$10,000 Sunday Scenario, what do you do?
 

If you had $10,000 just for sports cards as an investment, what do you buy? Taking out personal favorites etc....just investment, where does it go.
My first thoughts were finding the best 52 Mantle I could find, maybe buying a run of mid grade Mantles, or a couple high grade raw sets and upgrade.
What has the best return in 5-10 years? I don't know tobacco very well so maybe some experts on that?...always fun to play...

Great question!...I've never bought an item thinking about it strictly as a long-term investment, but I'd be interested in reading other's responses...

Really wrong place for this . This is the BST section...

Only 10k?
 

If you bought the best 52 Mantle you could find, you'd need a lot more than 10K.
I'm not a big Mantle fan, but I think that card is probably your best "investment" card since it will be very sellable in the future, likely with a nice profit.

My opinion only : No other Topps/Bowman card is rare enough or desired enough to expect a high percentage gain, with a couple exceptions.
(I think 49B Jackie Robinson and 51 Bowman Mantle/Mays might qualify as good" investments" although I'm no expert in speculating!)

My 45 years of collecting are all just because I like collecting and the idea that some of my cards might "pay me back" someday is just a bonus, not a certainty.

There are a lot of pre-war cards that might qualify as reasonable answers to your question , given the right player and set.

For example, Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Lou Gehrig will always be desired cards. They are already pretty expensive, and some type cards of them are even rare. I wonder sometimes if the T206 And Goudey versions will remain the best types for these players in the future since they are NOT the rare ones...but if you start considering scarcer items like postcards and cabinets you might limit the interested audience in future years.

Excellent topic for the first non-football Sunday we have had in a while:p

Oops I wished I had noticed the section used...I still like the topic :)

Investment section
 

I struggled on where to put it. Sorry if I messed it up..
Maybe though; someone ends up posting a BST deal on the topic and all will be ok.

10k right now, would get ya a nice Mick 52 in a grade '2'
certainly a investment. And i agree on the 51 bowman RC of Mick as well.
And also the Mays 51 RC is equally in demand as well as other RC in the 50's, like Aaron, Koufax, Ted, Joe D.and some earlier guys mentioned like Lou.
Pre-war, my guess if its not Ruth, Cobb, or Wagner then its gotta be ol' Shoeless.

or buy the rest of my Mantles, so i can swing to buying some pre-war items for myself. :)