is ebay killing high grade 50's-60's market?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by mintacular

Here's my question: If you had 100 grand to spend on cards and your primary goal was to purchase cards that would appreciate in value over time, would you buy pre-war tobacco cards, etc. or load up on high-grade HOF golden era rookies (Mantle, Koufax, Mays, Clemente, etc)??

If I had that kind of bank to spend on cards and was looking strictly for appreciation I would load up on prewar major HOFers in nice (not high grade) shape from a mix of popular (T206, CJ, Goudey, E90-1, E120-121), regional (Zeenuts, Collins-McCarthy, Neilsons [yes I know Canada is not a regional but the card availability is similar]), scarce (when I can get them) and 19th century cards. The only postwar cards I would even consider would be genuinely difficult cards--forget high grade--of major HOFers and short prints from popular regional sets (1960 Bell Koufax or Hires test Mays, for example; 1958 Bell Cimoli comes to mind as an example of the latter). Mainstream high grade would not even enter the picture for me, the reason being the initial premise of this thread--they don't hold up in economic downturns and you can't know what the state of the economy will be when you need to cash in. I know I can take rare cards and with a few calls arrange a series of very strong private sales, in any economy short of complete depression. The same cannot be said about PSA 8 postwar cards. I know--I've tried. Even pre-crash you were lucky to net 60% of SMR on them.