The new breed of collectors...

[BobbyStrawberry]

This is a fascinating discussion.

I'm wondering if the issue here–rather than any kind of generational/age difference–is money. As has been discussed in other threads, "true" collectors, in a sense, have been forced to reckon with their having become investors, whether they like it or not.

Cards I purchased two years ago with no intention of ever selling have gone up in value 2, 3 times or more. Obviously, many older collectors are experiencing this phenomenon even more strongly.

Were there pure "investors" (equivalent to those people today who don't even care what's inside the slab) in the hobby 30, 40, 50 years ago?

[G1911]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

This is a fascinating discussion.

I'm wondering if the issue here–rather than any kind of generational/age difference–is money. As has been discussed in other threads, "true" collectors, in a sense, have been forced to reckon with their having become investors, whether they like it or not.

Cards I purchased two years ago with no intention of ever selling have gone up in value 2, 3 times or more. Obviously, many older collectors are experiencing this phenomenon even more strongly.

Were there pure "investors" (equivalent to those people today who don't even care what's inside the slab) in the hobby 30, 40, 50 years ago?

I don’t think it’s that different from 30 years ago. 30 years ago was about the time a card bubble burst, after a ton of people came in investing in rookies as the hype built and built and production increased to meet the demand. I think most of those investors are not too dissimilar from todays new batch. I think it’s very different from 50 years ago. 1972 is about when money first started to slowly creep in.

[cardsagain74]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

Were there pure "investors" (equivalent to those people today who don't even care what's inside the slab) in the hobby 30, 40, 50 years ago?

I'd say that wasn't happening back then, because most cards had such little value up until the '80s (and they weren't considered as much more than collectible novelties). But now that they've had a steady basis as substantial assets for the last 40 years, it's a totally different ballgame to consider them as investments.

Edit: like Greg said, 30 years ago is entirely different than 50 in this case. I was referring just to <1980