The T206 Titus Bubble

[SetBuilder]

I'm firm in my conviction that it is unethical to hoard the same card. The downplaying by saying "well, I collect hundreds of Greg Maddux cards" or "I have a thousand Ichiro's" doesn't quite compare to 104 year old antique baseball cards.

The word "hoard" has a negative connotation for a reason and it becomes worse when done in a niche that has as much scarcity and value as T206 cards. This behavior is not cute or amusing in any way. In my example in an earlier post I mentioned that an ethical test would be to ask "what if everyone in society did it?" Well, we have a society right here. The entire pre-war baseball card community is a microcosm for a society, and it would be a horrible hobby to be a part of if millionaire retirees decide its cute to buy 250 of the same T206 card. The reason to me is simple: money in this hobby can go a long way and can inflict severe price fluctuations. No one can stop a small group of multimillionaires from bidding up every T206 Shag they find. Would it be fun to be in a hobby where this occurs? It may be occurring now, and could get worse if more decide to hoard. This is why people fear hedge funds from coming into this hobby.

Those that hoard baseball cards on this forum who are viewing this post need to change their avatars to a big middle finger. Because that's what they're giving the rest of the smaller and humble collectors with limited budgets. A big F'U. You have to pay more now for a card because the supply is dry and I have 500 in my cabinet? Too bad. You lost money because I sold off my hoard and now the price dropped? Too bad. Imagine a scenario where you need a particular tobacco card and find out someone has hundreds hidden away. I would imagine the buyer's reaction would be "Hey, you have a card you can spare for my set, you greedy ba$ta*d?" Too bad, he says. I need them all! I don't care that there are 50,000 other people collecting a T206 set. The hoarder is like the fat kid at the little league games who takes all the good potato chips and leaves nothing for anyone else.