[sirraffles]

I do what I do because I find it satisfying, sometimes amusing, and it allows me a modest income. There is no desire to become the next Upper Deck (no one needs that) but I am a bit ambitious in that I like to share what I am doing and what interests me. Hence the magazine, which talks about the old-time players and yes, my cards. You'll find, though, that the magazine mostly uses the cards to illustrate the stories. If it is a "sales job" it is pretty discrete and I tried hard not to allow them to be a distraction from the baseball history focus, but a compliment.

From time to time, not really very often, someone will ask what I think about the future values of Helmar cards. I don't put much thought into it because I'll be long dead and those values are best left to those that come after me, and after us. I do know that people don't purchase them in order to throw them out.

But to entertain your question, let's say for a moment that a watch collector comes across a box of well-made, interesting watches made 80 or 100 years ago. They were not made in a huge Sieko-type factory but, instead, they were made by some small craftsman/company under modest circumstances. Only a handful of each style were made. Would the collector be interested? I would think so, and I think that he would believe that they had some value.

Charles Mandel