Collector's Association

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

"Does anybody disagree with this?"

Yes.

Don't get me wrong - Net54 is a great message board. There's a lot of knowledge here, and a lot of fantastic people. The board is well-managed and it's a great place.

There's also a LOT of resistance to certain types of collectors, and a LOT of resistance to sharing certain types of information.

For the record, I voiced this opinion at the meeting, but have refrained from commenting in the meeting-related threads. My feeling is that some sort of hobby group is a great idea, but a group that acts as a police force or drafts a "code of ethics" will be dead before it starts. What would make us think that an unethical person would ever abide by a "code of ethics"? Or that some sort of hobby group could get an auction house or dealer (or collector, for that matter) to change his practices?

I felt that a hobby association should be a place that gathers information and makes it freely available to any collector - old and new alike - who needs it. Information on how to spot alterations in certain issues, information on people's perceptions of and experiences with auction houses, information that a "newbie" collector would want but also information that an experienced collector starting a new set would find useful.

Too often the answer to the question is "I've been collecting <insert set here> for 40 years, and I know how to spot an alteration. Don't ask me how, I just do. If you want to learn how, you need to go out and buy the cards - touch them, feel them, smell them, and get experience with them. Then you'll learn, just like I did."

What if you're a type card collector and you just want to buy an E107 HOFer?

There needs to be a resource in this hobby that accumulates the information and knowledge that's been assembled over years and years of collecting. Many of us are trying to solve puzzles with certain sets that have probably already been solved but have been lost in the history of the hobby because it was never documented or shared with others. Many of us have been curious about bidding in a given auction because they've heard whispers of improprieties, but can't seem to get anyone to go on the record with anything. Many of us are very experienced collectors who are very confident in our ability to detect altered cards - but still got a few wrong when Dave Forman passed around samples at the meeting in NYC last week.

Furthermore, Net54 is a great place, but it's a segment of the hobby. Prewar baseball cards. Who's the association for 1965 Topps? Who's the association for 2004 Upper Deck? Who's the association for boxing cards? Hockey cards? If you mention 1977 Topps here, and you're not an established member, you get hammered for not reading the board rules. If you want to find out what a 1921 Herpolsheimer is, you can search through the 54 posts but all the scans have been deleted so you can't see one.

If an association is going to happen, and really do something special for the hobby, it needs to address ALL the issues in the hobby, for the ENTIRE hobby - all sports, all years, graded and raw - recognize the legitimacy of each, respect the preferences of each individual collector, draw knowledge from people who are truly willing to share it, and then archive that knowledge in a searchable, intuitive way.

Just my two cents. Carry on.

-Al