Cards, Economics & Sci-fi

[Collect Equity]

Even though I've been reading this site for some time, I've never joined in or posted because I feel like I'm a little leagure trying to pinch hit at an MLB game. But after watching Brett receive 500+ responses and create 12 fights with his first post, I figured I'd give it a shot.

For years I've wondered what an economy strictly based on baseball cards would look like. What if absolutely everyone in else in the US shared our passion for cards? What if cardboard with baseball players - instead of paper with politicians - was the legal tender for all transactions?

This led me to consider that it would be a highly ineffective economy since it would be based upon a bartering system. To be effective it needs a standard that everything else could be compared and measured against.

So now for my question and the sci-fi part of the post:

Let's say that in 15 years the US dollar hyper-inflates to the point that it is worthless, causing everyone to reject it as a currency. Instead, each state does their own thing. Some states rely on bartering, some on gold, and Texas of course creates its own own currency backed by oil.

If during this inflationary period we as a community are planning for the National show and we want to create some standard pricing, so that people have some way to price their cards at the National, what baseball card would we use as the standard pricing unit?

Here are two thoughts I have:
1) Use a low-grade T206 common (i.e., ~$35-$45). So you could price a 1960 Topps common at .25T [T meaning T206) and a high grade T206 Cobb at 100T.

2) Use the '89 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. I know it's heresy to use a modern card as a means of comparing vintage card prices, but Griffeys are really very common, almost as common as Washington $1 bills, and they'd be very liquid.

I'd love to hear other's thoughts. As a disclaimer, I know nothing about economics and am not even sure that my explanations above made sense or are based upon sound economic principles.