The new breed of collectors...

[Exhibitman]

The new breed of collectors are...enviably unabashed at discussing the money issues that we've all thought of for as long as there's been collecting. Look, for as far back as I can remember, whether you got a good deal has always been important. Yet we (older collectors) all pretend it wasn't so. The only differences are modality and style. Fifty years ago it was whether you got a good deal in a trade and whether you knew something your counterparty did not. No guides, no web sites, no data, really, except what you picked up. Now, it is cash and data based. The new collectors are overloaded with data. Stylistically, they don't 'shucky-darn' their way through a deal, acting embarrassed about the commercial element of it, they own it.

Money has been part of this ever since the first card shows appeared in the 1970s. Don't pretend otherwise and deride the new breed of collector for being up-front about it. The simple act of deciding what to sell and what to charge for it makes it about money. I learned how to negotiate a deal through collecting. I was wheeling and dealing as a ten year old, trying to grow my collection and flip cards for a profit to pay for it. We roamed all over looking into second-hand stores, junk stores and antique stores looking for cards. When we found a place with good stuff we jealously guarded it. I used to buy cards at this antique store 12 for a buck and flip many of them at $0.25-$0.50 each. It was a profitable enterprise. My daughter does the same thing with fashion. She goes to thrift stores and flea markets in search of designer stuff she can resell. The other day she tripled her money on a blouse. I told her that she now knows how I feel when i flip a deal.

The only negative I have about the newbs is that they haven't lived through a boom-bust cycle and have no idea what it is like to watch values implode. Many are in for a very rude awakening when they finally receive their bulk order of shiny stuff back from PSA