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Posted By: boxingcardman

Which is a nice way to have your cake and eat it too. My best performing asset over the last decade has been my vintage cards. Nothing has come close. An astutely assembled card collection grows tax-deferred and can make for a nice nest egg. I wouldn't substitute it for a balanced portfolio of traditional investments but rather treat it as part of an integrated whole. And it even has potential for a business when I retire that I could also have fun in the process. What more can you ask?

As far as the nitty gritty, I don't think it really matters whether you advocate "high grade" or "high rarity" as long as you use common sense and don't go overboard with speculative issues. Anything can turn to crap but quality rarely ever does. People who were trading 100 count stacks of Ken Griffey Jr. rookies were deluding themselves. It was a game of musical chairs and the last ones standing were SOL. But so are the investors holding a dozen overpriced spec houses in Lancaster CA right now. Or people like me who are holding worthless shares of Enron (well, not totally worthless; I'm gonna get a few bucks a share out of the class action suit). However, I'm not seeing a huge spike in foreclosures in Beverly Hills...quality trumps. I personally prefer rarity over high grade because the value of high grade commonly found cards relies on a third party making admittedly subjective decisions that I personally do not see as having any real basis in fact, it can be undercut dramatically by a new find, and the market for it is much thinner than the overall card market.

One thing no one's mentioned is set assembly. Putting together difficult sets is fun and it can be quite lucrative when you sell the results.

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