How the Internet Changed Collecting

[Hot Springs Bathers]

I can honestly say that the internet brought back into collecting. In 1992 I was fed up with several aspects of the hobby. The net solved most of those problems.

I was at a point where it was getting tough to finish sets like my T206's and the SP's from the 1952 Bowman large. You just couldn't find them and when they were in a SCD ad by the time my issue arrived and I would call they were already sold.

Another factor was that I really didn't enjoy many of the folks on the dealer side of the hobby, it had evolved into a quick buck, sleazy element it seemed. Not much fun to be around.

When I discovered eBay the only limiting factor was how much disposable income was on hand. Things seem to have evolved back to a much kinder, gentlemanly hobby or maybe I am just lucky these days with the people I deal with?

[Volod]

Agree with Mike that internet sales seem to have made dealing with "dealers" much more tolerable than it was twenty to thirty years ago. I wonder if that is due to people generally feeling less anxious and/or suspicious in an electronic transaction, as opposed to face-to-face. Either party can take their time, study the merchandise and make an informed judgement more easily in the former situation than the latter. On the other hand, I admit to a few guilty memories of buying stuff at card shows back in the early '80's, where a dealer or two may have taken a snack or smoke break, leaving his sig-other to watch the goods, and that person, due to ignorance or indifference, gave me a great deal on merchandise that I wasn't expecting. But, overall, I believe dealing has been greatly enhanced by advances in technology.