Performance Enhancing Drugs - How Those Implicated Have Impacted Card Collecting

[steve B]

Originally Posted by iwantitiwinit

In some cases it is true that production of some specialty sets or cards are very limited, however often their appeal is also minimal. What appeal does a 1 of 1 card have when only a single person can own it, especially if it is simply a picture of an existing player. I can simply take a photo of that individual. I can no longer take a picture of Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, etc. These limited edition sets have not survived the test of time, and perhaps more importantly the test of sustained value, T206's have.

That's an excellent point, and one that's often overlooked in collectibles. Some stuff is too rare to be valuable. There has to be just enough supply that someone can figure it's possible to own the item. After that it's mostly PR creating demand. The Wagner isn't rare, but it is expensive because it hits all the right points - Just rare enough to be difficult, but not nearly impossible, great player, and a great story that plays well in the press wether it's true or not. Now how many of us have cards that are harder to find. How many of us have several cards that are more rare than the Wagner? Probably quite a few. I think I probably have somewhere around 15 -20 tougher cards. And only one is a modern 1 of 1. The whole assortment wouldn't even make a downpayment on a Wagner. They nearly all suffer from being too obscure for most people to care about at all. The 2 prewar ones crossover from sports to non-sports, and at the moment only 2 are known of each. They've been on the BST with very little interest, priced roughly like a VG T206 HOF player. NOT griping, just using them as an example of rare cards that don't have much value because there's no demand.

The PED stuff hasn't affected my collecting aside from making a few cards cheaper. And I'm still not sure that is A PSD thing, or just that people figured out the stuff just isn't that hard to find.

Steve B