Fashion always comes back around. Probably see those worn in high school in a few years lol.

The disdain toward new collectors and "shiny cards" is a little nauseating. It comes across very much like "get off my lawn!" Things are different, they're not worse.

And I do have to laugh at people who claim they don't care about value in their cards. That's just not true. If you truly don't care, will you pay $200 for 1989 Fleer commons that you want? No? Then you do care. It's OK, go ahead and own the fact that you care.

I suppose at 42 I am the "new breed". My dad was the son of a WW II vet, who at 17/18 went through South Africa in to Italy. He loved baseball cards, and so did we! Late 80's early 90's pay day meant boxes to open, and a lot of chores to do! My other grandpa was great at the numerical order of them, said it was no different than organizing his checks at his law firm, so all we had to do was unwrap and look for the gold mines (that never appeared).

Yes my dad did kick himself in the butt for all the Mickey Mantles that went in to the tires on his bikes as kids, but we always had fun going to auctions looking for a diamond in the rough, wherever they were in Indiana. By the way, I made sure to never wear a hat inside or even think about having my shoes on if I laid on a couch.

I got in to the T206's a couple years ago, reading 8 Men Out, and discovering "Sleepy" Bill Burns T206 on Wikipedia, and realizing there is more than just Honus out there. Slab or no slab, I love to build sub-sets, and then sell them for a loss normally. It is a hobby I can't do without. I am constantly learning with this. I used to work on a wide variety of Heidelberg printing presses, so looking at the cards, and issues the printers of those days were dealing with make my imagination go as well. At one point in life I could say I was the youngest person in North America running the largest sheet fed Heidelberg (11-color). I love the miscutting/centering issues as well. Brings back memories of my days in the print shop on the east side of Indianapolis. Dirty work!

I have all my wants in life, 4 cats, a nice coupe( like the Beach Boys sing about), an awesome town home by the Rockies, and a beautiful Blonde/Blue Eyes California Girl who I love to spoil. Doing it all for my baby now, and God Bless her. She is the true example of JFK's great phrase, and she gave more to this country and hasn't asked for anything back (Marine Small Arms & Army MP during the Bosnian affair). She is the definition of brave. I used to be a decent bodybuilder in the midwest, but those days are long gone. Now it is about US manufacturing and contributing my small portion to job creation & the GDP.

T206, whether competing for a card(losing more than winning) or finding what I think is a gem is super fun. To me, this is the ultimate hobby. I tried comic books (way different breed of collectors) but love the guys I meet doing this way more! I will keep on truckin, and raw or graded keep having fun. Sorry for the rant, but you all wanted to hear from a new breed of collector, and here you have it, still learning as I go!!

I wouldn't pay $200 because I can get them for 1 cent and they are available everywhere. It would simply be stupid to pay $200. That doesn't mean one cares if their $200 card becomes worth 1 cent; it means they aren't a complete idiot. I've often far overpaid for what a card would go for at auction or what I could ever hope to resell it for, but if that's what it takes to get a card I need, there is not a cheaper method of acquiring it at present, and that money is in my disposable funds budget, then I do it.

I know I'm in a tiny minority, but I hope the market crashes and my collection loses all it's value. I'm not selling my collection, so it's value is rather meaningless. I want to get more of the cards I'm looking for, because I like set building as my hobby and break from the real world, and it would be much more cost effective to me if the values crashed.

Not caring about value is not a morally superior or better way of doing cards, no method is. Investors, collectors, in-betweenners may do whatever they wish, but some simply are not here for the fiscal side. That isn't superior, but it is an extant method.

"they're everywhere"

"it would be stupid to pay $200"

In other words, you're aware of, and care about, value. You proved my point.

Why would anyone pay $200 for something that's easily obtained for fifty cents?

They wouldn't, of course.

I see this differently, I guess. Declining to pay $200 for an '89 Fleer common, to me, shows an awareness of and care for the value of ones own money.

The monetary value of the card is basically zero, so there would be no reason to try and obtain the card in the first place if one is focused on the card's financial value. My 2 cents.

OK, let's put it another way - would any collector trade a high-value card they don't need for their collection for a low-value card they DO need?

I think, while surely statistically abnormal, it's possible, depending on the details and circumstances.

I wonder if another way to get at this might be: would one purchase a card with the caveat that they would never be able to sell it? Say, upon their death it would be donated to a museum. Would it be fair to describe such a collector as truly not caring about monetary value?

:D

Grrrrrr....

$200 for a 1989 Donruss common? No, I'd not pay that, but that doesn't mean I care about the value of a 1989 Donruss common. I don't want a 1989 Donruss common. I'd not give you two dollars for the entire 1989 Donruss set, with free shipping. I don't want to clutter up my house with a box of 1989 Donruss cards.

Right now I'd like to find an E102 of Sherry Magee. I'd overpay for one that's about VG-EX ungraded. I'd pay more than it's worth. That card is a hole in my little set of those. (I lack Cobb, and it's unlikely I get one). But I don't want a mint graded Magee. I'm also after a W572 of Ruth, not graded, and about VG-EX. I have about 60% of those little rascals, and I've grown to like that odd set.

I've paid about 50% more than what I thought some T206 commons are worth, because I wanted the card, I could live with paying too much $70 -$75, for a card that's at best about good.

The player, what he'd done, aspects about the issue, some tie to history, a story that goes with the card... those aspects give a value to the card to me, not the catalog value or the grading cost for a slab. If that weren't so, I would buy a 1989 Donruss set for $2 and then turn around and sell it for $15 (if they sell for that).

I remember when as a boy about 8 years old
 

I would go shopping in Rochester, Michigan of a Saturday night with my parents. I would stare longingly at the colorful boxes of Wheaties with baseball players and beg my mother to buy the Charlie Gehringer. No, we always got the cheaper Kelloggs corn flakes.
I was a child of the Great Depression, and by that I mean that my mother made my clothing on her sewing machine. As a younger boy in Danville, Indiana (also Sam Thompson's home town) my father shot rabbits for the table, and I mean hundreds of rabbits. My mother tanned some of the hides and made me a jacket.
I think my collecting has been adversely affected by my childhood, but from time to time I pull myself together and dig deep in to the pockets for say --Charlie Gehringer's 1935 World Series Ring, a Harry Wright scorebook or a Tomlinson Imperial Cabinet Detroit Team Picture.

Not that small. I enjoyed your response a great deal, as well!

I'm smack dab in the middle of Gen X and inherited (as many of us mid-70s collectors did) the Boomer perspective on collecting. My parents were part of the Silent Generation and didn't collect much, as their parents had grown up or spent their early careers in the Great Depression.

For one, I love the new breed of collectors' interest in and attitude towards the hobby. Maybe I bridge the gap a bit, but having worked at hedge funds early in my career, I can appreciate their transactional and/or statistical take on the hobby, even if I tend to focus on the idols of my youth and the obscure rookie cards that may never hit the mainstream (just a quirk of my personality).

Cheers!

When I was a kid, I got a Cobb for $75 from mowing the grass. Today's generation must get $1,000,000 for mowing the grass to buy a Lucas Doncic.

561. Wear is Over (If You Want it)
Since modern day pack rippers completely ignore everything but the ‘money’ cards, which are immediately put into protective toploaders or albums before quickly being sent off to be graded, there will never again be stacks of cards showing the traditional wear and tear from kids excitedly, repeatedly handling them.

See also: Packslabbing - removing new cards from packs and immediately getting them ready to be sent off for grading.

If you phrase it that way, there are probably many collectors who would fit that description. The mindset being, "well, heck, I'm not around anymore, so sure, go ahead and done it".

I would pay $200 for a 1989 Fleer common, if it's resell value was $0, I collected 1989 Fleer, and I could not readily buy it for one penny.

There's not caring about value, in that I do not care (actually I do care, I actively wish for it to happen) if my collection becomes worth $0 and I 'lose' (I've already budgeted it as a 100% loss) all the money I've put into it. Being a complete idiot and buying something from seller A for $200 when seller B has it available for a penny is a separate thing from caring about the value of my collection. That's being a complete idiot, because it is easily available for less basically free.

I want my collection to lose value. I want it to become worth nothing. Then my $200 could buy me more cards that I derive personal enjoyment from collecting. I don't care about the monetary value, cards are where my beer money goes. I'm not selling, so my collection's value is meaningless to me.

And yes, I have done trades where I have lost a lot of monetary value. If I can swap $$$ cards for cards that I would enjoy more and are not readily available for less, I'll do it. I've swapped much more expensive baseball cards for tougher boxing cards that don't come to market much but are worth little.

It's a hobby for me. My approach is no better than anyone else's, nor have I ever stated or insinuated it is. In fact, in measurable ways, my method is worse than other peoples; I'm sure to take a 100% loss on every purchase. But it quite obviously does exist as an approach, I find it weird people are saying that what I am doing simply does not exist at all as an approach. It quite evidently does.

Ok

Please don't become a financial planner.
.

Ever spent money on a vacation? Ever gone out for drinks? Bought a non-collectible book? I'm sure some people do not spend any money on things that are just for fun, money that they will not get back out of what they spent on that fun, but there are not many of them.

One can spend a little money on the things they enjoy sometimes without being financially irresponsible. Far, far more of my income goes into savings and investment than it does into hobbies. It's okay to enjoy life a little bit along the way; not everything is an investment.

I understand most of you here are investing via cards, and that's awesome. More power to you. Enjoy it. I've never once criticized anyone for taking this approach.

Actually, I was just joking around. I do go on vacations.
As long as you are having fun, in whatever way you are collecting, then it's all good.
I do other things for entertainment too. I have lots of dogs and they are entertaining. I am sure I spend way too much on them.

Well said. BTW, you might want to check out OBC at www.oldbaseball.com

Totally agree. However, if on vacation with the family, it is best not to stop and and investigate any card shops or local shows that are in the area. I know from experience that the distaff side tends to go into a frenzy if you should suggest such a thing.

In a way, aren’t NFT’s kind of that? The thrill of acquisition (and hopefully selling) without the pesky need to actually own/hold anything?