Cards in a fire, flood etc?

[Stetson_1883]

After a 15 year hiatus from collecting cards in the 90's and really disliking older cards, I've started collecting again, only this time focusing on pre-70's cards of HOFers. Ive begun this for financial reasons and a love for history.

As I collect these cards, I wonder how the values of these cards will go. If I remember, cards across the board (old and new) took a dramatic fall in the late/early 90's-2000s. Please correct me if Im wrong. But now, as I gather t206 HOFers etc, I wonder what direction they will go.

Gold and diamonds only continue to get discovered, while everyday I can imagine vintage card numbers only continue to decrease...due to floods, fires etc.

I guess my questions are....

1. What are your thoughts on cards as an investment?

2. By your educated guess, how many vintage cards are lost to fire, flood, disregard etc. everyday? For example, I would suspect more and more cards are being lost everyday.

Thanjs and I look forward to your thoughts.

r

[Econteachert205]

1. Cards as an investment is complex. Firstly, I worry long term about new collectors replacing the old generation. I worry about anything post say 1975 because of the large supplies, minus the really low number stuff. High condition hofers especially their rookies seem to be the way to go. But with those things the prices are already in my mind very strong. It also depends on what your time horizon is. The old buy what you like rule is a good place to start, but I personally think that mid grade hofers from prewar are about as safe and reasonable as can be expected

2. I'd say a lot. I've had ebay sellers cancel auctions due to basement flooding, and obviously natural disasters can crush whole collections.