[Scott Garner]

Hi Bruce,

I too am a long time collector of baseball tickets. I have pondered this exact question because of the current trend towards the use of e-tickets.

I'm quite certain of one thing. VINTAGE tickets related to historical events will always remain very collectible. As with anything in this hobby, scarcity drives desirability. Condition is certainly also a consideration when looking at possible value.

More people are collecting baseball tickets than ever today. The number of collectors in this portion of the hobby has grown tremendously since 1998, the year that Randall mentioned that he began collecting McGwire HR tickets.

IMHO, collecting modern tickets is a different matter altogether. For one thing, the e-ticket phenomenon has created a situation where many season ticket holders and ticket brokers no longer use their traditional "hard tickets" in favor of the e-ticket. This creates a situation where there is a huge supply of perfect, full, unused season tickets. Scarcity and condition are no longer an issue...
Full disclosure: As a collector, I still collect full, unused season tickets to ticket collecting themes that I collect.

FWIW, I do not foresee e-tickets becoming desirable collectibles for the future.