Beckett's Baseball Card Hall of Fame

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I remember back when the McGwire and Griffey rookie cards were hot thinking that it was just so ridiculous that these two guys that hadn't done all that much had rookie cards worth as much as some of the all-time greats' rookie cards. Sure, the cards were worth a lot at some time but wasn't it obvious that unless the players hit a zillion HRs in their careers that the cards' value would have to go down? It's not like there were only 7 PSA 8s in existence (more like 10,000 a piece in PSA 8 and above). So, while I collected the sets with those cards in it I never bothered to hunt down additional examples. Did cards like these change the landscape of card collecting? I suppose they did for the larger population and I was affected in an indirect manner. But so did Brocade Communications and JDS Uniphase change the tech market; neither one of them affected my investing outlook either as I wouldn't have bothered buying their shares after a runup from 1 to 150. While the great sets of the 50s aren't remembered perhaps as seminal happenings, if it weren't for them my father wouldn't have pushed me into collecting.