[MattyC]

Flawed argument? Not at all. The problem is that your defensiveness over what you collect (invest in) blinded your eyes to even seeing my rather innocuous point.

That point was simply this: there are many paths to the goal of collecting and investing satisfaction. My statement was fact, depending of course on cards chosen. And it proves that not one sector of our shared hobby is the sole answer, or a better answer than another.

I think you need to search inward, if it bothers you to know that a card of someone other than Cobb (even, GASP, a modern player) may generate more hypothetical dollars within a certain period of time, if the sale is timed properly. And of course to realize funds from a modern sale, it must be timed— whereas a long dead or retired player does not have that risk. That is no revelation.

You also seem to overrate the ability to flip the cards you selected. Where modern player cards can be bought and sold in a day trading fashion with substantial price swings in the comparatively short term, try winning one of the cards you highlighted in a top AH and selling it a month or two later, let alone a week. In that short a time span, it is hard to profit. There are different potentialities and exploitable facets to all types of card: the older and newer, the thinly traded and highly liquid.

End of the day, choices like a Cobb rare postcard are fantastic if that is what one likes to collect— such a card is also a great store of value now and into the future. Yet depending on one’s predilections and investment goals, if any, there are certainly other equally worthwhile cards. Accept that.