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Russ BrightI started collecting in 1987, when I was 8. I bought the 1987 topps cards because i liked the wood borders (lol) collected through 1991 and stopped. started again around 1998. stopped in 2001. Moved away to college and thank GOD noone threw out my cards! i came back last year to 50 thousand plus cards that i hadn't thought about for 4+ years. Definately had become an investment by that point! But also had a desire to start collecting again. Sometimes I buy the new cards for a "hot card" that i can try to sell on ebay and make a little money (quick flip investment) but my eventual goal is to get rid of all of my cards (prune it down to the ones i love for collectible purposes). I have a 1986 topps Sid bream which is the first card I ever bought for a nickel out of a vending machine. It's worth about 5 cents but i will never sell, because it was a start to all of the Madness. I'm working on the T205 set because it IS valuable, but it's a collecting challenge to complete a set without trying to throw a lot of money at the set. ANY set can be completed by throwing thousands of dollars at it. This one i'm trying to trade (aha! never did that before!) and upgrade (really? what's that?) because i'm appreciating the value of collecting versus investing. I collect because i enjoy the cards and I love baseball (even though my team, the Mariners haven't done very well this year!) the investing thing is secondary. If i can make money doing what I love that's a great side effect. I play video games for a living and I used to work in Recording studios (audio engineer). I love all of these things and it becomes more than a job (or a hobby) if it's a passion... the investment value is just a bonus!
R