Do you worry about our hobby dying?

[freakhappy]

Do I worry about our hobby dying...not at all. What I do believe is that it will probably change with time, like a lot of things do. When I was growing up in the 80's and 90's, collecting baseball cards wasn't something you did because you thought about the amount of money a card was worth or resell necessarily, you did it because you loved baseball and being able to collect your favorite players and team made it worth your while. It's a lot different nowadays...a great deal of people are solely in it for the money. There are people on this site that don't give a lick about baseball...couldn't tell you much history about the game throughout any decade, but they have stellar card collections...this is what worries me. Card collecting has become a money thing more than collecting, but I can't blame anyone as this is how the hobby has shifted for the most part. Card collecting used to be simple and enjoyable, now it's mostly about money and a card collector that actually does so for enjoyment is a rarity.

Me, personally...I don't think much about the state of the hobby, I'm just enjoying the ride. I will attempt to get my boys to like sports and possibly ball cards, but this isn't something I will try to force them to do. They are growing up in a different era and looking back, it was a whole lot different than thirty years ago...cards were easy to collect, a lot of kids collected them, they were relatively cheap to buy and you could do anything with them and have fun! Today everything is so condition sensitive, it drives me nuts!

I still collect modern cards, mainly a few players that I enjoyed when I was a kid...nothing like turning back the clock or obtaining the cards that you never thought you would be able to when you were a kid...priceless!

[the 'stache]

There is a romanticism to the game's early years that today's game will never have. You'll still have people that closely identify with the players they grew up watching, but Mike Trout will never have the mystique that Babe Ruth or Willie Mays had, and still have.

[barrysloate]

The hobby might get a little smaller, and prices certainly can soften a bit, but there will always be a market for baseball memorabilia, and there will always be people collecting cards, photographs, autographs, etc. It might not even be such a bad thing if there was a little retrenchment in the future. Prices for some things are incredibly high, and many collectors are priced out. A softening of the market might even make the hobby a little more accessible.

But the hobby won't die. It will merely seek its own level.

[mrvster]

T206 as a whole to be the major driving force of the future collecting of vintage baseball cards since they are so recognizable to the historians and layman thanks to wagner.........


T206 Rare backs, printer's scraps, rare variations, proofs, freaks, the Wagners, Planks, Doyles, Magies, rare combos will be the future of vintage collecting and will continue to appreciate over time in relative fashion as wagz...

and ojs, mayo's 19th cent. stuff will stay fairly consistent my predictions

[ValKehl]

I believe the sports card and memorabilia hobby/business will be just fine as long as:
(1) A significant % of people continue to be born with the "collecting gene", and
(2) A significant % of people continue to become keenly interested in the major team sports (and even more so for such folks who also have an interest in history).
Val

[Fred]

I wonder how many ball players follow the history of the game. I have to figure that not too many are avid collectors of cards and vintage memorabilia.

God bless David Wells. He bought a real Babe Ruth worn hat and wore (or attempted to wear it) in a real game.

[YankeeCollector]

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away!