[Rich Klein]

Well anytime we get to see Heather Thomas in a thread, it's a good day. Now Helen Mirren has aged even better than Ms. Thomas

Now, having said that, we have issues with a hobby, which seems to mirror society in that the top 1 percent of cards is getting out of reach of most of us. Not all, obviously but most of us. But we can all enjoy our collections exactly as they are, especially if we were collecting to return to those days when we were young.

Now, when I started in this hobby circa 1977, the 20 year rule meant we were collecting cards which were easily identifiable -- the 1957 set and we knew those players. Today, the 20 year rule and there are many people coming back from the halcyon days, means they don't even remember every set which came out during their collecting days. They remember Jordan, etc. more than any baseball player though

But you know, there are tons of affordable cards out there and we can build nice collections of old or new cards. I spent most of the morning pricing Dirk Novitski (sic) cards and most of his base cards are between 50 cents and 2 dollars. And you know, you can build a pretty nice collection of his cards for pennies on the dollar. That is just one example of affordability.

And there is a basketball HOFer whose RC is all of a dime. Well, not that he was famous here because his real fame came in international play:. Sarunas Marciulionis

But we can't all afford the cards which are in Leon's show case at my show but we can all look and enjoy at which goodies he has for sale. But at the last two shows, he was probably surprised by how many lower priced cards he sold.

But here is the thing, we can't belittle those collectors who can afford what a Bruce Dorskind did when he was living (I bet he is completing three deals right now whilst I'm typing this).

I enjoy selling my 25-50 cent cards to those people working on Rangers/Mavs/Cowboys/Stars collections and I enjoy selling 1960's commons and high numbers to people working on those sets. And that is something else we need to remember as a hobby, how to keep the average collector interested.

I believe in affordable price points for admission, tables and auto guests. That's why I only charge $1 at the door and at our synagogue show, we give away so many cards that we are always in need of more (Shout out here to Todd Marcum who has sent out 2 care packages in the past month)

You should see some of the prices we've been quoted on auto guests. I get that players active and retried like to be paid for their time, and rightly so, but most of those are pricing themselves out of meeting their fans. That's their right and that is only getting worse as today's players are now getting paid millions for being an average major leaguer.

Look I get what everyone is saying but I prefer to enjoy looking at cards old and new. And I love seeing what I have not seen before.

Rich