[Fballguy]

Cards will always hold a warm and nostalgic place in my heart, but I don't collect them any more. As a kid in the 70s the only saving grace to summer ending and the school year approaching was the incoming football season and along with it the next set of Topps football cards. Starting in early August, I would make a daily trek to the Woolworth's candy aisle hoping they magically appeared over night. Then when they did, I would clean out as many packs as my $5 allowance would allow. This was an annual ritual for me from about 1976-1982 and I continued to collect cards...off an on...into my late 30s.

Things began to change when boxes started to cost hundreds of dollars and I was throwing out everthing but the hits. Base cards were pointless and overall, the quality of the cards was not there. Even if I pulled a nice autograph, there was a good chance a corner would be dinged or edges would be chipped. It felt like wasting money on lottery tickets and after wasting way too much money, I lost interest and never looked back.

Even now, in a moment of nostalgia, I'll scroll ebay looking at cards from my favorite sets of the 60s and 70s and the sheer number of illegal and ever improving reproductions is enough to bring me back to my senses. Not to mention all of the drama of trimming, washing, coloring and whatever else people do to cards to get an edge in the market.

Lastly, the sheer volume. Is any post war card really rare? Even the most desired cards seem to have thousands available. Why would I pay a mint for something that exists in the thousands?

So for me...It's definitely memorabilia. The nostalgia is there. The craftsmanship is there. The uniqueness is there. The art work, rarity, beauty and, of course, value. For whatever reason, memorabilia (except at the very highest end of the spectrum) is extremely underpriced and thus to me presents a nice investment opportunity. I track every purchase I make and I'm extremely confident that I'll get at least a 50% return on investement when it comes time to sell. That would be hard to duplicate elsewhere with as little risk as I feel I have with my collection...and definitely a lot less fun.