Posted By:
Corey R. ShanusFirst, as has been recounted to me, the reason memorabilia became a taboo/discouraged topic on the main vintage card board a few years ago is because enough people were discussing it that it elicited reaction from the purist vintage baseball card crowd. Asssuming this is an accurate description of events, then I think it is reasonable to assume that with time people will learn of this new sub-board and begin to participate.
Second, price guides for memorabilia are next to worthless. Unlike identical baseball cards in identical grades, memorabilia by its very nature varies from piece to piece, making price-typecasting misleading. The most effective publication to describe an item's worth would be one that merely reports known transactions. And even that could be misleading. For some items, the market could be so thin that what sold for $50k last year could now sell for a fraction of that if one of the collectors left the market. Or it could sell more alot more if one or two new people entered the market.
Third, despite some recent spectacular price declines over recent years (e.g., some publications), it remains my view that for the really good stuff, the upside potential remains strong. Just as easily as a few big players left the market (causing prices on some items to plummet), some new collectors can enter. Also, I believe that for many people interest in memorablia is a progression. They begin with cards, then in time begin to branch to memorabilia. The influx of people into collecting vintage baseball cards seems to be never-ending. If only a very small percentage of them eventually gravitate to memorabilia, that gravitation combined with the extraordinary rarity of many pieces has the potential to result in spectacular price increases.