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J Levine...for his insightful emails to me this afternoon. First he decides to make fun of my occupation (I guess Bruce never went to school and that education he did not get really helped him make his vast fortune). He does not know me but he assumed that I was a teacher because I could do nothing else. I want to make it clear Bruce that I had a double major in college...Literature and Physics. I abandoned both because I realized my true calling was teaching and that I would gain far more enjoyment out of that than becoming an Engineer or Lit. professor. So I changed my majors to Liberal Studies and never looked back. I love teaching and anybody who has ever met me (including people on this board) will vouch for my passion in teaching and baseball cards. People like you are very shortsighted.
Bruce's second email was a half hearted explanation on how he does not like people like me complaining and that everything boils down to winners and losers and that I am a loser. Bruce is correct here. I am a loser. I admit it. I lose far more than I win. ONLY IN COLLECTING TERMS. In life Bruce, I do not know whether you are a winner or a loser but I do know that I AM a winner.
I work hard every week. I spend 10 hours a day in a classroom and usually 2-3 hours at home working on school. Everyday. I work summer school with Special Education students and I tutor. I work my ass off and for you to say that I am a loser is just misguided and sad.
I also want to thank Bruce for setting the record straight on his wealth of knowledge. He makes sure to let me know that he has forgotten more than any other collector. Really. He just does not share it because he, like me, thinks knowledge is power and it gives him an advantage. He is correct there. I agree. I just do not think that knowledge in a vacuum is a good thing. I believe in sharing with friends (hey, maybe he just does not share because we are not his friends...or he has no collecting friends).
The funny thing that Bruce does not understand is that I have met collectors with better collections than Bruce (yes, even more monetary value than Bruce's) and they are some of the nicest people I know. I have actually held several of the cards Bruce purports to own and was allowed to hold them, examine them, and appreciate them by my friends. I know people with one of a kind item or rare items, myself included, that would scan and share if asked.
Hell, a couple of Nationals ago, I met a well-known board member and collector who was showing off a couple of cards to Leon at the time. Both he and Leon were introduced to me for the first time five minutes prior. I was not only able to look at the cards but hold them and just enjoy them for a couple of minutes knowing I would never own them. Now here is the funny thing, I know they would have even let you look at them and hold them, what I suspect though is that you would never let someone like me who you just met hold your cards. I know, I know, I am making an assumption about you again but from past history (never showing a single card you own, rarely helping people on the board with a question, etc.) I can make said assumption with pretty good authority. If I am wrong, great! I hope I am! I doubt I am but I can hope!
The only good things about Bruce's emails is that he said his second would be his (their) last. Thank God...
Bruce, I appreciate your honesty about money and can even understand your viewpoint. But when you come on a public board every few weeks and do nothing but espouse monetary values and add nothing to the "discussion of pre-WW2 cards" then I get annoyed (as I am sure others do). Bruce, I urge you to sit back and take a look at why you have a need, wait, a compulsion, to put down people who are not as wealthy as you are or do not subscribe to your collecting "values." I really think you might be happier if you just enjoyed the cards and not the plastic, money, resale value, etc. Again, I can hope.
Mod dudes...sorry...I am in a mood...but really, I came on here looking to see some updates on Ted's t206 stuff, Rhett sharing his Moonlight Graham find, etc.
Joshua