Would you be in this hobby but for the Internet?

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Posted By: bruce Dorskind

Whilst the worldwide web , E-Bay in particular, certainly play an important role in
facilatating the sale of millions of dollars of common baseball material, the truth
is that the very best material (with an occassional exception) emanates from a limited
number of sources.

We have focused on resources on collecting rare ultra high grade baseball cards
and other memoribillia since we began actively collecting 32 years ago.

The only major differences we see are

(1) decrease in the importance of shows

(2) The very best material is handled by five or six dealers
rather than 15-20 dealers

That is a function of the exceptional growth in the value and the need for
a successful auction house and/or dealer to have ready access to millions
of dollars in cash.

Less than 10% of the items in our collection were acquired through E-Bay.

The web, however, provides the world class auction houses with the opportunity
to provide on line real time bidding and update auction offerings.

Chat Boards like Network 54 enable one to contact collectors whom one would otherwise
not meet except at a national show.

In our view, the Internet has enabled more people to participate in the hobby and
also enabled collectors to obtain more accurate price information- i.e. Vintage Card
Prices.com

That said, if there were no web, we, like most other collectors of rare, high grade material
would still be in the hobby.

Best,


Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List