[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Zeusenbauer

What might be the standard on card altering/conservation in the year 2050? How about 2075? What societal demographic will be leading the way then?

One thing in its history that the sports card hobby/industry has rarely bent over backwards to exhibit is transparency. Just like bad trades are a part of baseball.. An ad in a 1986 SCD offered a 1975 Topps Reggie Jackson NM, $11. No photo. No accountability. So many gaps in knowing what that card might actually look like based on the listing, it borders on absurd. Send a check, spin the wheel.

Now in 2023, many advancements. See what the card looks like before you buy it. Doesn't tell the whole story, but it does help the buyer at least somewhat. However, our hobby swears by 3rd party grading, and the astronomical price structure of high end stuff is completely reinforced by it. Because someone whose qualifications we can't verify slaps a number on our card and offers zero justification for said number, based on a grading scale that is, ahem, unscientifically adhered to, rife with inconsistencies. But if our card hits the number, cha-ching! If we decide to sell. This point is to specifically address the current lack of transparency in our hobby.

In 1983, I got a Beckett Price Guide book and a bye bye to baseball card innocence. 1983 Topps Willie McGee, something like $1.50 (The card shop I took it to to cash in didn't want it.)

All true indeed, lol.

I never once ordered a card that was better than described or often even close by today’s standards. The good cards were sold privately, shops, or at shows…and there was a shop in every city and a show every weekend…which gave ample opportunities. The internet killed the LCS just as easily as video killed the radio star.

Price guides have always been a joke, in the 80s the dealers would sell at a percentage of catalog so you felt like you were getting a deal. They bought at a fraction of catalog. Those prices often were just silly.