Some Reflefctions on an August Afternoon

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Posted By: John Spencer

After going 0 for 5 yet again in the recent Mastro auction, making it now 5 years since I have won anything, set me thinking about current developments in the hobby and while I am hardly a "Karmac", where things might be heading, particularly in our little world of pre WWII baseball cards. What concerns me as both a collector and hobbiest, is whether we are heading into a bubble, like internet stocks in 2000 and Dutch tulips in the 17th century. The recent explosive price increase in E-cards has been nothing short of remarkable and there is no doubt in my mind that M cards and D cards will follow shortly. It seems to me that there are any number of new affluent players who have entered out little world after having done some research about supply and demand curves, the heroic images of the older Hoférs and the continuing love, despite rapacious owners and players, of the game itself. Is all of this good for thre hobby? I don´t know, but I do know it has changed the structure of the marketplace dramatically. I have been a collector and much more recently a dealer for, gulp, more than 40 years and what seemed like a pleasant pastime has morphed into a multi-billion dollar business. The growth of the dealer base into serious businesses and, of course, the emergence of grading companies has changed the hobby forever in both positive and negative ways. Whether you like this development or not, both are here to stay. While I grow concerned about the dominating influence of the Mastro Empire, I must admit to being impressed how he has managed to gather some of the cream of the hobby, eg. Kevin Struss, Doug Allen, Derek Grady and most, recently, Peter Calderon, all of whom I consider to be personal friends. (Now, Bill, whenare you going to offer me a job?) There seems to room for smaller houses, such as SportsCards Plus, Lew Lipset, Barry Sloate, Seth Nageman and a few others. I still believe that the villians in the hobby will eventually disappear, or have disaapearred, and integrity will and must remain a cornerstone. I suspect my own compay, Full Count, will muddle along and probably continue to use Ebay as its principal distribution arm. In fact, I plan on pumping in some fresh material into the company in the coming months from my collection for a much need cash injection. Please excuse a bit of a babble, but boredom on a summer´s afternoon made me do it.