Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred
Jake L, there are a few different ways to look at Mr. Mint and what people believe he's done "for the hobby".
He did help to bring card collecting to the forefront but if you were a true collector and didn't care about the value of cards and you're on a limited budget then that attention only made it harder for you to collect because of the price escalation that took place when all that attention was brought to the hobby.
It turned from a hobby to a business and a lot of the fun went with it because now if you truly loved the cardboard, your dollar didn't go as far after all of the attention that was brought to it.
This is not to say that without Mr. Mint the price escalation wouldn't have come around.
I guess the sad part about all of the attention is that it brought all of the low life ass holes into the hobby. This resulted in a lot of manipulated value to the hobby which made the hobby less fun for the true collector.
My thought is that a true collector is someone that doesn't look at their collection as a "portfolio" but rather something that gives them joy when they look at it. Ooops, I hope I didn't open a can of worms and step on some peoples egos.  |
right when there were more non pure hobbyist out there the National conventions were 5x+ more fuller than they are now. Not saying one way is better than the other but cant deny that price escalation was not in part because of guys like mr mint and non pure hobbyist. There are many many hobbies out there with a bigger percentage of hobbyists that we dont see in the news with major 'finds'....
i came across this post from a josh evans who said in part about mr mint..
However, you must put Alan Rosen in proper historical perspective
This guy “made” the baseball card business
On the money side he made money for all of us
He made your stuff worth more
He brought countless new people into the field
He brought out of an attic that card you sold last week
On the “stuff” side he drew out a ton of cards
Tons
The stuff that now sits in your collection and you love
He (and others) did the work that we all now draw benefit from
Yes he benefited too but he still deserves his due
You should see the other side
Those are saying he was a jerk I cannot disagree with
I have had more fights with Alan then just about anyone
He attacked me with a baseball bat at a show (true)
And I am sure I did plenty to antagonize him through the years
But after all these years we have forgiven each other and moved on and we are now friends again
We have both mellowed (thank God)
I guess my point is you don’t have to like him
But you should respect him on some level
And anyone that thinks that Alan is still not a force in this business does not have a clue
If he is a joke than he will probably have the last laugh