[Snapolit1]

In my mind modern is an awful long term investment. The simple fact is the virtually all of the modern collecting game is based on hype. The players that take off are usually players of unknown potential. Zion Williamson. Jasson Dominguez. A buzz builds about this special amazing talent and the hype machine goes nuts. I've watched the breaking world pretty carefully the last two years or so. Names that people were salivating over even a year ago are now off the radar screen altogether. And sometimes the "off the radar screen" guy is a solid player. Luis Robert. Gavin Lux. But 2-3 years ago they were unproven and now we know what they are. They were more in demand unproven. Damm good players. But they are not the second coming of Mikey Mantle.

The bigger issue is there is no extraordinary mystery or mystique around players anymore today. Times have changed. Who are the biggest 2 names in the hobby. Mantle and Ruth. They are iconic. None one on this board (I assume) saw Ruth. Many board members saw Mantle but he was an enigma. It was a different world. He was a blank slate that people projected their hopes and dreams on. That's why even today a fairly mundane (some times perfectly obnoxious) guy in a lot of ways keeps his mystique.
You didn't know him like we "know" players today. Look at some of the stars of more recent timers. Aaron Rodgers. Matt Harvey. Curt Schilling. Dwight Gooden. We know them warts and all and they are actual, complicated human beings. Sure Ty Cobb and Babe were complicated people, but we've only read about them. Even my man Lou Gehrig is painted in such broad strokes that you don't really know him as a person. Same with actors. James Dean is a great example. Still to this day an enigma. People didn't know him like we know actors today. A different world. Many many actors today far better than James Dean, but they are real flesh and blood people and don't seem so special.

I have zero doubt that the super high end of the modern card collecting world is heavily manipulated by a small cabal of people, but that's a different discussion.