Why does Topps love to destroy history?

[mighty bombjack]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

John - these cards sell for such a ridiculous premium, when compared to a cut autograph, that nobody would actually take them apart to try to answer what you are asking. Why pay $2500 for an autograph that appears to be short two letters? You can pay a whole lot less for a much better example.
Just because some card company created a totally phony shortage by labeling the "thing" 1/1? Is that worth the premium that sellers try to sell it for. This is just the greater fool theory at its finest example.

I'm with you on the chopping of a letter and the incomplete auto, but you must not understand why people collect baseball cards and why they hold any value at all.

Autographs? ZERO intrinsic value. Trading cards? ZERO intrinsic value. The value of these things is socially constructed, and it happens to be multiplied at their intersection. Greater fool theory? Lots of people think we members of this board are all fools for putting values on slips of paper that used to go in the trash. If people approached these things rationally, there would be no autograph dealers at all.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by mighty bombjack

I'm with you on the chopping of a letter and the incomplete auto, but you must not understand why people collect baseball cards and why they hold any value at all.

Autographs? ZERO intrinsic value. Trading cards? ZERO intrinsic value. The value of these things is socially constructed, and it happens to be multiplied at their intersection. Greater fool theory? Lots of people think we members of this board are all fools for putting values on slips of paper that used to go in the trash. If people approached these things rationally, there would be no autograph dealers at all.

You are right in many respects Wayne but I can sell a Theodore Roosevelt autograph all over the civilized world but I could only sell a rookie card of Mike Trout in the good old USA. So autograph dealers might survive a bit longer than baseball card dealers in a rational world . But this is not a rational world, so why me worry??