Scarcity and Value Cards vs Memorabilia

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Posted By: Jason Mishelow

As readers of this forum know I mainly collect early baseball books (pre-1910) I recently picked up an obscure title called Brawn and Brain (1889) which has some great essay's written (ghosted ?) by ten top players of the era detaling pitching technique playig first base ect- some really great content. Now I only paid 30 bucks for this book and I don't have an illusions that it is going to shyrocket in value. But why not? If I wanted to buy a another copy of this book I don't think I could, there are no copies on line at any price, I have never seen it at a show or shop. In contrast if I wanted to buy an old judge I could do it easily, there are probably between 100-200 avaliable at any point on 50 different websites. So i guess the heart of my question is why are cards and the supposed scarcity of the cards so prefered over other types of memrobilia that are much more scarce. I don't thinks its aesthetics becuase people will go crazy over even the most pedestrian looking card if its rare enough, it can't really be memories of opening packs at the connor store becuase none of us have any real connection to a product disributed in the 1890's. If we are drawn to this stuff becuase of the love of the history of the game why does a faded photo or crude woodcut become so much more prized than the words of the players written down in volumes that are truly rare