Pace of price increase frustrations

[kailes2872]

When I got back into this craziness in 2012, I collected the post war sets but I always kept my eyes open on the 33 Goudey Ruths. I left my old company to a healthy severance in 2015 and thought that I might buy at least one of the four Ruth's as a present to myself. I remember seeing a thread on this site and the prevailing guidance on price was "a grand a grade!". I'm not sure if that was only through a 4 as it really starting to go up starting at PSA 5, but I would see a PSA 2 for $2500 or a PSA 3 for $3800 and I wouldn't buy it because I didn't want to be the stooge that overpaid for the Ruth card while everyone else was getting it for a grand a grade.

On top of some 50's HOFer upgrades, my big present to myself during that time was my 53 Bowman color with a 5.5 Mantle and 10-12 of the HOFers graded 4-6 that I bought for $3100. Even before my upgrades of that set, I have appreciated well, but if I had put similar money into the Ruth during that time, I would have done much better. Now, they are getting out of reach for a 3-4 example like I would have wanted. I can pretty much forget getting all four of them - although my goal was/is to have all four Ruth's both Gehrig's from 33 & 34 and all four Cobbs. (It would also store much better than all of the sets).

I don't know how to make fractional ownership work and have an active market, but it is getting to the point where only the truly wealthy will be able to continue to invest and buy those cards going forward. It becomes an asset class of itself and I would rather have the money tucked away in mutual funds where it is protected from fire and theft with the knowledge that I could trade assets if I wanted, but I would have no desire to keep them at home and I don't want to set appointments at the safe deposit box to see them if I had them. I will just continue to enjoy the REA and Heritage catalogs and I will enjoy pictures shared here.