T206 Time Machine

[nat]

You've got to be sure that you don't snag too many cards. If a set gets too rare, set collectors write it off as impossible, and so the price drops. Price, of course, is a product of supply and demand, but demand, especially for collectibles, is not independent of supply.

(Probably not for anything? If oranges were super rare, we'd probably just think of them as rare curiosities, rather than as things you might realistically snack on. And so people wouldn't want to buy them, hence their price wouldn't rise as much as you'd expect given their rarity.)

Now, they made enough T206 cards that this probably won't be a problem. You'd need a really big deLorean to haul home an appreciable share of the T206 cards manufactured. But, in principle, watch out for second-order effects like this.

Also, as for buying stuff in 1909. Just take period currency. Looks like you can get half dollars for $20 on ebay. (I assume that these are terrible prices, just like most ebay baseball cards.) A pack of smokes cost, what, a nickel in 1909? So you'll be paying $2 per T206 card if you go that route.