When to know the hobby is DIEing!

[Billwinkle]

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector

There are canaries in the coalmines as it were to show me when prices are really falling

one example would be to see any 1952 Topps PSA 8 card sell for less than $100.00 on ebay auction.....if you see that..post it

any other types of things?

I guess you would need to define what the "hobby" is first of all. There are definitely two camps on this matter. The monetary camp and the nostalgia camp.

If you are talking about the value or perceived value of your collection you would be sitting around the fire at the monetary camp. In my humble opinion this camp worries far to much about money to really enjoy the "hobby". I believe that the monetary camp suffers from a form of malaise that can only be cured when you "score or make a monetary killing" That in itself leads me to believe the "hobby" in general is sick but not dead. I can go on to explain my beliefs for several reasons. I will go into that later if anyone would like to debate that

Now over on nostalgia camp the s'mores are being passed around, the fire is crackling and the beers are sliding down just fine. As the population in general ages (yep I'm an old guy) the hobby is thriving. We baby boomers are getting back into the hobby because we all would like to have a piece of our childhood, we enjoy speaking about little known players that we watched a s a kid, or we have had a lifelong interest in whatever sport floats your boat (hockey then baseball for me). We also have some spare pocket change and the wisdom to spend it on items that we like within reason. We buy sell or trade with a different goal in mind. For me it is to complete sets I started as a kid, to rekindle the memories of Tim Horton and the powerful player he was, to remember Bobby Orr as one of the greatest. On the baseball side I enjoy listening to my brother talk about the greats he grew up watching or listening to, Bob Feller Willie Mays, Enos Slaughter, Berra and the Mick, Jackie Robinson as well as all the lesser known players. He sat around the radio and listen to anything baseball for decades, we were poor and didn't have a tv until the late 60's. Baseball for me was all about the the Pirates and the start of the Jays who I now follow intently. Yep I am a Canadian.

So in closing it depends on which camp you are going to this summer or winter. As we all know not all camps are the same!!!!!