Nonsense Newsletter No. 113: The Best of 2023, Hobby Regrets, some grading stats and more!
In this inaugural 2024 edition of the Nonsense Newsletter, John Dudley hands out so accolades from the year that was 2023. I talk about some of my hobby regrets, and ask you for yours. And, then, of course, there is the Quick Hits section that will likely blow your mind! So, as 2024 gets rolling, let’s start to off in the best way possible — with another edition of the Nonsense Newsletter!
By John Dudley
Now that 2023 is in the bag. Long live 2024! Before shoveling too much dirt on the hobby year 2023, it is time to look back and reflect on the year that was. What were the biggest stories? What were the best cards? Will the market ever stop dropping? Sit back and relax and I’ll take you through all of the best of 2023. So for the second year in a row, here are the winners of the prestigious Dudley Hobby Awards (DHA).
Rookie of the Year (Hobby)
Bedard, Wemby, Stroud, and Corbin Carroll highlight a surprisingly strong year of rookie players across the professional leagues. Choosing one is tough, but Wembanyama wins out with hype not seen since Lebron James’ debut. He might not even be the best-performing rookie in his league, but Wemby is the clear top rookie in the hobby. Bedard is a close second as he has drawn considerable attention to hockey products and likely will throughout 2024. Super-strong year overall for rookies which is always welcome in the hobby.
Contributor: John McTaggart
Several years ago, my wife had a garage sale.
In my years of being married, I have learned a few things along the way. Among these things, is when my wife decides to have a garage sale — just nod in agreement and stay out of the way.
So that’s what I did.
After all was said and done, the sale was over after a few days, people stopped loitering around my house, and there was less stuff headed back to the basement than there was heading out to the garage.
Plus, my wife was happy with how it went and had a little extra spending money (which she was likely going to spend at other garage sales in the coming weeks).
So, all-in-all, I considered the weekend a success.
Fast-forward a few years.
My wife and I are sitting around the kitchen table, sorting through a recent submission to SGC, droning on about how much I love trading cards.
Somehow, over the course of the conversation, we land on Garbage Pail Kids cards.
Quick Hits
Grading News- It’s all grading news this week thanks to Gem Rate releasing their December numbers and end-of-the-year numbers. There are a ton of tidbits, but the big news is that the grading world is still seeing growth, especially growth fueled by TCGs. Over 17 million cards were graded by the big four in 2023, up 19% from 2022. Given the overall state of the market, that figure is astounding. The numbers aren’t as impressive for everyone when just looking at sports cards. PSA lost 2% of its volume and CGC and BGS got shellacked losing 56% and 24% respectively. The big winner was SGC and their new release specials which gave them a boost of 25% over 2022.Â
Grading News- Overall, the biggest sport graded in 2023 was baseball. In fact, baseball saw healthy gains and doubled the amount of basketball cards graded in 2023. For those around in 2021, this is a shocker as countless influencers and prognosticators bemoaned the death of baseball and the ascendancy of basketball. Strong rookie classes have helped the sport along with rule changes and friendlier product prices compared to basketball and football. Fanatics gets a lot of guff, but the baseball market has done very well since they took it over while Panini has struggled with football and basketball.Â
Grading News- CGC is doing well with TCGs, but they look like they may be on their last legs with sports cards and this is the non-hyperbolic version of this sentence. 95% of their business in December came from TCGs with CGC grading under 7000 sports cards for December. CGC (formerly CSG) caused a stir with high grading volume numbers when they started, but they’ve seen constant attrition month after month starting when they raised their prices (85,000 graded the month before the price increase). I’ve been waiting for them to get aggressive with pricing, but if they haven’t yet maybe there is some odd accounting reason they are letting their sports card business lose over 90% of its volume without at least trying to run some significant sales.Â
The Sports Card Nonsense newsletters reflect the opinions of only the authors and contributors. They are for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation for purchases or of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any assets.