Quote:
Originally Posted by Hankphenom
'91 was my first of many Nationals and as I recall it was the promo card mania, with lots of local media attention on that, driving the attendance. Dealers were offering ridiculous money for the swag bags as people came out, and kids were getting in line and paying to get in multiple times to come back immediately and sell their bags with the promo cards inside. But here's my question: with decades of chase cards, insert cards, redemption cards, refractors, and all the rest of the card-company manufactured rarities behind us, have those proven to be either a good investment or collectible in their own right? If it's still going on as strongly as it seems from the reports this year, I guess it must have some history of success. Or is it just new generations of quick-buck exploiters and suckers that come along every few years? Do all the ones that can't find a chair when the music stops just quit the hobby so there is no institutional memory of these things to prevent the next wave? Even though I'm a memorabilia guy and not a card guy, I've never had any trouble understanding the appeal of vintage cards. And likewise, the enormity of the whole "chase cards" phenomenon has me as mystified today as it did when I first witnessed it almost 30 years ago. Could someone (probably much younger!) please explain all this to me?
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I know the Paul Pierce refractor I bought in 1998 is worth less than I paid or sold it for back in 98. He had a pretty good career.
I went to the 1985 Anaheim convention at the Disneyland Hotel. There was a "whole wrath of people and I don't know what all" as Andy Griffith would say. I'd go again if there is ever one down the street. I wasn't collecting cards in 1994, so I missed the Geo R Brown one.