[sb1]

A couple of things to consider, baseball cards/memorabilia bought at auction are usually bought at full retail and the secondary resale market is not factored in the price, where as cars, antiques, etc are bought at wholesale at auction and then marked up for retail resale. The sportscard/memorabilia market can be a very thin market with many ebbs and flows, and not as transparent as the coin or stamp hobbies(who each have 100's to 1000's of collectors for every vintage baseball collector) with printed buy/sell spreads(of which the buy is often back of bid and only fully priced on very liquid issues).

I guess my point is, that this entire hobby can be a very difficult morass for many people to traverse. Many times you roll the dice or go with your gut, results are not guaranteed!

None of this should be taken as criticism on any parties or feeling of right or wrong, just putting out some thought provoking rhetoric. If you buy something and feel you paid what it was worth to you, you should be happy and enjoy it. If at some point you need or want to sell it, one can only hope that the investment holds it's own or appreciates. Some people buy with no intention of ever selling, others the horizon is much closer.

Oh, and to answer the question posed by the OP, the market appears to be very strong in most areas of pre-war, especially select 19th Century Memorabilia and Cards. Whether post-war high grade material will make a comeback remains to be seen. As in any collectible, rarity and condition will hold value or appreciate faster.