So I walked into a card store today, and was puzzled by...

[luciobar1980]

So I walk into a card store today. I’ll leave it unnamed, but it’s in the Pacific Northwest if that makes any difference. Pretty small shop, one case of some vintage. It was kind of strange. He had a really beat up 52 Mantle in the center of the case, and a 39 Play Ball DiMaggio, but then all around it there wasn’t a single card over $100. The mantle wasn’t priced but he did say he had gotten offers of $10,000 and turned it down. They both certainly looked real but it was kind of strange that besides those 2 cards everything else was pretty much under $50. Anyways, that’s not really the point of my story.

I asked him if he had any higher end vintage around. He basically told me nahhh, “that stuff is dying off”. I was like hmm, what do you mean by that exactly? He went on to explain that vintage is really dead, nobody is really interested in it anymore. He said most collectors were older, already had all the cards they needed, and the younger generation didn’t care about vintage. He also vaguely told me how, as an example, pretty much all Willie Mays cards go for like $20, or something like that. I didn’t really inquire beyond that despite being morbidly curious. It was strange. This guy owns a card shop and thinks vintage is dead? He made it seem like Mays cards that used to be very valuable can now be pretty much picked up very cheap. I didn’t feel like getting into a discussion about it, so I pretty much played the dumb “I used to collect cards as a kid” role. I know you’re reading my vague second-hand story, but can anyone venture and explanation as what this guy was talking about or why he would say that??