Baseball Cards Top Five Darkest and Brightest Moments

[alanu]

in no particular order

worst
1. Counterfeits, alterations, scammers, thieves et
2. Card overproduction in the 80-90's
3. The unfortunate demise of card shops and local shows
4. The negative attitude towards the hobby of many dealers and collectors
5. Can't think of many more not included in one above

best
1. "Reputable" card grading in response to 1 above (and forums like this for policing)
2. Ebay in making cards more available to everyone
3. SCD, not in it's present form though
4. Topps/Bowman in the 40's thru 80's for producing an annual set of cards
5. Whoever thought of making "cards" with sports personalities

[JEFFV96MASTERS]

Post / opinion no longer available

[steve B]

worst - in no particular order.
1 Fakes and fraudulently altered cards.
2 demise of card shops. ---Tough one, many of them went because of a lack of knowledge of both cards and business which is as it should be.
3 The rise of a lottery mentality and corresponding lack of general interest in cards older than a couple weeks
4 The failing of print publications with worthwhile content- Use the internet/electronic formats, but if it's worth knowing it's worth printing
5 The well funded collector as a sort of celebrity. Halper may have been the first? but there have been others that are better known for spending ability than knowledge. Fortunately there are few of them, but those few make everyone else focus on the monetary aspects of the hobby.

The best - Again in no particular order
1 The Rose rookie fakes - woke people up to what was possible.
2 The pioneering collectors and cataloguers like Burdick. Without them we'd all be just stumbling around in the dark.
3 Catalogs/checklists/price guides - Yes, even Beckett. Before them things were a bit of a mystery. How many cards in a set? What players? Without those things collecting isn't readily accessible to many people. And also brought some consistecy to pricing.
4 The internet. Like it or not it's made cards more available, and shown just how common the common stuff really is. It also makes lots of information easier to find.
5 Availability of a wide range of decent if not good looking storage supplies. I bought my first plastic pages in late 74 early 75. And they were horrible. Now there's a full range of stuff from penny sleeves to grading slabs. Anyone who recalls stacks of rubber banded cards at shows and being warned against putting them on too tight - or worse yet, dropping cards wrapped unexpectedly loose or wrecking a card or two by wrapping tightly should have this on the list.

Steve B

[benderbroeth]

i will not list but i will say things like ebay and these forums led me to a whole different collection, i went to a lot of shows in the 80's and 90's and the oldest i could ever find was the 50's maybe a 40's card every once in awhile, but now i can get t205's and t206's and even old judge and allen $ ginter 1880's cards wich i never ever saw in a card show!!!

[jthorst75]

I think one of the worst ideas were to cut jerseys, bats, and autographs just to put them on a card. I think that is downright dumb and this why I will have nothing to do with them. The best thing I think is grading to make buyers aware of what they have is the real deal. But this could also be the worst idea as there are way to many graders out there who can't grade or authenticate worth a crap. Also I beleive cards that have high grades are way overpriced and can ruin the collectibilty of the hobby. This is why I like low grade cards; they are affordable and its why I am still in the game.

[Brendan]

In no particular order

Worst
1. eBay (no protection for sellers, counterfeits, etc.)
2. Beckett (honestly? check out the values they give some cards)
3. Turning the hobby into an investment (junk wax era..where's my gum?)
4. All this new crap. There's a "refracter" numbered to 5, one numbered to 10, one numbered to 25, one numbered to 50, etc.
5. Counterfeits, forged autographs, shilling, etc. The general public view the card business as a shady one. (which it probably is in all honesty)
6. Grading companies. Who cares if a slab says "9" on it? I can't believe the people who spend $2,000 on a common 1952 Topps card graded 9. I'm all for people spending big amounts of money, that's great for the hobby. But could you at least buy something that will retain it's value once the registry craze is over?

Best
1. eBay. It made people realize the true value of cards. Pretty decent place to pick something up. (yeah, I know I have it on my worst list)
2. Online forums, auctions houses, etc. Allows us to chat with fellow prewar collectors and buy rare items
3. The Gretzky Wagner. Like it or not, (overrated....) this whole thing turned many 'newish' collectors onto prewar. Nothing like an expensive card to spark some excitement in these (mass produced) T206. (however, this card literally started PSA....so maybe I changed my mind)

Can't think of anything else very unique on the best side, so I'll stop at 3.

[53Browns]

Darkest moment: The demies of the wax pack when Upper Deck created the tamper proof pack in 1989. This is truly when the hobby of collecting new cards died.