With apologies to George Phair...
How dear to my heart is the old-fashioned collector,
Who wrote to fellow collectors to see what they had.
They do not resemble today's collector/investor who puts cards
In plastic and never touches a card.
The new breed of collectors worship the slab, not the card.
Would letting go of pop reports and slabs be so hard?
The old fashioned collectors knew the players, their stories, and life,
They did not consider the cards as investments in such.
And those are the reasons I hanker and long for,
The old fashioned collector who would mentor the novices,
Who loved and knew the history of the game,
Who thought of a card as an historical connection to a player.
Who was George Phair, the fellow that wrote two of my favorite poems.
Where did I encounter his poetry, by reading The Glory Of Their Times.
What is The Glory Of Their Times, just about the best baseball book ever.
The new collectors are good for the old collectors who are selling their collections. And that's about the end of the 'good'. A fellow can invest in a stock, and depending on the stock he can maybe collect dividends while owning the stock. A ball card doesn't pay dividends. It might appreciate in value... but it isn't ever going to pay dividends.
Anyone ever lose a ball card, misplace one, have one stolen, or damaged from a spill, or from opening an envelope? Anyone ever lose ownership of a stock because it was stolen from them, or misplaced, or you spilled coffee on it? Some guys buy insurance for their collection... a brokerage account is covered by SIPC insurance, and if your holdings approach the $500k limit, then open another account, it'll have the same insurance and limit. Golly, stocks, bonds, mutual funds are better investments than ball cards.
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