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Posted By: Mark

When I returned to the hobby 5 years ago, the single biggest change I noticed was that there was a single buy/sell price for cards. 15-20 years ago, many price guides had both (i) a "buy" (a.k.a. "wholesale") price and (ii) a "sell" (a.k.a. "retail" price), much like the Kelley Blue Book. The "buy" price (i.e., the price at which a dealer would buy back your cards) was approximately half the sell price (i.e., the price at which the dealer had sold the card to you). Sure, you could buy a 1952 Mantle from a dealer, but unless the price of the card doubled (which wasn't expected in an era obsessed with modern material), you were going to lose money for the privilege of ownership. Part of what really hooked me when I returned to collecting, was the eliminination of the wholesale-retail price gap (largely brought on by the advent of eBay and the reduction in mom and pop stores and local shows) - today I can buy a card with the expectation that I will recoup close to 100% of my money and that makes it much, much more appealing to buy expensive cards.