’s lead times have remained relatively stable.  This latest change is not incremental – it’s significant.  Significant changes mean something.  In this case, I believe it means our mag hobby is growing and the only grader out there is having trouble keeping up.  Our popularity is growing and when demand exceeds availability, good things happen to those in possession.

For months I have been predicting a market jump.  I believe everything we are doing in the graded magazine hobby is primed for significant movement.  Jordan memorabilia – on the leading edge of the collectible hobby, in my opinion, is a most obvious indicator.  Six months ago, you would have been delighted to sell your 86 Fleer PSA 10 for $25000.  Two weeks ago, same would have been true at $100,000.  The latest Jordan public auction has now hit $785,000.  There is significant meaning here.  Other peripheral memorabilia will follow.  Because I write about SI’s, that is where my interest lies and I am predicting the graded magazine market will follow this trend, if not EXCEED it.

One more thing to note.  High grade, vintage, newsstand SI’s are not an unlimited commodity.  They are not like Jordan 86 Fleer 10’s where the population is in the 100’s.  In many cases, the most in demand covers are a population of one.   That is the type of opportunity that builds fortunes.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

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