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Posted By: barrysloate

Joann- I was a card collector in the 1980's, and sold them all (do you think too soon?) to pursue early baseball photography, such as CdV's and tintypes, rare books, scorecards, documents, color lithography, and anything I could get my hands on that was earlier than 1875. And for each piece I bought, or considered buying, I had none of the safety or familiarity you spoke of.

And I loved every minute of it. That was the challenge that I was looking for that was missing from card collecting. Every object had to be examined and assessed, each had to be researched for its historical significance, and a whole new window was opened to me.

I think today's collector, to a degree, doesn't have as much imagination. He can pick up that E96 Jennings and everything he needs to know about it is a computer click away. You can not imagine how much research I sometimes had to do before I would decide whether or not to purchase a rare historical artifact. And sharing that research with other collectors was a big part of that fun.

Today when I sit with my collector friends I hear discussions about slabs and set registries. It just isn't satisfying for me.