Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss
Can someone please define this term for me and explain how it applies to comments made on the prewar section of Net54?
I understand the term in the context of a guy getting on social media and talking up a card or player to tens of thousands of people so that prices rise and the guy/pumper can acquire and then sell their cards for much more than they paid.
But how does that apply here, where most of what we buy/collect is quite rare and doesn’t sell too often, where prices on these items do not and cannot move at nearly the same speed as more common cards/players, where the viewership on this website is relatively small, and when most of us are not buying cards to sell/flip in the near future?
Perhaps I am taking this personally, but I feel the term (especially as used quite often by one poster in particular) is aimed at anyone who views cards as viable investments, having a true asset value, rather than just cardboard to be collected. Or more properly, its aimed at anyone who openly talks about changes in the "marketplace" and the rising and falling values of cards; god forbid they make an encouraging comment about the future value of a card. Doing that is no different from anyone who sits around with friends and discusses the impact of the economy, or interest rates, or geopolitical issues on the values of their real estate or stock portfolio.
So, because I get annoyed each and every time I see the word "pumper" regularly used in posts on the prewar section of net54, can I get some feedback on how that can apply here and to what type of posts/posters that term is directed?
And BTW -- if I am considered a pumper because I actively invest in cards and I talk about that openly here, then I am proud to be a pumper, although I believe totally mislabeled as one.
Also BTW -- I am not trying to pick a fight, but rather, I am genuinely interested to understand the profile of a "pumper" on the prewar section of Net54, because that term gets a lot of run and I think it should be publicly defined so everyone knows whats intended when its used.
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I'm not 100% sure who the "one poster in particular" is that has drawn ire for using the term, as several of us just, including me, used it or cosigned a post using it in the recent thread. The word means the same as it does and always has in any other environment; I have not seen anyone ever use a special definition for Net54.
A pumper is a person who attempts to pump the market of certain items. Pumping the market is generally done by communicating and promoting actions in a way designed to create an inflated run on certain items or a segment of items that is to the fiscal benefit of the pumper. It usually but not necessarily implies some dishonesty, which is where the problem starts.
The desire to reduce or increase a market is not inherently wrong. Nor is taking reasonable actions to achieve objectives to ones benefit. It enters the area of wrong if those actions, whether to inflate (i.e. good for investors) or reduce (i.e. good for collectors) are done dishonestly or are not reasonably responsible. For example, people holding high end vintage and encouraging other people to sell off their 401K's, take the massive withdrawal fees, and put their retirement savings all into the same cards they want to go up for their own benefit. Or the followup thread where some then encouraged people to also take out loans from the bank if they didn't have cash to buy high end vintage cards, while the market was already skyrocketing beyond what one can reasonably expect to be supportable in the long run. Or the SGC 9.5 Mantle thread where one poster, bragging about the extreme high price they had just paid for a low grade Mantle, got very upset at actual facts being posted publicly, like the large stain not he card and the fact that it is not actually a rookie card. There are three thread examples wherein such behavior occurred.
A non-problematic example of the same root sentiment is often found in modern - where investors in a player or prospect talk up that player and his cards potential gains in a Discord, but do so while acknowledging it is high risk and it may not pan out, but they believe that it will and have bought in themselves and think others should consider also spending some of their side money. It is honest, as long as they actually do believe the card will keep increasing and the player is a genuine prospect, and transparent with disclosure without encouraging people to do grossly irresponsible things like go into debt and sell out their retirement to buy the kinds of cards the person encouraging it has and wants to go up. This is pretty much what happened with Trout, Acuna bat downs, etc. among plenty of others that did not work out.
The reverse would be equally wrong. As a collector not investor, it is in my interest to protect the values of certain cards in the opposite direction - to discourage buying and reduce market prices. If I posted that the cards on my want list are really common and not as rare as they seem at first, or I mixed into my research claims or misleading information or falsified documents to suggest false or misleading things about the cards to discourage others from seeking them, that would be equally wrong.