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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

It's an interesting subject, for sure, and definitely one that goes completely against the grain for those of us who participate in this hobby as a distraction from this sort of thing.

I count myself among those people who considers baseball cards to be a "hobby" as opposed to an "investment," but at the same time, I am certainly aware that there is a dollar value associated with the cards I collect.

Looking purely at prices realized for cards, and nothing else, it certainly behaves like a "market." Certain issues get popular and prices rise, other issues lose their popularity and prices drop. Hordes of cards are occasionally discovered (i.e. Dormand Postcards Gil Hodges) that have dramatic impacts on the prices of that issue, and certain cards can be viewed as "blue chip" cards that will always appreciate in value. And looking at the "market" as a whole, there certainly has been a steady appreciation in value over the years - definitely more so than some funds or company stocks.

Even the most die-hard collectors among us have various strategies that they use to preserve the value of their cards. There's even a thread running right now that was started by Dan McKee - a collector I respect greatly - about the merits of keeping uncatalogued cards uncatalogued, as a way of preserving value.

For me personally, I enjoy cards for a variety of reasons, very few of which have anything to do with their value. At the same time, as is the case with any other collectible, there is always going to be a segment of the population who is interested in the investment angle - owning something that is less pervious to the swings in the stock market, something tangible that you can hold in your hand but still has value, etc. And, of course, there will always be people who are interested in owning such items but don't want to do the research involved with actually getting to know what they're buying.

It's not my particular style of collecting, and it definitely rubs the "purists" among us the wrong way, but it's no less legitimate a reason to collect than any other reason.

So I guess that's my long-winded way of saying that I don't think it will be long before an enterprising individual is managing people's card portfolios, and perhaps even creating investment funds based on rare collectibles. And ultimately, I don't think the presence of such a thing will harm the hobby one bit.

-Al

Edited to be even more long-winded. I'm doing my best to fill the gap for Peter C for the morning.