Anyone Else Depressed?

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Posted By: Jared

So earlier this year I decided to dip back into the hobby, just a little bit, and buy a handful of popular pre-war cards to display and enjoy for their historical value. I capped myself at $2000, knowing that it is easy to overspend. I tracked the eBay market for a bit and it seemed like that money would allow me to get the cards I targeted.

It has been nothing but disappointment.

Cards I figured to be had for $200 are now going for 3x that. I understand that cards are only worth what people are willing to spend on them, so the selling price tells the truth. However, it's really depressing to realize that all it takes are a few people with more money than they know what to do with to ruin your aspirations.

If I'm ever able to achieve my goal, I think I'll be done with this...assuming it doesn't burn me out before then.

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Posted By: Andrew

Someone who only has $200.00 to spend is probably saying the same thing about you.

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame." -- Erica Jong

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Unless a large amount of time elapsed between when you had identified what you wanted to buy and when you tried to act upon that want:

"it seemed like that money would allow me to get the cards I targeted.
It has been nothing but disappointment.
Cards I figured to be had for $200 are now going for 3x that"

It sounds like you had chosen wisely, because the market in general has not tripled in value recently. Try again grasshopper, you have proven your merit.

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Posted By: Alan

$2000 ? Are you kidding ? I wish I had $200 to spend on baseball cards. I may be able to come up with $20, though. Do you think I'm depressed ? ____ yes !!!!

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Posted By: Paul

I think you hit the nail on the head. It is depressing that two or three people who bathe in Krugerands can take away so much enjoyment for the rest of us. I don't think that can happen in the long run for common cards, like '33 Goudeys, or even for E121's despite their current elevated prices. But for cards that are offered for sale once every year or two, two or three well heeled collectors can make a big difference.

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Posted By: Mark L

Paul,
I expect the price of E121's to fall back some but so far I have not seen many of these cards coming to market----so I wonder whether they will prove to be much rarer than I previously thought.

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Posted By: Silver King

Hey Jared, I share your pain. I found this forum while looking for information about my great great grandfather who played in the 1880's. I discovered that he had several Old Judges and was pretty shocked to find out that even the beat up ones were going for at least $200. I couldn't find any more of his cards so I expanded my collecting thinking I could maybe collect the 1886 and 1887 teammates. Well, many of those are in the thousands. I expanded my search and found some 1880's Browns items and those were in the thousands. A couple items with him on it are the one of a kind items and as much as I would have liked to had them, I couldn't take away things from my family. I have 3 kids under 6 years old and lots of things to pay for the next couple centuries. I am not depressed, but I am disappointed that so many things are so expensive. It's supply and demand.....and some people just get to have more toys. My yearly budget is about $1000 and I have already spent that this year on some cool things, but I am tapped out.