Investment Potential

[ctownboy]

Also, as far as my collecition goes, compared to MANY on this board, it isn't valued at very much (probably less than $30,000 dollars) and I haven't spent very much putting it together.

As I said previously, I grew up in a small town in Indiana and there were not very many baseball cards shops in my area. Even if there were, I didn't have a lot of money to spend on cards to begin with.

When I first started collecting cards, in 1977, I would ride my bicycle around town and the country roads and pick up glass soft drink bottles to redeem and aluminum cans to recycle. The money I made from these endeavors, I would take to the small local convenience store and buy packs with. When I was older, I mowed four yards a week to make money.

By the time I was in high school and had a car, I was able to get a "real" job but a LOT of the money I made from that went for gasoline, insurance and maintenance for my car. The savings I had up to that point went into buying some of my friends baseball collections.

When I went to college, I started selling some of my collection to pay bills but also to buy more collections. I bought one large collection which, for a short period of time, allowed me to be a dealer at some small shows in Indianapolis. It was during this time that I started getting REALLY interested in vintage (pre WWII) cards and memorabilia. That was because I had the time to go out and look for that type of stuff and also a little bit of money to actually spend on it when I found it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have nearly enough money because I had to pass up a LOT of good deals I found. Some of the things I had to pass up were four different finds, totaling probably 300, B18 blankets. Included in these were at least five Walter Johnson's and three Ty Cobbs. Total price for all? Less than $1,200 dollars or $4 dollars a blanket. Over 1000 tobacco cards from the 1880's. These were mostly things like fish, chickens, actresses, hold to light playing cards, Dudes and Worlds Smokers but also some N28's including Clarkson, Keefe, Caruthers, Annie Oakley, boxers, pugilists and other sports.

During this time, I also found but couldn't afford, a Kalamazoo Bats card with an ad back $600 dollars), a couple of K Bats team cards (Detroit for about $4,000 each), a Stevens Fire Arms ink blotter in really nice condition (common player, $200 dollars), an 1898 Cincinnati Reds season pass made out of sterling silver ($4,000 dollars), 13 Fatima team cards ($800 dollars), about 20 different Curtis Ireland Candy cards including Ty Cobb plus some E120 American Caramel cards ($1,000 dollars) about 20 different W502's including Ruth and Gehrig ($400 dollars), an E125 American Caramel Honus Wagner ($395 dollars), a small size Honus Wagner decal bat ($1,500 dollars), a Christy Mathewson Fan for a Fan ($3,500 dollars) and numerous other small finds or newer (1950's - 1960's) cards and memorabilia.

All told, for less than $30,000 dollars, I estimate I could have amassed a collection worth over $250,000 dollars today. When I say this, I mean these were items I found at antique stores, malls or shows, paper shows, small auctions and ads I put in newpapers. It was NOT me going to large auction houses and buying items from them or buying items from sports card dealers. In short, they were items I found.

Because I have never had a LOT of money of my own, the MOST I have ever spent on a baseball item was about $300 dollars. That was for a Lou Gehrig autograph model ball glove in bad condition which I turned around and traded for an S81 silk of Ed Walsh.

The first pre-WWII card I ever bought was a T206 Ty Cobb bat off shoulder. I paid $50 dollars for it around 1980. Yes, I overpaid for it but, again, I was from a small town and didn't have access to a lot of dealers or shops. I still own this card. Most of the other T206's (and T205's) I own I bought in one lot at a small auction for $3 dollars a piece.

My 16 Star Player Candy cards I bought at one time (with a Shotwell's Candy football card of Red Grange). I paid between $3 and $5 dollars a piece for each card and later I sold the Red Grange card. So, I have less than $2 dollars invested in each of these 16 cards.

I bought 42 B18 blankets at auction, including a Cobb and Walter Johnson and paid $325 for the whole lot.

I bought eight N172 Old Judge cards at an auction and the lot included an Anson, a Ewing and a Rusie. I paid $800 for everything.

As you can see, my collection was put together on the cheap because 1) I didn't have a lot of money to spend to begin with and 2) I put in many hours looking and and many miles of driving. So, even though I could sell what I own and pay off a lot of my debt, I enjoy what I own and have put in a LOT of work to be able to acquire these pieces.

Plus, if I did actually sell them, because of the rarity of some of these things, I would have a hard time replacing them even if I did have the money to do so.

In conclusion, if the market tanks and my collection becomes worthless, unlike many people, I have NOT put a LOT of money into it and thus will have mostly lost only "paper" profits. Can a "whale" who has spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars buying a T206 Wagner at a major auction say the same thing?