[Fred]

I bet T206 was the gateway card/drug that pushed a lot of people to get hooked on vintage.

One way to look at the crazy price valuations is to compare minimum wage to the price of a Cobb T206. I think minimum wage was about $2 and change at the end of the 70s. A VG T206 Cobb was probably $25 (thereabout, possibly a little less) around that time. Let's call minimum wage about $15/hour today and then look at the price of a F-G Cobb in today's market.

I can't imagine trying to start a collection on a tight budget with today's card valuations. It's sad because unless you have a good amount of resources, then trying to collect sets today is near impossible. Niche collecting is about the only way to go with limited resources. In my opinion, that just makes it less enticing to want to enter the hobby. If you're a kid and want to start collecting then having a parent that collected when they were younger certainly helps, otherwise the collection will be a lot less than it was for a bunch of us older geezers that started when we were kids.