With all of this banter about how much people are paying for memorabilia, I thought..

[Ulidia]

Originally Posted by maniac_73

Isn't the whole point/fun of collecting to show off? lol

In my opinion, that's one of three possible mainstream reasons. The other two are for a) sentimental reasons and b) investment (capital appreciation).

Certainly, for me, when I used to spend thousands on memorabilia (probably in region of $50,000 - $70,000 over two years in early 2000s, albeit on soccer memorabilia not baseball memorabilia), it was primarily for potential capital appreciation but I was buying with my heart and not my head. In hindsight, incredibly stupid, given auctioneers' buying and selling fees.

It should be easy to understand (but took me some years) that if you want to make money by buying items at mainstream auctions, you need to be very lucky, very patient or really know your stuff.

These days I buy for sentimenal / like reasons only.