How many card shops have become just like this......

[barrysloate]

That's surprising Dan. I know there are many people who actively follow baseball today who have never heard of Cap Anson or Mike Kelly, but I thought Christy Mathewson was a little more widely known. No question, however, that collectors live in a bubble. We assume everybody finds baseball cards fascinating, which of course most of the population doesn't.

[RCMcKenzie]

The 70's cards I collected as a kid are absolutely worthless. A 1952 Topps common in collector grade is worth 2 dollars at best. Same for Playballs and Goudeys. As long as people follow baseball there will be a market for the cards. The older the better. See Atlantics CDV auction etc.

[MattyC]

I am 37. If the next and successive generations have caused a no-demand situation in which Balt News Ruths are selling for $500 or $5000 dollars (a scenario to which I personally don't subscribe), I do know I won't be alive to see it.

As long as my generation of collectors is part of the buying pool, the prices will be pretty stable. I know too many guys in their 30s and 40s who never saw Ruth, Cobb, DiMaggio, Mantle, or Koufax play. But we revere their names in the hobby, the sport, and even popular culture. And their cards are revered, for what they represent, their aesthetic beauty, and because as kids we did stare at them in CCPs and Becketts and dreamed of one day owning them.

So if there ever is a world with little demand for the great vintage HOfer cards of today, I'll be very, very old, and care very little. If anything, I'd probably welcome that scenario, as it will allow me to make a flurry of long-desired purchases before my number is called.

[Rich Klein]

Because he is larger than life, and with all those movies and books on him and every once in a while Topps brings him back as well -- Ruth will be just fine as a collecting icon.

The Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle stuff will be fine as well.

Now, Harmon Killebrew will be forgotten once the generation who saw him play begins to really die off. Sorry, that is just a fact just as that will happen with Brooks Robinson, Enos Slaughter, Big John Mize, etc.

It is what it is

Rich