CBC News story comparing Canadian home prices to baseball cards valuations

[AustinMike]

Interesting read. Despite having to translate from a foreign language (e.g., favour to favor). Thanks!

[arc2q]

There have been a rash of these articles recently discussing the "baseball card bubble"and all of them are flawed, this one included. The one example the author gives is the T206 Wagner (although unnamed) that Gretzky purchased for $500,000 in the early 90s. Guess what? It's worth a heck of a lot more than that now. If you bought a house in the 90s for $500K that sells for $4M now you'd have made a fantastic investment!

These articles all mistakenly conflate the saturation of the modern baseball card market in the 90s with the idea that baseball cards are not worth anything anymore. It is a flawed premise. Those cards were never worth much -- no one should have invested in early 90s cards thinking they were going to get rich. As a teenager I knew then it was foolish as they just kept printing more.

But investing in vintage cards then would have been highly lucrative and it remains a solid investment (although very few of us do this for the investment aspect).

Stop comparing risky financial ventures to baseball cards! It doesn't compare.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by arc2q

There have been a rash of these articles recently discussing the "baseball card bubble"and all of them are flawed, this one included. The one example the author gives is the T206 Wagner (although unnamed) that Gretzky purchased for $500,000 in the early 90s. Guess what? It's worth a heck of a lot more than that now. If you bought a house in the 90s for $500K that sells for $4M now you'd have made a fantastic investment!

These articles all mistakenly conflate the saturation of the modern baseball card market in the 90s with the idea that baseball cards are not worth anything anymore. It is a flawed premise.

Big +1...well said, Andrew.

So-called "journalists" are so incredibly lazy today that they could not be bothered to research a thing. This guy just bootstraps off an Economist story written by another lazy "journalist" who got the premise wrong too.

And you are right - it is HILARIOUS that he uses the Gretzky/McNall Wagner as an example in his poorly-researched (really no research at all) story, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the card proved to be a fantastic investment over this time period.

What a joke!!!

Cheers,
Blair

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

Big +1...well said, Andrew.

So-called "journalists" are so incredibly lazy today that they could not be bothered to research a thing. This guy just bootstraps off an Economist story written by another lazy "journalist" who got the premise wrong too.

And you are right - it is HILARIOUS that he uses the Gretzky/McNall Wagner as an example in his poorly-researched (really no research at all) story, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the card proved to be a fantastic investment over this time period.

What a joke!!!

Cheers,
Blair

Agreed. The depth of this gentleman's ignorance of the state of the vintage card market is truly amazing. Might he be a bit surprised to learn that a 1914 Baltimore News Ruth first came out of the [auction] shoot [as far as I am aware] in 1989 for $6,000, or that the M-101 Ruth rookie booked for $1800 or so in near mint in 1990? This is simply an exercise in lazy, careless journalism by someone who hasn't the faintest clue of what the term "due diligence" means.

Best always,

Larry

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by arc2q

There have been a rash of these articles recently discussing the "baseball card bubble"and all of them are flawed, this one included. The one example the author gives is the T206 Wagner (although unnamed) that Gretzky purchased for $500,000 in the early 90s. Guess what? It's worth a heck of a lot more than that now. If you bought a house in the 90s for $500K that sells for $4M now you'd have made a fantastic investment!

These articles all mistakenly conflate the saturation of the modern baseball card market in the 90s with the idea that baseball cards are not worth anything anymore. It is a flawed premise. Those cards were never worth much -- no one should have invested in early 90s cards thinking they were going to get rich. As a teenager I knew then it was foolish as they just kept printing more.

But investing in vintage cards then would have been highly lucrative and it remains a solid investment (although very few of us do this for the investment aspect).

Stop comparing risky financial ventures to baseball cards! It doesn't compare.

+1. While we may not actually collect for investment purposes because true collectors really don't buy for the purpose of resale later on, I think an item's appreciation potential is often a consideration, just as it should be. Even if you never intend to part with your collection, it will outlive you, and creating an estate for the eventual, ultimate purpose of benefiting others that survive ourselves is always a good thing!

Best regards,

Larry