CBS Morning Segment - Baseball Cards down 75 %...

[uniquebaseballcards]

I disagree. Money talks in any hobby. It's a direct gauge of how healthy a hobby is. It's ALL about money, because hobbies COST money. This stuff isn't free.

You collect money then... I thought you collected cards...

Baseball cards traditionally have been collected by kids with almost ZERO money. And yes the hobby can be free if you know the right people.

At absolute best money is a secondary indicator of the health of a hobby... because a hobby can exist without money... just not without people (duh).

 

[sportscardtheory]

I disagree. Money talks in any hobby. It's a direct gauge of how healthy a hobby is. It's ALL about money, because hobbies COST money. This stuff isn't free.

You collect money then... I thought you collected cards...

Baseball cards traditionally have been collected by kids with almost ZERO money. And yes the hobby can be free if you know the right people.

At absolute best money is a secondary indicator of the health of a hobby... because a hobby can exist without money... just not without people (duh).

I collect cards, and the cards I collect cost money. Shocking? I could collect only free commons I guess, but how does that make the hobby healthy.

You think hobby health is how many people are involved, I think it's how much revenue they are pumping into the system. I don't see how a million people doing something that is free makes that hobby "healthy" per-say, but I can see how millions of dollars being pumped into a hobby makes it easy to say that it is in fact, healthy.

 

[G $MONEY$]

You're quite literally talking about less than .000001% (one millionth) of all cards produced during the last decade here LOL.

that wasn't the point, the point was where were these stories??

 

[ChasHawk]

You're quite literally talking about less than .000001% (one millionth) of all cards produced during the last decade here LOL.

that wasn't the point, the point was where were these stories??

That doesn't make for interesting doom and gloom news.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

You're quite literally talking about less than .000001% (one millionth) of all cards produced during the last decade here LOL.

that wasn't the point, the point was where were these stories??

You described several cards out of several million different ones this past decade to choose from, not great odds; they're situations not indicative of the hobby. The article could also have easily spoken about how much specific cards have declined in value... and there are a lot more of these kinds of cards.

The (real) lottery stories are more interesting - even longer odds and almost infinitely better payoffs. A few grand just isn't very sexy news... especially if you've already spent a few grand and a lot of time to get it.

Stories about people sell best.

 

[marhjan]

edit: just saw the end of the vid. They were there on a Tuesday night... :benson: :benson: :benson: :benson: :benson:

That Tuesday night Parsippany PAL show used to be one of the more important shows in the hobby, and I'm talking about well into the late 90's early 2000's. You can get the newest wax there on Tuesday night (before the general Wednesday releases) and the place used to be packed Tuesday night or not. Unfortunately Mike Gordon (who is not my favorite person in the world) sold the show around 10 years ago and it has completely fallen apart. I used to be at that show EVERY SINGLE WEEK - it was easy to make $200+ just walking around flipping stuff, moving stuff from one dealer to the next or to other collectors. Now basically no one shows up anymore.

Saying - yeah no one was there misses the point - it USED TO BE a monster show, sadly it might as well RIP now....

 

[ChasHawk]

edit: just saw the end of the vid. They were there on a Tuesday night... :benson: :benson: :benson: :benson: :benson:

That Tuesday night Parsippany PAL show used to be one of the more important shows in the hobby, and I'm talking about well into the late 90's early 2000's. You can get the newest wax there on Tuesday night (before the general Wednesday releases) and the place used to be packed Tuesday night or not. Unfortunately Mike Gordon (who is not my favorite person in the world) sold the show around 10 years ago and it has completely fallen apart. I used to be at that show EVERY SINGLE WEEK - it was easy to make $200+ just walking around flipping stuff, moving stuff from one dealer to the next or to other collectors. Now basically no one shows up anymore.

Saying - yeah no one was there misses the point - it USED TO BE a monster show, sadly it might as well RIP now....

Interesting that this wasn't included in the story.

 

[marhjan]

I actually have been to the Parsippany, NJ show that they featured.

Just this past week's show was definitely the worst I have been to. It's the first that I've been to in a couple of months. Same dealers with the same cards. The problem with shows like this is there is no new stuff for sale.

However, there are other good shows around this area that are on weekends and draw a pretty good crowd. Tuesday afternoon/night shows aren't going to get a lot of people. There is no denying that.

The bolded text is patently false - as recently as 1999-2000 there would be 100+ people lined up out the door before the Tuesday night PAL show started. When Mike Gordon sold the show it died - I really don't think the fate of this one particular show has all that much to do with Ebay etc.