Money in the hobby

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

What I object to is the investors taking an innocent pastime and transforming it into yet another ruthless exercise in commerce. Maybe that is an inevitable byproduct of how our culture commoditizes everything but I don't have to like it or applaud those who do.

And stay off my lawn!

Well said. All about $$$$. And all the BS that goes along with it, especially card doctoring, third party grading politics, auction fraud, etc.

[botn]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Well said. All about $$$$. And all the BS that goes along with it, especially card doctoring, third party grading politics, auction fraud, etc.

Boy are you bitter!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by botn

Boy are you bitter!

Well, when I started to see 1952 Topps Wehmeier's selling for thousands of dollars just because someone stuck an 8 flip on them, I started to wonder, and not a lot has happened since then to give me confidence. Too many people buying centered 5s and 6s and turning them into 8s and 9s for my taste.

[AGuinness]

I TOTALLY get the view that money has corrupted a child's pastime and part of me will always feel this way as prices skyrocket and people are priced out of cards.

But the logical part of me also has to acknowledge that this is not exclusive to baseball cards. This happens elsewhere in other "innocent" pursuits, including toys (check out these realized prices on old Star Wars figures: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/...go-n09402.html), kids books (one of the first Harry Potter books sold for $37k: https://www.abebooks.com/books/rareb...ns-books.shtml), video games (http://mentalfloss.com/article/66183...ve-video-games) and more.

The positive spin, which I prefer, is that baseball cards are treated as an investment because so many of us find them fascinating and wonderful, giving us an emotional lift and reminding us of those more innocent times and pursuits of our past. And in my opinion, I much prefer how baseball cards have evolved and the future of collecting versus video games, toys and books.

And I hope that people do see the irony of any resentment over baseball cards being a commodity, considering their role in history to help sell tobacco, bread, gum, candy, etc. etc.