So this posting should resonate with any guy (or girl) who's ever collected sports cards and/or memorabilia.
One hot summer day after I'd graduated from high school, I wandered into a local sports memorabilia store next to a Baskin Robbins. I was flush with cash from relatives, and it was, as usual, burning a hole in my pocket. I had long since given up on collecting contemporary sports cards (since the market had been flooded with a glut of sports cards since the early 1990's), but had maintained my fascination with old cards. I began perusing the counters and shelves, and did a double-take when I saw a truly ancient-looking card innocently resting between a Hank Aaron and a Roger Clemens. It wasn't in great shape, but it was a 1914 Honus Wagner tobacco card.
Honus Wagner, a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early days of the "modern" era of baseball, was staunchly anti-smoking. Once he found out that tobacco companies were using his likeness for cards inserted in tobacco boxes, he demanded they cease and desist, as he feared children buying the addictive weed just to have his baseball card (which is what I would have done had I grown up a kid in the 1910's). For this reason, Honus Wagner tobacco cards are extremely rare and valuable, fetching hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in auctions - most famously by Wayne Gretzky. Most Honus Wagner cards in existence today feature advertisements for candy on the backs. Evidently smoking was bad, but rotten teeth and diabetes were bully! Anyway, the lady behind the counter, who told me she thought no one would want this card because it's "so old," was selling this card for $150. The money lighting up my pocket had found a home.
As you can see above, the card is not in great shape, but given its age would not be considered to be in as bad a shape as if it were a card from, say, 2000. Based on Becketts and recent EBay auctions, it appears that I could realistically clear $2000 for the card were I to sell it today.
And herein lies my dilemma.
Without a doubt, a return on investment of over 1000% in eight and a half years is pretty good. And, without a doubt, I could use that money. BUT, the problem is that it's a pretty damn cool baseball card, and would be difficult to give up.
The question for you, dear readers, is what would you do in this situation?? At what point is it ok to sell prized baseball cards/comics/toast with the Virgin Mary burnt into it??
Comments would be much appreciated.
Disgruntled out.
