What is a baseball card worth?

[Snowman]

I think this would be a more interesting question if it were worded as 'what percentage of your net worth is a baseball card worth to you?' Otherwise it's mostly just a function of how much money someone has.

[obcbobd]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I think this would be a more interesting question if it were worded as 'what percentage of your net worth is a baseball card worth to you?' Otherwise it's mostly just a function of how much money someone has.

Good point. I thought of that, but decided to keep it simple, no math required.
Another good poll would be "what % of your net worth is in Baseball Cards or Sports Memorabilia?"

[RL]

zero...

[darwinbulldog]

There are some rare cards that I'd pay $1000 to own even knowing that no one else would pay me a penny for them. But that's only for unique or very rare cards. A T206 Wagner would be far too common, and if I could ever afford one of those what I'd pay for it would just be a function of what I think others would pay for it.

[CurtisFlood]

Card is worth the amount agreed upon between a buyer and seller. Without that agreement a card is just a piece of cardboard.

[steve B]

I don't think I can answer this one.

I've never been in a position to be able to participate in all tiers of collecting, not in cards, or any of my other hobbies.

But when I first really got into cards, I was probably pretty close. The only one that was truly out of reach was the Wagner, and maybe Plank.

But I've always been more of an opportunistic collector. It was rarely "what card can I afford?" more like "what card can I afford with what I have on me right now?" And even then.... I've occasionally passed on cards I wanted because of timing. Like a Drum back T206 at $200, because I'd only brought about 225-250 to the show. Came to my senses an aisle later and went back but it was gone.
And the cards I passed up that I could have rounded up the money for back when I started...
But the opportunist in me has been lucky a few times, so I can't complain too much.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I think this would be a more interesting question if it were worded as 'what percentage of your net worth is a baseball card worth to you?' Otherwise it's mostly just a function of how much money someone has.

I completely disagree. I think it's quite likely that respondents to the poll, if sorted by response, will have wildly different net worths within a group that answered identically.