What would it take to collect modern cards again?

[ls7plus]

It would be an extremely difficult feat to accomplish, for me. I like rarer cards of stars and HOF'ers to be, and therefore am inclined to at least take a look at such cards as Joe Mauer's Chrome Gold Refractor rookie, for example, with only 50 printed. But with that limited production comes rampant speculation, along with a lot of purely transient demand (ie., making itself felt only while the player is still not only active, but on the upside, rather than the downhill slide of his career), artificially raising the prices to rather ridiculous levels. The last time I checked, such a Mauer "rookie" was booking at around $1500 or so, which, considering the fact that he probably has around 100+ other rookie cards and that one form of disaster or another can still derail his career, seems patently absurd. Compare this price to a '68 Topps Bench, in PSA 9, at around $900, and of which there were about 90 the last time I checked the pop report. So, while I would like to keep the rarer cards, the prevailing hobby economics in this sector pretty much preclude their purchase until many years after they are initially printed, after the player has established himself as a near-certain HOF'er, and the speculative and transient demand has long since departed in favor of newer stars on the rise.

Foregoing such rarer inserts and merely printing to meet expected demand, on the other hand, pretty much insures low values in the near and distant future, which is an important factor to me, though perhaps not to others.

When I want a card of a favorite current player or players, such as one of our Tigers who are currently overperforming, I tend to go with regional cards, such as the Detroit News/Free Press issues of 2006, or the Fatheads of
2010.

I think it can be done, but it would take a very delicate balance that's not yet on the horizon. At a minimum, I think there would have to be only one or at most two licensed sets per year.

Great, thought provoking post, and one for which I certainly have no answer.

Larry