Posted By:
honus3415I don't have any problem with the "Flippers", a least they are keeping items liquid within the marketplace.
It's the "Floppers", who under the guise of collectors\hobbyists feel that what's "best" for the hobby is that "OUR" hobby's little cardboard gems be hidden away in "THEIR" secret hiding spots. They selfishly amass huge caches of cardboard collectibles under the false premise of being a vintage collector whose goal is to "preserve" the hobby. How is this preserving the hobby? What kind of hobby do we have when items aren't available\shared with fellow collectors and any cost?
Don't get me wrong, imho every person has the right to "collect" how ever they want. But don't be finding faults with other people's collecting methods if you're not at least offering to share (sell or trade) the hobby's resources that have been entrusted to you with other collectors at some price. None of us received a decree from Abner Doubleday to be sole caretaker of this hobby's history. Enjoy it for a while and pass it on, keep the hobby fluid.
Most of us collected as kids. Just because I started collecting over 40 years doesn't make me any better than the newbie who just purchased his first T206. It isn't the years collecting, one's knowledge, the money spent, the size of one's collection or even the grade of those items that makes a collector\hobbyist. It's an appreciation for vintage cardboard, it's history and a willingness to physically "share" it with others that makes a hobby in which likeminded people can participate. Otherwise the hobby just becomes a library where it's members read and see pictures but never actually experience the actual joy of experience.
Sure this hobby is headed down the path where some time in the future it will no longer grow. It may be nearing that point now, when many items aren't available at any price. The point where these little worthless pieces of cardboard that fuel our egos are all hidden away and not available to anyone. Where they just become numbers in a set registry or impersonal displays on a website. When even the most beatup Ty Cobb T206 commands hundreds of dollars, yet thousands are locked away unseen for months on end, ignored in dark drawers going unappreciated except for when their owner's egos need refueling. Yes what a sad day that will be for the "hobby".
So as long as there are "flippers" or other hobbyists that are willing to share/sell this hobby's resources a some price (no matter how outlandish) I won't complain. The only problem I have is reducing my selfish greed for some of my current cardboard material possessions so that I can obtain the one I am currently lusting for.
Long live you flippers and sellers of scarce vintage cardboard, make a buck, make a hunderd because without you this hobby would come to a complete stand still. You are the fuel that keeps this hobby running. Without you we just become a competition of egos supported by the worthless cardboard that we have amassed and stored in our secret hiding places.
FYI.... EVERYTHING I own is for sale every day, unfortunatley for some it isn't at SMR. I believe in having many different things for a short time rather than have a few things forever (limited resources...my personal SMR). But I know eventually, even these items will be consumed into the belly of the beast called vintage card "collecting" never again to see the light of day or the smile of a new owner.