[hcv123]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I agree with what you say, Steve, and I would add that while the purchasers of these modern sportscards try and present themselves as investors and their six digit prospect cards and break slots as shrewd investments, it's much less "Gordon Gekko" or "Goldman Sachs" and much more like degenerate gambling for greedy adrenaline junkies. The card is no different to them than a slip from a sports book or a hand in a poker game. They hold and wait for some morsel of hype that will induce the next guy to pay more, hoping at the next hype nugget, he can find the next man to pay more. And this game continues, as Dennis Reynolds said in one great episode of Sunny in Philly, "until it just, sort of, ends."

On its face, the notion that the card of someone who never has taken a swing in the majors costs more than the cards of icons of the game, it is sheer lunacy-- it is the economics of this high stakes gambling game the participants play, the agreed-upon ante amongst them, that results in these sky high prices for these cards. Because it surely has zero to do with achievement on the field or even potential at these numbers, relative to what cards of the true greats cost.

This!