Internet experience with respect to collecting?

[perezfan]

Rob:
Really enjoyed your column! Very well written, and got my memory going....

We have quickly learned to take Ebay for granted. I remember (not all that long ago) getting a monthly flyer from dealers like Bob Rosenthal and Carl Laron. These flyers were so unsophisticated, they contained just single-line descriptions of each item, with no photos. So a typical description for a Pennant might read...

1950s Cincinnati Reds 3/4 size with Mr. Red wearing a crown and flying on a bat above the stadium. Some cracking to painted graphics but no rips/tears. EX++

The ease of collecting has accelerated immeasurably in the past 8 years. Ebay has driven lots of these "flyer guys" out of business, but some have adapted well (Bob McCann, Everything Baseball, Jim McCorkle and the like). It is true that certain things we believed were rare are actually quite plentiful. Thanks to ebay, lots of prices are now lower than they were back in the '90s.