[Rich Klein]

Made it so much easier to collect cards. Especially after EBay got popular; all it took was a click to purchase (or even see) many of those cards you might never have seen in a local market (or even through SCD ads)

In addition, the internet has changed many of our traditional dealer/collector roles. Used to be, dealers needed to be the ones to parcel out cards to collectors who needed them. Now, many collectors (especially the more savvy ones) do that themselves. I would say that many of those collectors/dealers are like the "vest-pocket" dealers of the pre-internet age.

The internet certainly gave third-party grading a major boost. After all, if I see a card is a PSA or BVG 7 or SGC 84; I have a pretty good idea of the condition of that card. The old days of everyone grading their own cards was a bit wild west. YOUR NM is very different from MY NM.

And the internet has shown "true" rarity of cards. Many modern cards; even with low print runs of 25 or less, sell for pennies on the dollar because there are even less collectors for them. Older cards which are difficult, have held their value better as they are "real" collectibles

I have stated this in the past; but another very important difference with the internet is "instant" expertise. I know, I learned from my mistakes and experience and now, a smart person won't make the same mistakes I did, just because they can research and find out just about anything. I suppose the down side of that, is that "printed" materials do not sell nearly as well as they used to. The downside of that is printed materials can always be read and at your fingertips. I do believe there should be a place for printed materials as well.

Regards
Rich

PS And Leon, your 14 years of collecting is about as long as the internet has been an active player. The Beckett Message Boards began in December, 1996. And I Know that Beckett had been an pioneer in internet activity going back to the 1994-95 era.