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Posted By: warshawlaw

The estimate of how many people can afford five-figure cards is wrong. Let's not confuse able to purchase with willing to purchase. I'd hazard a guess that most of the frequent posters here spend into five figures a year on cards and could buy a $20,000 card but that many of them may not want to.

With regard to the good old days, how many here went to the 1991 National? I think that has to be defined as the mother of all shiny crapfests. For those of you who weren't there, you got into a gigantic line that snaked around the entire convention center, waited 3-4 hours to get inside, then (if you cared) got into another line that snaked through the entire hall to fill up your goodie bag with shiny crap that you could turn over immediately for anywhere up to $200. People were going in, getting the bag, selling it, then getting back in line to be readmitted to get another bag. The dealers were going nuts because of the inside line; no one could get to a lot of the tables. On the next day they bundled the promo crap to hand out at the door but it was still a nightmare. The whole hobby back then was upside down. You could not sell vintage cards but you could not keep 100-count stacks of rookies on your table. And the money the shiny-crap-sellers were making was unreal. I set up at a show with vintage stuff next to a guy with thousands of modern rookies. I barely sold anything; he was selling Ken Griffey Jr. rookies he'd bought a few years ago for a few bucks each at five bucks under Beckett and making an absolute killing, I mean thousands of dollars. We got to talking, he started bragging about all of the money he'd made (all cash, as he emphasized, so no taxes), and then he asked me what I did. I said I was a lawyer, he asked who with and I told him I was with the IRS enforcement division and we'd be in touch. One of my best practical jokes; I actually saw a man turn ash white then green.

Given how nuts the hobby was over new junk, I am not surprised that a vintage accumulator like Copeland would have felt unloved and perhaps have lost interest at that point. No Mastro books on his collection...