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The sticker craze/World gone wrong
Blredyellow
Posts: 843
Love PJ stickers. Collect them. They're cool and fun. Have ones for all of the 2013-14 shows I went to and old ones sold on tour/through the 10c. I also collect vinyl, posters and, like many of you, have a lot of PJ "stuff" (mostly bootlegs) while still understanding it's all about the music.
That being said ...
The recent sticker craze has become absolutely crazy. And pretty sad.
Stickers from the '14 Euro tour are going for $50-70. Some older ones have recently gone for $30-60. Stickers that you could get for $5, at most, a month ago are $10-25. And don't get me started on how stupid bootleg (fan made) stickers are.
How in the world did it (we) get to the point that a FREAKIN' sticker is worth more than a poster, bootleg, shirt, LP, 7", etc? It's a STICKER. They cost one cent to make, can barely be displayed and were "worthless" just a couple years ago. Now, people stand in line all day to get them at shows and have made them "worth" more than old Xmas singles, great official bootlegs from 2000 and '03, some of the band's back catalog on LP and many show posters.
The craziest thing to me is there's no real market for stickers. The only people buying them are hardcore, crazy PJ fans. Without them, no one would care about them at all. (Ever been to a rock n' roll sticker convention? Didn't think so.)
I fully get supply and demand. I completely understand a collector's mentality. I get that rarer stickers are ... rare. But, to me, the recent sticker craze shows just how out of touch and surreal the secondhand PJ "market" has become. Without eBay, it wouldn't exist. There's no real, hard currency value. There's no book value or history (a la LPs on discography sites/100-plus years of recorded history and posters on expessobeans). Hell, there isn't even a full catalog/site of all the stickers PJ has released.
I thought the market reached a tipping point last year with the stupid toy sheep, which barely had any connection to PJ, were "hot" for a few months and now are pretty worthless. Wrongggggggg. Within one year, a couple thousand people have turned stickers into the new thing, with 20- to 60-year-olds paying serious money for a piece of flimsy plastic that is one inch high and wide and mostly has NO connection to PJ, the music or (gasp) rock n' roll reality.
Again, I get it. I have more than a few.
But when stickers are going for $50-75, something is wrong.
All that said ....
We love PJ. A lot. I guess this is just another representation of that. And fans of the biggest bands (Stones, Beatles, etc.) have long collected everything and anything, setting their own prices in their own markets. So maybe that's just what this is and represents. PJ is the only band that matters to their hardcore fans. We've loved them for 24 years. We freak out about LPs, 7"s, coffee mugs, keychains, variant posters and pins. People have had that Benaroya reissue thread running for 10 f'n years. Now, stickers are the new poster (sigh) and the market is fully open for secondary, overinflated business.
Stickers. 2015. Rock n' roll.
That being said ...
The recent sticker craze has become absolutely crazy. And pretty sad.
Stickers from the '14 Euro tour are going for $50-70. Some older ones have recently gone for $30-60. Stickers that you could get for $5, at most, a month ago are $10-25. And don't get me started on how stupid bootleg (fan made) stickers are.
How in the world did it (we) get to the point that a FREAKIN' sticker is worth more than a poster, bootleg, shirt, LP, 7", etc? It's a STICKER. They cost one cent to make, can barely be displayed and were "worthless" just a couple years ago. Now, people stand in line all day to get them at shows and have made them "worth" more than old Xmas singles, great official bootlegs from 2000 and '03, some of the band's back catalog on LP and many show posters.
The craziest thing to me is there's no real market for stickers. The only people buying them are hardcore, crazy PJ fans. Without them, no one would care about them at all. (Ever been to a rock n' roll sticker convention? Didn't think so.)
I fully get supply and demand. I completely understand a collector's mentality. I get that rarer stickers are ... rare. But, to me, the recent sticker craze shows just how out of touch and surreal the secondhand PJ "market" has become. Without eBay, it wouldn't exist. There's no real, hard currency value. There's no book value or history (a la LPs on discography sites/100-plus years of recorded history and posters on expessobeans). Hell, there isn't even a full catalog/site of all the stickers PJ has released.
I thought the market reached a tipping point last year with the stupid toy sheep, which barely had any connection to PJ, were "hot" for a few months and now are pretty worthless. Wrongggggggg. Within one year, a couple thousand people have turned stickers into the new thing, with 20- to 60-year-olds paying serious money for a piece of flimsy plastic that is one inch high and wide and mostly has NO connection to PJ, the music or (gasp) rock n' roll reality.
Again, I get it. I have more than a few.
But when stickers are going for $50-75, something is wrong.All that said ....
We love PJ. A lot. I guess this is just another representation of that. And fans of the biggest bands (Stones, Beatles, etc.) have long collected everything and anything, setting their own prices in their own markets. So maybe that's just what this is and represents. PJ is the only band that matters to their hardcore fans. We've loved them for 24 years. We freak out about LPs, 7"s, coffee mugs, keychains, variant posters and pins. People have had that Benaroya reissue thread running for 10 f'n years.
Now, stickers are the new poster (sigh) and the market is fully open for secondary, overinflated business.Stickers. 2015. Rock n' roll.
Post edited by Blredyellow on
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Typo Man: "Thanks kidz, but remembir, stay in skool!"
Stickers aren't my thing but those prices are insane.
Surfboard cross pearl jam sticker? Don't get me started…
At least the passes no one seems to care about, so please, if you still have passes I'd love them.
Good rant OP. Loved it!
Trade me your passes!!!
My new thing is "collecting" jpgs of the stickers. Cheaper and just as satisfying.
Last: SEA2 08/10/2018
Next: ??
http://expressobeans.com/members/collections.php?id=29417
“I think you won, but I enjoyed the fight” - EV
and NEVER paid more than face value for a single sticker or button!!
'98: Seattle: Memorial Stadium 1 & 2
'00: Columbus: Polaris
'03: Columbus: Germain
'10: Columbus: Nationwide Arena
'11: East Troy: Alpine Valley - PJ20 1 & 2 + EV Detroit
'12: Missoula + EV Jacksonville 1 & 2
'13: Chicago / Pittsburgh / Buffalo / Seattle
'14: Cincinnati / St. Louis / Tulsa / Lincoln / Memphis / Detroit / Moline
'15: New York City - Global Citizen Festival
'16: Greenville / Hampton / Raleigh / Columbia / Lexington / Ottawa / Toronto 1 & 2 / Wrigley 1 & 2
'17: Brooklyn - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
'18: London 1 & 2 / Seattle 1 & 2 / Missoula / Wrigley 1
'22: Nashville / St. Louis
http://www.livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=170
LIVEFOOTSTEPS.ORG/USER/?USR=435
- Christopher McCandless
the sticker thing isn't surprising as it is just another item that becomes limited and with them being show specific, makes them wanted more by everyone who are completist collectors.
What saddens me just like with the guitar pick collecting world is the fakes. I don't mind the fan made stickers that are obvious to everyone but when there's a replica of a real sticker but fake, it soils the market and takes the fun out of collecting and the hunt for trying to find a missing sticker. There should be a rule where on the back of any sticker made for fun by fans or by the fake sticker makers that it is not an official sticker released by the 10c or by the band etc. I can't tell you how many times I have seen friends pay good money or trade away truly good stickers for fakes or fan made stickers thinking they were getting something of worthiness for their collections
What I didn't see coming was older stickers that were very much accessible now going far beyond stupid in price.
Raleigh, NC., 4/20/16, Columbia, SC., 4/21/16, Boston, MA., 8/5/16, Boston 9/2/18 & 9/4/18., Nashville, TN., 4/2/20., Nashville, TN., 9/16/22.EV Solo - Washington, D.C., 8/17/08, Atlanta, GA., 6/24/09, Orlando, FL., 11/27/12.
'98: Seattle: Memorial Stadium 1 & 2
'00: Columbus: Polaris
'03: Columbus: Germain
'10: Columbus: Nationwide Arena
'11: East Troy: Alpine Valley - PJ20 1 & 2 + EV Detroit
'12: Missoula + EV Jacksonville 1 & 2
'13: Chicago / Pittsburgh / Buffalo / Seattle
'14: Cincinnati / St. Louis / Tulsa / Lincoln / Memphis / Detroit / Moline
'15: New York City - Global Citizen Festival
'16: Greenville / Hampton / Raleigh / Columbia / Lexington / Ottawa / Toronto 1 & 2 / Wrigley 1 & 2
'17: Brooklyn - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
'18: London 1 & 2 / Seattle 1 & 2 / Missoula / Wrigley 1
'22: Nashville / St. Louis
http://www.livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=170
Collecting to me is about the hunt. Anyone can throw a handful of money at an eBay auction to get what they want. If that makes them feel "complete" then good on them...I guess. Personally, collecting is meeting like-minded people, trading, and helping each other out.
Some people around here need to be the biggest fan and they'll throw whatever money they can at an item to make sure they own it. If that's how you collect then so be it. If that makes it harder for me to collect what I'm looking for...well I'm up for the challenge.
That being said I know alot of people that don't get the vinyl thing. Why would you spend when $30 on an album when you've already got it on cd, or could buy it on itunes for $10? lol.
I don't understand everything people collect and I don't think I need to. I understand collector mentality, so I'm guessing there's enough people interested in stickers that it's created a market for them.
and it's not really surprising that something as seemingly worthless as a sticker would gain in popularity and then demand and then price. look at stamps. same thing. any time something says "limited" on a pearl jam item everybody loses their shit.
except those track suits. LOL. which a guy behind me in St Paul was wearing, btw. I thought it looked awesome!
Cheers,
HFD
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/most-popular-posts/
St. Paul 2014 • Mexico City 2015 • Philadelphia II 2016 • Ottawa 2016 • Amsterdam I & II 2018 • Wrigley Field II 2018 • Phoenix 2022
Apollo Theater 2022 • Chicago I 2023