Would you be in this hobby but for the Internet?

[Archive]

Posted By: Tony Gordon

I began collecting cards in 1975 and never stopped. Along the way I've adapted to the changes in the hobby - Beckett/Eckes yearly price guides, the Beckett monthlies, the PVC scare with plastic sheets, toploaders, screwdowns, cardsavers, card glut, grading, and WWW. I still do all the things I've always done like search garage sales and flea markets for cards, buy and sell at local shows and now on eBay. I think eBay has enhanced the hobby, helped reduce some nutty prices and made the various price guides obsolete. The big loser in the internet revolution, however, has been the card store. I remember in the late '70s when Chicago had just one card store. By the mid-1980s card stores were everywhere but I rarely see them now. I stopped visiting the last few card shops in my neighborhood before they closed because the prices were nearly double of eBay or even the prices at card shows. All in all I still enjoy the hobby as much now as I did when I was knee high.