Hi Bruce.
I think Leon pretty much summed it up in post #3. I'm honestly at the exact opposite of the spectrum as you when it comes to collecting. I honestly probably have one of the junkiest collections out there. Sure there's some great stuff, but I've been able to amass a pretty diverse and satisfying collection on a budget due to my lack of care for perfection. However, I do understand and appreciate exactly what you were getting at with your initial post.
To address that, I believe what you were looking to discuss is that the very top of the high end, collector-wise has seemed to remain somewhat steady at about 10 collectors. And that you feel that the market for that high end material will continue to be safe while the lower and middle ends of the market have slowly dwindled, and will probably continue to do so, with collectors dropping like flies due to financial issues.
To that extent, I can agree. However, the collectors in the market for that high end stuff will eventually dwindle and (to put it in simple terms) die(no offense), with no one to step in once one leaves. Eventually the safe 10 that you're referring to, will be 7, 5, 3 and at some point maybe zero. It's not like the last big spending collector left will be king. At some point financially, all that will be left to sell to are the middle-grounders, and I guarantee once you're selling down into a different collecting bracket, money will be lost.
Now the low end of this market is where the most growth and contraction will take place. Honestly, if you were to look at this from an investment standpoint, that volatility should make it potentially the most profitable area of the collecting market. At the same time it could make it the most costly, with some mistakes. All that aside, most of us at the low-end of the spectrum aren't actually any different than you high-enders, despite our obvious differences in financial ability, as our collections seem to be more for the enjoyment of collecting, as opposed to investing. Nobody's here competing with each other to see who has the best collection. Honestly if we were to handi-cap it golf style based on financial ability, I'd sure as hell have to say I'm about as happy as I could be to have my collection where it currently is. I guess that would make me the winner. YAY!!!
Anyways, now that that's out of the way. We're all just here to collect and share knowledge, information and ideas about the hobby. Despite the fact that what you shared here is completely irrelevant to me, and I'll assume most of us here, I really do appreciate getting to read every bit of it, and learning from the big timers. It's like Baseball itself. Do I really need to know everything that I know? F*** no, but I sure as hell enjoy the sh*t out of knowing it. And learning more can often times be every bit as satisfying as buying a new card. That's just my simple view on the hobby.
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