before cards were investment vehicles

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Posted By: pete ullman

I'm getting dizzy from all the mega $$$$ transactions going on lately. Remember when deals were abound? I'll never forget my white cap matty for $2 and my drum back Hoffman for $30 and my e94 commons for $5 each.

I'm sure lot's of y'all out there have done much better than that!!!!!

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Posted By: Judge Dred

Pete that was quite a few years ago. It was nice when people considered cards as cards and not part of an investment portfolio. I'm pretty sure a lot of old time collectors have nice collections which they probably couldn't again amass in this day and age of sky rocketing card valuations.

I can understand why some people are cashing out of this hobby - the money is just too good to turn down. I would venture to guess that this hobby has provided a few retirement funds for people that didn't consider their cards as investment vehicles. I would almost guess that in some cases the money they could get for their collections is probably more than they've saved over the years for their retirements.

I still look back on the day when cards were fun things to collect and we did it for the sheer love of the game and the cards. I'm not saying that hobbyists today are money grubbing investment based collectors. I would hope that most of us truly love these little pieces of cardboard for what they represent - baseball history.

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Posted By: jay behrens

I'm one of those people that could never rebuild my collection to the way it was in the 80s. This would be true even if I was making the same type of income that I was back then. Prices of cards have far outstripped the rate of inflation and wage increases.

Jay

My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.

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Posted By: Julie

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Posted By: Richard Masson

were 1939 Play Balls for 50 cents each (Stars were a buck!). I've been averaging up ever since.

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Posted By: identify7

I bought my first pre-war cards in the early 80s. There was a common OJ & Dockman. But they weren't cheap. Although a bargain by today's standards, they set me back about $50.

When I first bought cards in the fifties they also weren't cheap. Again they turned out to appreciate well, but increased value never occured to us. Heck we flipped them causing (what today would be considered) serious damage. But condition was never an issue. We traded based solely on whether we needed the card for set completion. Oh sure, Mantle, Williams, Campy and others were not usually traded 1 for 1 with commons, but they really did not demand much of a premium by todays reckoning.

This is when it was real fun. Not the eighties when you really had to buy 'em. I wonder whether in twenty or thirty more years collectors will recall "back in aught 5, when t-206's (in good condition, mind you) cost way less than a new car".

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Many of my vintage cards (postwar version) were given to me by family friends with adult kids who found out I collected and just handed boxes to me. When they got a little more known I started buying collections but the prices were obscenely low. I used to buy cards at an antique store with a box of 1950s-70s cards at 14 for a buck. In 1981 I bought an entire grocery bag full of late 60s cards from my science teacher for $25.

Prewar cards cost more: it set me back a whole ten or twelve bucks (I forget which) for my T206 Johnson ready to pitch; still have it.