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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Are you measuring the value in dollars???


I kinda like to think of the history of the little pieces of paper. I like a Johnson T206 with a pin-hole... did a kid see Johnson pitch?? Did his cigarette smoking uncle take him to the game and buy him that card?? The value is more than what a catalog, or eBay, or a registry indicates.

I enjoy holding a card in my hand that is contemporary with when a player played... so I'm slightly annoyed that my only Connie Mack card is an E96, after his playing days. The value isn't "what I could sell it for", it is the enjoyment I get from possession, from sharing it with others on occasion, from the sense of history... I can look at the Mack card, and a T206 of Mr. McGraw, and I imagine this big long complicated family tree of managerial skill and style. Frisch played for McGraw. Durocher played for Frisch. Westrum played for Durocher. It isn't accidental, this baseball knowledge and skill.

So quantify the value in dollars if you must. I wouldn't sell my M116 Tillie Shafer card for ten times book value. Wasn't he fine bench help for Mr. McGraw in 1912!

As for plastic, it is not a tomb. These guys in plastic are not dead. A few years ago I added a hack saw to my collecting tools. I try to not buy cards in plastic prisons, but occasionally I do. And I carefully consider each little guy's charges, deem them wrongfully convicted, then free them from their prison. Screw the population counts! Free the innocent!

Frank.