Putting together an almost raw monster...

[dougscats]

I'm on the same quest as you, kllrbee, but for the graded h-o-fer's.
I'm at roughly the same point, too, with 226 out of 520.
I bought my first in the mid-90's and have been actively collecting the set for the last few years--first only on Ebay, now Net 54, too [so we compete for the same cards].

I'm no expert on the matter, but I'd guess that the price of cards has doubled, maybe a little more than that [I'd guess T206's have risen 125-150%], in the past 15 years. They've surely held their value very well during the recent economic downturn, some better than others.

I look at the T206's as blue chips in baseball card collecting. My expectations are that they are a solid investment, but I wouldn't expect spectacular returns, unless vintage baseball card collecting explodes. The law of supply and demand always prevails, and in our case the supply is pretty much a constant; only the demand may change.

Simply from a financial point of view, I'd say cards not the best investment.
But from this collector's point of view, who oftens spends his money on cards instead of other modes of entertainment, they're a great investment--money saved that I otherwise wouldn't have.

Anyway, my personal agenda for writing this is to open trade talks with you.
I, too, have about 20 doubles in the same condition. And I'd hope we could serve each other's needs, trading a few.

Send me a pm if you're interested, and I'll send you a list.

Thanks.

Doug