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Posted By: warshawlaw

Don't mix the two; they are not the same. I think for anyone to have a substantial effect on the vintage card market they have to be able to spend into five figures every year. Those who cannot afford to spend more than a few hundred dollars a year simply do not have the financial muscle to push the prices on vintage cards. They play the "penny stocks": postwar and modern cards. If you want to know who moves those markets, that's the answer. Younger, lower socioeconomic class (think back to who you saw at those tables at the National).

A few thousand collectors spending five figures a year can move the vintage card market substantially. It isn't a huge market in relative terms. Mastro claims $40 million in annual sales and it is the top dog. How much of that is vintage cards? Do you think there are 1000 collectors in the world who collect vintage cards? I am sure that number is way low. Of those vintage card collectors do you think there are 1000 who have the financial leeway to spend $1,000 a month on average? I'd say that million dollar a month figure is low because of the number of really wealthy collectors who can spend five figures or more in one auction. Now factor in the real rarity of so many issues and you have a very limited number of cards sought after by a substantial group of people with strong means to go after them. It is not a case of relatively few $1,000 deals; it is the case that most of these folks can buy whatever they need when it comes to market, which is only a few times a year. Short supply + big demand = high prices. It doesn't matter how "broad" the market is; the supply is so narrow that a relatively small market will readily consume it.