Enjoy/understand the history of the game, the times, and the players.
If you don't understand who you are buying and the times in which they played, then cardboard is only an over priced commodity. The real fun comes from knowing about the guys, both on and off the feild and what was going on in the surroundings of the game.
Spoken like a true Ex History Major! When other folks see the things I buy and sell, all think is "you paid how much for that little piece of cardboard". Once you get the history of the players and the times, it makes the expense not really matter, as long as it is diposable income.
If you don't understand the history, then Walter Johnson (or one of the thousands of others that we collect) was just another guy that died a long time ago that liked to train dogs when he wasn't playing a game that most folks don't love or understand.
I have some pie charts and a couple graphs that the wife put together to try to pull me away from what I enjoy, if I need to share, let me know. I stopped golfing, gambling (sort of), and something else that needs not be mentioned here to justify the expense!
Case and point: I spent way to much loot today on a Cobb card. The wife says "who is Ty Cobb anyway". I says other than being played by Tommy Lee Jones is a pretty solid movie (relate to their knowledge), we live in Cobb County and you drink Coke every day, which he helped support in the early days.
This is just one man's opinion, and that man is,
Bob
upperhandisforemost@yahoo.com