need cash for The National

[btkpath]

I don’t post very often on this board, as I find it much more helpful to stay in the wings and learn from others. However, it has been very hard to keep quiet during this 11 page, 100+ post diatribe. I could really care less whether Bruce has attended an Ivy League School, serves on the boards of multiple museums, hobnobs with million/billionaires, is fat, bald and without a girlfriend, sits within spitting distance of the Yankees at ballgames or only has a nine inch schlong (unlike my 12 inches).

What has really disturbed me is the apparent disdain that he shows for people who have a passion for this hobby, yet either choose to or are forced to by financial constraints, collect differently than Bruce. I would go as far to say that many of the collectors who post on this board work as hard and as long hours as Bruce, yet have not been as fortunate as he has been to be a member of the “lucky sperm club” and be able to afford fur coated urinals, escalators in their houses, a bevy of vestal virgins peeling grapes for him to snack on, or any card that his heart desires.

I don’t think it takes a Wharton MBA to realize that everyone collects in different ways, all of them valid and all contributing to the vitality (or lack thereof) of OUR hobby. I have met some wonderful people on this board, collecting a gamut of different issues, some graded higher than mine and some lower, but all of them representing a common passion that deserves to be respected. It is not to say that I don’t sit in front of my computer screen shaking my head as to what would ever possess somebody to spend money on certain cards or series, but I would never consider vocalizing those feelings.

The irony of all this is that the same people that Bruce chooses to disparage are the same that provide indirect (and direct) relevance to the memorabilia that he collects. Without the collecting community providing “demand” for the poor “supply” of some cards out there, his memorabilia is not worth the paper it is printed on. So 50 years from now when my body is 6 feet under covered with maggots and Bruce’s is entombed in his gold plated, environmentally controlled casket surrounded by his collection, it is the next generation of “beater” collectors that will provide him with the recognition he so clearly DOES NOT deserve.

So, Bruce, to answer your original question, I don’t have any of the cards on your Universe’s Toughest Want List. I do, however, have some other tough cards that you apparently might find useful…….I have t206 cards of “Humble” and “Humility”, both as PSA 7’s (I am keeping my PSA 9 examples of both in my collection, but you can consider upgrading at any time). Then again, my hunch is that these may not fit into your (or your clients’) price range.

You will now have to excuse me as my screaming kids and nagging wife want to get some lunch at McDonalds.

Regards