WTF??? Can't believe they cut this up for a card...

[GrayGhost]

Originally Posted by Blitzu

The cuts of memorabilia disgusts the crap out of me. I got in an argument with a dealer a few months back over him trying to sell me a Mickey Mantle jersey card.

I told him I was looking for any Mantle (pre 69) and he offered me some new one with a jersey. I nicely told him I wasn't interested. He insisted I take a look at it and said he would give me a good price. I told him I wasn't interested at all in any cards that tear up pieces of history. He tried to justify it as the only way someone with less money can get near a piece of history like that. I quickly disagreed and said, no, the cheapest way is go to a museum and look at it yourself. He then said well it's the only way someone can own a piece of history. I replied by telling him how disrespectful and selfish it is to want a piece like that by accepting it to be cut up in tiny pieces. No bat or jersey or any other piece of history from Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, or any other player for that matter should ever, under any circumstance be cut up into shreds just to appease a few people. I hate it, and will never condone it, or support it in any way. I refuse to buy any new packs of cards or anything that condones that action. My entire collection has consisted of only vintage buys since these cards came out.

This ball is just another new low reached by these companies in a last ditch effort to stay afloat after they flooded the market with millions of cards. If they just learned to limit their general basic cards, they would again increase value. People would look at the players again, and be excited to have that player's card instead of a piece degraded history.

Off my soapbox.

By all means, stay on it. You seem to have a PERFECT view of this madness

[Blitzu]

Originally Posted by GrayGhost

By all means, stay on it. You seem to have a PERFECT view of this madness

Thanks, nice to find a place where people think like I do, and can see through the hype and madness. This is truly sickening. I love the game, and the purity of it. I'm a romantic when it comes to baseball, and I even become emotionally moved every time I enter a ML stadium for a game. There's an unexplained aura that exists, especially in those older stadiums (I'm lucky enough to be close enough to wrigley). I played the game as a child with friends, and can remember the smell of the grass, and the dirt off the infield. I love the the sound of a bat as it cracks the ball into the outfield. I loved sitting their in the outfield hunched over with one hand on my knee and the other with the glove over my other knee. Just waiting for the challenge of a ball coming near me so I can make the big play.

I also loved idolizing the greats of the games and thinking about how well they played the game. That coincided with going to a local shop to buy some cards and trying to pull out your favorite players you watch on tv. Then taking those cards and showing them off the next day to your friends. I also loved going to the big shows and finding rare pieces of history with the greats and dreaming of owning one of those old cards some day.

Now it seems all you have is a bunch of companies that forgot why it is they exist in the first place. There's a beauty to this game that they have a responsibility to protect. This isn't just any game, it's America's game, and most people from any generation can relate to it on some level. The history of this game is pretty much as long as the history of this country and it deserves more respect. I would even venture to say tearing up pieces of historic jerseys as criminal as taking pieces of Abraham Lincoln's clothing and cutting them up so that more people can own a piece of it. How well do you think people would respond to that?

Ok, I really need to stop now because I could go on forever, but thanks for the encouragement.