Pre-War Correction underway?

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by sb1

Just like the equities market, there is no way to know when or where the bottom is, until well after it's been established …..and it's too late to do anything at that point. So, again like that scenario, if you were buying to hold, just keep holding and wait for price stabilization and reappreciation, which might take some time. If you were buying and selling for the short term, it will be tough to get back to a point of recouping costs and most will have to sell at a loss to buy in it at new lows.

Unfortunately some items never come back. Take a look at where most E-card prices are today versus 10 years ago, only a few top tier HOFers are in the plus column.

I agree with this statement completely. I am a collector, or at least I am very long on cards. I am buying with an eye toward leaving them to my kids or selling in 20+ years (of course best laid plans....). In that case, like with real estate (and I assume stocks), the ups and downs over the relative shorter period are irrelevant - buy what you think will increase in value over the long-term and don't worry about the short term. That's what I try to do.

That said, as a buyer, I am trying to figure out whether there may be "bargains" in the next few months-years, in which case I may go a bit stronger on cardboard than I otherwise might have. I am approaching this as a buyer conundrum, not a seller.

Also, while some items don't come back (see E Cards, but I have some hope there)- some items just NEVER come up for sale, like this Wolverine Cobb. So I am a buyer on items like this when they can be had, regardless of where the economy or card market stands.