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DJNicely said David. It's all about what you want to do with that $6,000. If you put it into the bank, you will basically have $6,000 in one year if you do nothing with it.
If you purchase a short term bond or something, you will make something, but not all that much on that figure.
If you put $6,000 into your yehicle, you are basically losing that money, as with an electronics that simply give you pleasure.
If you buy a fad (Beanie Babies, that small time frame where people were buying Pez, "new" trading cards of the next great thing etc.), you will have invested poorly and will never see that $6,000 again. Didn't someone pay $50,000 for a Lebron James card last year? What will that be worth in five years?
Over the past twenty+ years, price guides prove that cards are in fact an "investment" as the average increase from one yearly price guide to the next is roughly 20% and it doesn't appear to be a fluke as the marketability of the cardboard proves correct.
Today, odd things happen everyday in the card market and it's difficult to predict the spending habits of the consumer and too often than not, we scratch our heads. I saw a T206 Jack Chesbro Graded as a PSA5 sell for $590, $536 and $455 in a span of ten days. Even in the other thread, the n28 Cap Anson PSA 5 where it was sold in a six month scan:
6/24/06 Ebay $2676.77
3/30/06 eBay $3585.00
1/8/06 eBay $4227.77
How do you feel if you paid $4227 for it, and now saw it sell for less than half?
I buy a card because I like it and want it and I don't think about it's value and what it will be worth five-ten years from now. I also don't go crazy in bidding wars and I'm a rather cautious spender, usually coming in third or fourth in the current times. Would I ever buy a T206 common for $6,000. Um NO! I would rather buy twenty low grade 1914 Cracker Jacks or a collection of maybe (150) T206 commons that aren't spectacular, but will fill some holes.
Cards in my opinions aren't art but stocks with the price guide being the unpredicatable price someone in the future will pay for the item.
DJ