Are coins and stamps as bad as baseball cards and autographs?

[Archive]

Posted By: Greg Theberge

Mark mentioned breweriana.

Fortunately, what reproductions do exist are, so far, fairly easy to distinguish. Ebay still allows the sale of this crap on the market as long as it is clearly stated that it is a reproduction, although not specifically marked as such.

Funny thing that this came up as I'm awaiting the arrival of a rare piece that I will have to evaluate when it comes in as it's one of those pieces that makes you think a bit about it's originality. Chance are likely that it is, but there's always that thought in the back of your mind that it might not be...

The good thing for us breweriana collectors is that, as a group, we have zero interest in having some third party telling us the quality of a piece by sticking it in some crazy piece of plastic which obviously jacks the price up. We also don't see the sense of a fairly common item being priced ridiculously high just because it has the slightest better grade than one of it's many counterparts. We're also fortunate, so far, that the "demand" for our stuff isn't the same as that of baseball cards. Rare and elusive in our world is where only ONE item of the example is known to exist, not sixty that are priced in the hundreds of thousands and multiple millions.

That's not to say that this hobby is inexpensive...trust me, just ask my wife.

Greg

www.rhodeislandbreweryhistory.com