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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

You guys don't understand... and it reminds me of a Wes Westrum quote... what a smart man, played under Durocher, who learned from Frisch, who learned from Mr. McGraw. The quote in a moment.

I, for one, and maybe the only one, DO NOT value graded cards more than ungraded. If what you mean is selling price, you may be right. But value, true value... I value being able to actually hold the card, touch it, and think of others who held it before me. My first Cobb card I bought from Lew Lipset, a T206. A bit worn, has a pin hole at the top. Most of you guys would trash talk the card. Some kid had that card on his wall, above his bed, maybe. He might have seen Ty play... My great uncle was a car dealer. He once told me about a trip he took to Detroit, on the train, from south central Kentucky. It was 1922, he was an employee at the automotive place at the time. He, the owner of the place, and another employee went to Detroit to pick up 3 automobiles and drive them back to Kentucky. They stayed overnight. He told me they went to the ball park and saw a ball game. Washington was visiting. My uncle Paul saw Walter Johnson pitch, Ty Cobb get a hit, and Ty then steal a base. Uncle Paul had to be close to 90 when he told me that, his eyes twinkled. I can hold a Ty Cobb card, and that has value to me. More value than physically touching a piece of plastic.

To get value selling a card, I won't argue against plastic generally adding value. As for the value of a card to me that I plan to keep, plastic would decrease the value of the card to me, decrease the pleasure I derive in owning the card.

Wes said, "Baseball is a lot like church, many attend, few understand."

Hell's bells, I wish some of the semi-collector speculator knuckleheads would move on beyond our little cardboard bits; why not get into gasoline futures??

Sometimes I may be wrong, but seldom in doubt.

Frank.