Are Pre-War Baseball Cards "Solid" Investments?

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Posted By: DJ

Leon,

Now you are just showing off.

Here's a quote from "The Complete Book Of Collectible Baseball Cards" about Lone Jacks from 1987:

"...too expensive and the collector can find a nearly identical card in the Old Judge series for a small fraction of the price."

5-Year Projection on the value is below average and the Comiskey should set you back $450, while commons $300.

The authors thought they got it right when they wrote this (basically over valuing every pre-war set and pushing us in the direction of 1980's cards), and these fools probably have a warehouse full of 1988 Topps vending boxes.

Back to David. You can't go wrong with a Ty Cobb baseball, but the problem with collectibles like that is that there will always be a cloud of suspicion whether the item is legitimate or not, unlike trading cards which are difficult to duplicate. Well, unless you can remove hair fibers and such. In an industry where roughly 8 out of every autograph is a forgery, there tends to be a dark cloud when you pay $6K for one and your neighbors pay $400-600 for there's. I have seen some cooling (and doubting) in this business the last year and a half as more single signed baseball with "spectacular" signatures appear more and more frequently into the market place.

Am I worried about this hike with trading cards? Absolutely. Where the hobby accepted a nice return (par price guide) on a given year, it's simply gone crazy of late. Can this continue? Will a Flick T206 in PSA4 form, now selling for $200 be an $800 card this time in 2007? Who knows.

DJ