Does Anyone Still Just Collect Cards?

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I'm not so sure this idyllic state where nobody cared about values ever existed. I remember price guides in the 70s. I think it's inherent in most collectibles.

I was going to say by the first time I went to a card show (back in '86) and saw the asking prices I started caring about what the cards were worth before (and after) I bought them.

[Balticfox]

In 1979-81 I was aware of only two comic shops in Toronto (Comics Unlimited on Keewatin Avenue just east of Yonge Street and Queen's Comics & Collectibles at the Beach) and Dreamland Comics on James Street North in Hamilton that carried cards. I later learned that there was also a stamp/coin shop in Hamilton just north of the comic shop that dealt in cards so perhaps there might have been a couple of other such shops in Toronto of which I wasn't aware.

Dedicated card shows didn't make an appearance in Toronto (and perhaps anywhere in Canada) until about 1986 and they were then really low budget affairs held in less than first class halls/meeting rooms. I remember being excited to learn that another (my second) card show was going to take place in far away Niagara Falls in 1987(?). Shortly thereafter newspapers and other media sources started running stories about the prices fetched by the T206 Honus Wagner and 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and card collecting absolutely exploded in popularity with the general public.

Those days were certainly different, albeit not necessarily better. The internet has certainly done wonders to put collectibles and collectors together.

[KJA]

I collect but have sub collections within the overall collection. I collect cards with cool photography, cards that are funny, error cards.
I also don't mind slabs, I have bought a few but it's more for players I PC like Chris Sabo or Eric Davis or cards that hold a special place for me or invoke a memory like 86 Topps Jim McMahon. The only slab I have that would any real monetary value is a Scottie Pippen RC, that was more of a too good to pass up deal.

Otherwise I collect raw and anything pre 1980 I'm not a stickler for condition.