A Great Debate?

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Posted By: B. Hodes

I think that over the past few years the interest in vintage has generally drifted towards the pre-WWI cards and away from the inter-war cards you (the person who originated this thread) are planning on focusing on. That is an oberservation that should not direct your collecting but it is reflected I think in the price guide's general overvaluation of the primary sets from the inter-war years (the gum cards by National Chicle, Goudey and Playball circa 1933-1941).
As for investing I would not generally recommend investing money in cards even in the present stock market. But because nice vintage cards are not cheap it is worth considering what cards are most likely to appreciate. Here I would go with:
1) high condition specimens as determined by the appropriate 3 letter wonders (grading services such as PSA, SGC, GAI for vintage cards); or
2) The greatest and most famous players of the era by which I mean not merely the Hall of famers but best and/or most famous Hall of Famers (Gehrig, Ruth, DiMaggio and Williams etc.) rather than the lesser lights (Kelly, Mannush, Hafey, Penncok etc.) in virtually any condition; or
3) If you have really big money -- cards of the players in #2 in the condition of #1.
I hope this helps a bit.