Scarcity and Value Cards vs Memorabilia

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

One of the greatest questions ever asked and something that is a never-ending topic of discussion with a number of my collecting friends. Yes, like everything else, supply and demand dictate price. In the case of memorabilia, some of the items are beyond scarce; they are unique. Yet their prices, compared to many card prices, hardly reflect this. The demand is just not there. The reason in part is because memorabilia usually doesn't attract the investor crowd and, of course, doesn't have a set registry crowd. These two groups of card buyers, many members of which being very affluent individuals, greatly shift the card demand curve to result in very high prices. Also too, collector demand for an item requires an appreciation of it, which in the case of some items of memorabilia requires a particular degree of knowledge that often times few collectors possess.