Huggins & Scott have the Holy Grail

[martyogelvie]

dammit..
that's not the Holy Grail..
that's the Holy CRAP!

[Leon]

It's really about the adrenaline rush of gambling. If we put it in perspective it's not as bad as saying it's collecting baseball cards. This is just my opinion from doing a bit of research. I don't collect new cards but there is more interest today than there has been in quite some time and that can't be bad for our segment. Hopefully, it gets younger collectors involved and eventually, they come to their senses and collect pre-war. best regards

[Bilko G]

Originally Posted by Leon

I don't collect new cards but there is more interest today than there has been in quite some time and that can't be bad for our segment.

Leon is correct and i would say modern cards haven't been as popular as they are right now, since the very early 1990's. There are a lot of high rollers in the modern market that is mainly (some very rich) men in their 20's to 50's and "busting" modern wax is a form of gambling for them that directly involves their favorite sport. Like a few mentioned already, having a strong modern market is definitely beneficial for the vintage market as eventually many of these new modern collectors at least will dabble a bit in the pre war market, if not becoming a hardcore vintage collector.

All card collecting is good, whatever it takes to get the youth of the US and Canada collecting any type of cards will eventually be beneficial to all the card markets, Pre-War, Vintage and Modern. I just don't understand why so many of the vintage/pre war guys have such a hatred against modern cards/collectors? You never see Modern collectors bashing vintage or pre war cards/collectors, they have nothing but respect for the history of card collecting. There are a lot of guys who do like pre war and modern as well, many on this very board i bet.

EDIT- Thought id bring to the attention of the board another very high profile modern auction. The Bryce Harper (Nats #1 pick overall this year) Superfractor. This is another modern card that i wouldn't be surprised to see hit $10K+ and get some national media attention. The card was pulled by your "average Joe" collector, which makes it even better if it sells really high, IMO.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-Bowman-Chro...#ht_500wt_1063

[barrysloate]

If these guys are busting open cases as a form of gambling, it's pretty unlikely they are going to stay in the hobby and develop into serious collectors. When they get bored looking for chase cards they will move on to something else.

[GrayGhost]

Weren't the same things said in another thread before about the Chrome Superfricker or whatever? Seems to me like a lot of repetition here.

[packs]

Chase cards are designed to move product. Topps is going to sell more Bowman 2010 boxes and packs because people want the Strasburg. The same was true for pre-war sets. The chase cards were intended to be money makers. You were going to buy as many Goudey packs as you could get your hands on looking for that Lajoie, except the difference is you can actually get the Strasburg. The modern chase card game is a lot more honest than the pre-war one.

[HRBAKER]

Or the pre-war "chase" cards could be looked at the opposite way as well. They were short printed to be money savers, thus allowing the company to give away less baseballs, bikes or whatever. In that case I think they served two purposes, move product and prevent redemption.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

If these guys are busting open cases as a form of gambling, it's pretty unlikely they are going to stay in the hobby and develop into serious collectors. When they get bored looking for chase cards they will move on to something else.

Or when the bottom drops out of the value.

This relates to something a couple people have stated in this thread - to the effect that any attention or drawing in of new collectors is a good thing.

Not true if they become disillusioned or feel cheated by the hobby.

In the late 1980s to early 90s, people were diving into the hobby...only to evacuate later and mostly never return. These people felt (rightly so) that the card companies had played them for fools. The promise or implied promise of profits was a lie. For a lot of these people, even the mention of baseball card collecting will cause a shudder and a bitter taste. Many of them don't even differentiate between the 80s/90s junk and the pre-war stuff that has always had good value and interest.

I think the inevitable collapse in value of an item like this which has grabbed the attention of the public is bound to be bad for the hobby.

Just my opinion...

Cheers,
Blair

[HRBAKER]

Blair,
Well stated. I think we all know the long term prognosis for these cards' value. Maybe I will be wrong but I am not willing to play and find out.

Jeff

[Matthew H]

I wouldn't compare this to the 80's 90's stuff.
These cards are legitimately scarce. If there were machine stamped 1/1 rookie card color variations from 80's topps sets, They'd probably be worth money.

[Teamsets4u]

Originally Posted by martyogelvie

dammit..
that's not the Holy Grail..
that's the Holy CRAP!

Got to agree with this