Why not more buzz on the Al Demaree Find/Auction?

[rhettyeakley]

I think this hobby has really changed over the past 10-20 years where cards from the 1930's and 1940's aren't as widely appreciated by vintage collectors. Back in the day a Goudey was just as valuable (or more) than any t206 or t205 card and people preferred the colorful cards form the 1930's, that all seemed to change right about the same time as the advent of grading.

Honestly, when was the last time we had a long thread that specifically targetted 1930's or 1940's cards?

The reason for this is probably simple, we know a lot more about those cards than we do from the earlier decades and to a degree everything about them has already been written. As a hobby researcher/historian these decades just don't offer much in the way of "new" material or information. Also, the cards themselves, while often found beat up, are way more available in nice shape and the lower graded 30's and 40's gum cards haven't seen an increase in price in many years... if anything the common Goudey and Diamond Stars mid-grade stuff is cheaper now thn it has been in a LONG time. The high grade collectors are collecting them in earnest but I never get anyone interested in my 30's stuff, it just sits in my inventory for a long time.

The rare 1930's and 40's issues suffer because of all the things I mentioned as well, and are essentially "guilty by association" in that since the 30's cards have seen reduced interest as of late, so have the rare 1930's issues. A set from the 1910's that is of similar rarity to the Demaree Die-Cuts would be 5-6x as valuable as your average R304 common in somewhat decent shape w/o a trimmed tab ($300-450).

It just seems like the vintage baseball hobby has focused WAY more in the past 5-8 years on the 1900-19 era at the expense of the 19th century stuff and the stuff that came later. If you checked this same site (or its predecessor) 8 years ago there was a lot more people looking for 19th Century stuff than you see now. This hobby is cyclical, it seems like the more mainstream E-card sets are pretty frigid right now where a few short years ago a decent E102 or E96 HOFer was like money in the bank. It will be interesting to see the direction our hobby takes in the future, maybe the R-cards will have their day in the sun.

-Rhett