So you have $1.3 million burning a hole in your pocket
 

Which do you go for:

probably oceanfront property

Either one works for me Sir, but yah, ocean front property..

Real estate is the easy choice for me

Gone fishin'
 

A place where I can pull rainbow trout in from my deck...

Anyone who chooses a card over real estate is either already swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck or an idiot.

The neighbor from Office Space had an interesting take on what he would do if he came into some money.

I would put it all in cards of
Babe Ruth
Walter Johnson
Ty Cobb
Cy young
Christy Mathewson
Satchel Paige
Maybe a couple Mickey mantles
All in 1-3 grades

could not get you a studio apartment in nyc,,,,

For me, that amount “burning a hole in my pocket” means I’m 100% out of debt, retirement is loaded and rock solid, and my spouse and kids are set up in case something happens to me. Assuming all of those boxes are checked, I probably already own most anything I could ever want. All that said, if I’m going to spend that much on the hobby, I’m flying all of my hobby friends to a lodge in Montana, loading up on Van Pappy, and buying some rad wax to rip with my buddies. That experience and those memories, to me, sound way more fun than buying a card and shoving it in a box.

with a lot of beach or other land in front of it!

I was a buyer on the Doyle for a decent amount less than $1.3mm. I think it is an amazing card and the spike piece to the t206 set, the greatest set of all time. But I recently sold my Doyle, meaning I would rather have the cash I got than the card. I will reinvest some of the proceeds back into cardboard. I also like have dry powder for other things, including real estate deals that I put together. So, I have literally chosen real estate over a Doyle. I voted real estate

I'm not sure what kind of oceanfront property you can buy for $1.3 million--nothing in SoCal. That said, I wouldn't pay $1.3 million for a non-HOFer, no matter how scarce the card was. That just demonstrates the idiocy of set collecting. If there was an equally rare Doyle in a less popular set it would sell for maybe a thousand.

I actually think the Doyle is a better buy, given its rarity and the amount of well-healed buyers of T206s. Prime real eatate has gone even more nuts than vintage cards. I think the Doyle has a lot of room to appreciate (i did NOT buy this one or own one).

That said, for all of the three items, the only one for which the price isnt a lot of money is real estate. You cant buy high end real estate for $1.3mm. If yiu are one of the 50-80 people who own a wagner and want to complete the T206 set, there aer a lot fewer Doyle’s. But Doyle doesnt attract nearly as many people who want to just own an iconic card. Interesting poll.

Who do you guys think is paying for Doyle? Personally, my guess is a longtime (see old) T206 collector, and maybe only a small handful of other people like him as competition.

What about 20 years from now when these collectors are replaced? Does the Doyle still command attention to the tune of over a million dollars? I would guess no.

Index fund and retire. If I had unlimited money I still could not spend a million dollars on a cardboard picture of a dude, it's too much of a waste. I'd give the $1.3 to a friend so they could retire also, give it to a cause I like, you could do so much good rather than have a single baseball card.

Or flip it while it's still not underwater...

i feel similarly...and who wants to live in socal anyway!!!!

It would buy a nice lake house in my area and I think there's still room for appreciation on some properties. In the meantime, I would sun my fat belly and drink Natty Lights on the deck.

If I HAD to choose between the card and the bat . . . . the Babe gamer bat every time. Every single time.

Outside of this board, I never heard Joe Doyle's name in my life.

$1.3M is a lot of bread. The funny/not funny thing is that there are probably a good number of us whose collections today would equal or exceed this amount. Or if not to this level, they would be a decent fraction of this total. So the thought exercise isn’t as silly as it might seem at first blush. Because even if you want to take a zero off the total, at $130K, it’s still a lot of value to have tied up in a collection.

So by holding onto our collections, we’re saying something about our priorities and financial willingness to hold onto the collection rather than trade it in for something else that we could get with all that sweet, sweet cash.

Of course, part of the fun in this exercise is the fact that you’re buying a single piece with all that cash. There’s something about the size of that stack of cash that makes it extra ludicrous to plow it into a single piece. But is it really all that different to have a similar level of value spread across 10,000 items? Certainly there’s room to debate it, although my guess is that while it isn’t as shocking to the senses to buy 10,000 pieces at $130 apiece especially if you are picking them up over 50 years. My guess is that most of us would view that as perfectly fine, particularly if it didn’t really feel like a financial burden to get there. But suddenly if you’re spending $1.3M to buy just one piece, that’s a bridge too far.

Food for thought!!

I went with real estate. You can get a decent trailer house(modular home) in a 55+ community on the Oregon coast for that.

Joe Doyle:confused: never heard of him.

The Ruth bat would be amazing but I don't collect Ruth. I have a few Wade Boggs bats I wouldn't trade for a Ruth gamer.

My choices are made from the perspective of it is to keep and not for resale later.

I am not a wealthy man but I own a very modest home and a small office building in a town of less than 1,000 people where I grew up, lived and worked as self employed for decades.. and I own a 25 year old truck...I have no debt and have savings from my 40 years of hard work...I could get a nicer home, quit my self employed job and get a new truck but I choose not to because I am satisfied with what I have...I have been collecting for 50+ years and have been fortunate enough to accumulate a nice collection...to each his own but I don't want more real estate that brings more tax bills, utility bills, maintenance bills, insurance bills, things to tend to etc. If I had 1.3 million dollars burning a hole in my pocket I would see that my family and close friends have what they need and what is left over I would splurge on baseball stuff that I like...and I like all sorts of oddball stuff...it would be spread out to acquire lots and lots of stuff...especially stuff that makes a nice display with a story attached...I can be satisfied with cheap stuff to 4 figure stuff as I have never paid more than several thousand dollars for an item including my Hoblitzell no stats to complete my T205 set many years ago ...I can honestly say without hesitation that even having unlimited Bill Gates money would not tempt me to spend 7 figures on one item



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Almost certainly there are several equally rare Doyles in less popular sets. And I'm sure you're right about the price.

Same - and about to divest of some of my nicer e92's for some real estate. though my RE is digital - BITCOIN! my 2019-2023 BTC will finance my next round of collecting. I really need to add a Ruth and Mantle to my collection but don't see that happening until around 2026 when this next crypto bull run is coming to an end.

Now back to OP. That photo-matched bat is something else!!! loved seeing that in the REA auction!

Summer cabin in Colorado to escape the Texas heat.

I can’t physically live on a baseball card or bat….

Taco Bell

Ocean from property in Arizona, I hear it's going places..... snort.

Real Estate for sure, my wife would kill me and sell the card in an instant.

So if I want to live a little longer......

Butch

they are all able to be bought and flipped for a profit.

I would buy the real estate(depending on the type it is ) and then flip it for a profit to buy the Bat. Not a fan of the Doyle so would really only go for the Ruth Bat or the Real Estate. Ideally I would buy the real estate enjoy for a time and then flip for the Ruth Bat

This reminds me of me.

How many fake Doyles have got past the grading services, I wonder.

I can live in real estate, I cannot live in cards or a bat. Frankly the real estate would solve my biggest problem at the moment. So I choose the final choice.

Depends. Assume you have a primary residence. Would you be looking to upgrade your primary residence ? Do you have or want a 2nd vacation home ? Or how about buying a rental ?

Also depends on your age. How close to retirement are you ? If close to retirement, would you be looking to sell your current primary residence ? If you are younger, a long-term rental would make sense if your goal is investment.

Also depends on your family. Are you married, have kids, if so how many ? How much would they appreciate a vacation home ?

And not all real estate would cost 1.3 million. What about location. Would you be looking for a cabin in the mountains? A house on a Lake or River (fishing?). A house near the beach? A rental in your basic town may not be glamorous, but would be convenient.

If it were to be a second vacation home, would you actually spend decent amount of time there, or just an odd long weekend occasionally.

Like someone already said, be careful of the extra costs - property taxes, outfitting the house, repairs & maintenance.

If you just want easy street and not the hassles and extra expenses of a second home, then look at your desired cards.

If it were me, I would consider a second home in Maupin (with central a/c & heat) with a view of the Deschutes River. I love fishing and fly fishing in particular, and Maupin is close enough to get to nice higher elevation lakes out of Bend, OR. If money left over, be looking at a really nice Ruth card.

At least 1 did.

You can rip packs anywhere...

..oh not that kind of rainbow Trout.

I thought there was a PSA 6 or something where it was discovered to be fake but the owner declined to sell it back to them?

Hopefully they at least updated the database to invalidate that cert.

I never understand the argument that collectors of these vintage sets will dry up in the future. The set in question is already 114 years old. Why will it suddenly lack interest when it’s 134 years old?

That said, I’m not a set builder, and I don’t buy non-HoFers, so Doyle never interested me. I would have voted real estate, but if I’m being honest, I divested some big cards last year to buy cars and a boat. Far worse investments than cards or real estate. 😂 But the new acquisitions are a ton of fun and were worth parting with a few cards sitting in a bank vault.

A nice place on the Green Bay side of Door County, all day long everyday vs. the other two options. If I had to choose between the Doyle and the Ruth bat. The Ruth bat hands down, no question.

Bill

Sam!! Good to see your post. Miss you. Post more often. Hope all is well

Doyle and Ruth bat have no appeal to me. Assuming I'm squared away and can spend 1.3 on cardboard I would choose to spend it on a 1914 Texas Tommy Joe Jackson.

WIth you on the Doyle and the bat. I don't know which card or cards, but for me it would absolutely be Ruth.

I've often thought about this too, where are the 25-35 year old T206 collectors right now? Are they still churning modern but will soon discover the beauty of T206? Why aren't they here learning about the set from the incredible knowledge base on Net54? When every 60+ collector is dead what will the landscape look like? Nobody really knows. Will the corporate shills keep pumping T206 to young collectors for profit?, unfortunately I think this will be the case. Will prices come down on the cards we cherish? Only if there's more sellers than buyers, and that can happen in any collecting cycle. Until then it's still a pretty fantastic ride.

They’re on Discord buying cards of guys they watch. Most of them think T206 and the old stuff is cool, but it’s 1) too expensive for most new collector budgets and 2) there’s no hit factor that drives much of their joy. The old stuff is appreciated when shown but they definitely aren’t rushing out to buy them. Net54 presumably skews a little bit older than the actual prewar collector base because forums are rather outdated in general these days.

There’s enough interest to show the values aren’t going to hit zero or anything but I seriously question the logic of this board that the values will inexorably rise forever and we should drain our 401K’s and take out loans to pump vintage cards. I’m not sure the 50-70’s year olds that dominate prewar are going to have an audience to cash in on forever.

Olbermann bought a fake that SGC had slabbed (10 or 20 or something low like that). I don’t know about a PSA 6 fake.

First off - great question. I hadn’t made the comparison.

I vote the bat - I get the rarity of the Doyle, but the bat is a piece of the game, better than the cardboard.

Valid points, as a collector I don't really care if I pay 5k for a card and my kids sell it for 2500 after I'm dead. It's my collection and I build it for enjoyment, I care about the OG knowledge I get from this board, it's invaluable and will be lost imo at some point so I enjoy the ride. I also doubt anybody here is cashing out their 401k to buy cards, that would be a gambling addiction and while we all make sacrifices for our collections most folks draw a healthy line when it comes to that. It's a 401k meme at this point.

As a collector, values hitting zero, while not realistic, would be great in a lot of ways. A reset back to older prices is more attractive than values rising. I don’t doubt values will generally tick up for a few years but there comes the time when this current crop of mostly 50-70 year olds with the material sells off and I’m not sure there’s enough of us to absorb the glut of material that will appear. It’s hard to find a T card collector within 15 years of my age.

The 401K is a meme now from those of us who knew it was stupid at the time, but it was made very seriously and a number of posters here were supportive. Though nobody took up the challenge to post a screencap of them emptying their retirement account for some reason…

I think you can take a loan from your 401k and pay it back in 5 years with no tax or penalties. I’ll have to double check to be sure