Narrow-minded Collectors

[Rich Klein]

As a person who is more of a dealer than a collector I get what the OP is saying.

To me, when I saw that, my instinct was I can't tell you how many times over the years I saw newer people immediately gravitate towards the BEST names instead of working on building a collection. Our generation of collectors/dealers did collecting, I personally think it's possible the next generation will mainly focus on names/grades/cards which can be treated like assets and be traded on that level.

Will there be room for the average collector/dealer? Absolutely but it will be a minority of what you see not the majority. I was chatting with one of the dealers from whom I buy a lot of nickel/dime/quarter cards and mentioned how I used to be able to afford the occasional box from him. Now he was doing deals for boxes in the thousands of dollars and said something to the effect of: I preferred those days to what is going on now. Why? He does not know how long he can stay in that game.

It is what it is and we'll survive and there will always be us dinosaurs as collectors and dealers to get through this as well.

[Mark]

What you say makes sense. Things have changed over the years.

But even way back when, there were some people who were drawn to the Big Names. I remember going into a card store 20+ years ago, in Monroeville Pa., and asking to see the stack of Goudey's that were under the glass. The owner said, "which kind of collector are you?" He explained that there were 2 kinds: the first buy only the Ruths and Gehrigs, and other ones want the other cards.

[Throttlesteer]

None of us were alive to see most pre-war players play. Of course we're going to be interested in the best of the best. Yes, there are some niche collectors who like unique stories or have a connection to a player thats a bit more abstract.

Let's face it. Most people would prefer Ruth or Cobb over Admiral Schlei.

[Ricky]

Originally Posted by Throttlesteer

None of us were alive to see most pre-war players play. Of course we're going to be interested in the best of the best. Yes, there are some niche collectors who like unique stories or have a connection to a player thats a bit more abstract.

Let's face it. Most people would prefer Ruth or Cobb over Admiral Schlei.

Hey, I just bought an Admiral Schlei lol!