Originally Posted by Brianruns10
Cards, any commodities for that matter, are like stocks, and you have to act like that sometimes when you are concerned with profit and loss.
And the big lesson of the stock market is that it is the stupid person who panics and sells when the prices start dropping. The smart ones buy up everything the stupid ones sell at at a savings.
Hang on to your cards. They're not apple stock that are going to explode in prices, but they DO hold their value, and they'll trend up. Right now I'm buying all the 52's my budget will allow, because I'm convinced they're going to go up in the next 10 to 15.
As for the idea that these cards will lose value as the baby boomers start to sell off their collections and pass away, I completely reject that notion. If that were true, then the t206 cards should be within anyone's budget to collect, because all their original owners are dead, as are those who would've remembered seeing them play.
But we all know that's not the case, and the t206 set is the unquestioned Mount Everest of ball card collecting.
And why else to I believe these cards will retain, even gain in value? Because of people like me. I'm 28. I played all of four years of little league and quit, and I've been to three major league games in my life. I care nothing for today's steroid fueled game, filled with players who have NO sense of team or community loyalty, who gleefully sell themselves to the highest bidder.
Yet I'm ENDLESSLY fascinated with the old days of baseball. I quiz my dad about it all the time (he collected Topps 57-63), and agrees that baseball he knew growing up is gone now. Baseball was every boy's life in the 50s. It really represents the best of America (at least, once baseball integrated). It is pure.
And what I adore about these cards, especially the 52s, is that they are not the ready made, instant collectible crap I see being hawked at the booths for 50 cents a piece. They were made for kids, to be loved by kids. They are full of these players who are athletes, gods and your big brother all in one. Hell, some of the players in the 52 series have halos! I love thinking about how each card I own was bought by some kid who used his allowance or lawn mower money. Some kid loved that card, adored that player.
I even think baseball cards play an subtle, unspoken role in the civil rights movement. The black players in the Topps set are just like the other players. All that matters are the stats. Who made up the first four players of the legendary 52 High series: Mantle, Robinson, Thomson, Campy. Two whites, two blacks. Equal. The first card of the 53 set was Jackie Robinson. THAT is saying something. You can't tell me that didn't have a subtle impact on impressionable kids.
And I gotta believe there are others my age who feel the same way. So many of my generation are really switched on to vintage. Vintage vinyl, vintage consumer goods. We want that quality of manufacturing before it was all outsourced, that longevity (my parent's frigidaire from the 70s is still cranking), and that beauty of art and design. I restore tube radios and soda fountain milkshake mixers, and they simply don't make things of that quality or beauty any more.
There are 300 million people in this country. Of those more than 100 million are under 30. Only a few thousand of them need to be like me, to love these cards like me. Those are good odds I think.
The hobby will be just fine.
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