This comment is very late in coming but the statute of limitations begins at the time of discovery. I just discovered this article that paints with large brush strokes an impression of my hobby that is misleading at best and an outright lie. I agree with the author that NO memorabilia of significant value should be destroyed for a marketing ploy. This is a desecration of baseball’s relics and needs to be stopped. To say that the hobby of collecting sports memorabilia is ruining sports is an indictment of what has been a time honored pastime. People of substance and the common man have always had a desire to collect items that connect them to their sports heroes. From presidents to paperboys the quest to obtain the item that best represents their favorite player’s career is a lifelong challenge. It is not the hobbyist that has exploited or destroyed valuable relics of sport but greedy corporate types that take the easy route to bolster sagging sales. Rather than addressing the real problem of collectors leaving the hobby they give an adrenaline booster that gives a temporary up-tic on their sales graphs. Greedy companies have priced out the average collector. Status collectors that do not even like sports have outbid and driven prices up beyond the average collector’s ability to compete. Traditional trading and bartering has been leveraged to the point that you only are credited about fifty-percent of value against one hundred percent of value on a trade. It is NOT the collectors of memorabilia that have ruined sports or sports collecting, it is GREED on the part of the companies and dealers that supply the hobby. One other and maybe even more egregious contributor to a bad image of collecting is the collective attitude of the professional athletes toward their fans. Back before the days of FREE AGENCY and mega contracts sports celebrities would gladly sign a baseball of 3x5 card for free. Now if a player hits.265 he feels entitled to charge a hundred dollars to scribble an illegible name on a ball. If you want to indite a group for ruining sports or the sport of collecting point your finger in that direction. Joe DeFazio
This comment is very late in coming but the statute of limitations begins at the time of discovery. I just discovered this article that paints with large brush strokes an impression of my hobby that is misleading at best and an outright lie. I agree with the author that NO memorabilia of significant value should be destroyed for a marketing ploy. This is a desecration of baseball’s relics and needs to be stopped. To say that the hobby of collecting sports memorabilia is ruining sports is an indictment of what has been a time honored pastime. People of substance and the common man have always had a desire to collect items that connect them to their sports heroes. From presidents to paperboys the quest to obtain the item that best represents their favorite player’s career is a lifelong challenge. It is not the hobbyist that has exploited or destroyed valuable relics of sport but greedy corporate types that take the easy route to bolster sagging sales. Rather than addressing the real problem of collectors leaving the hobby they give an adrenaline booster that gives a temporary up-tic on their sales graphs. Greedy companies have priced out the average collector. Status collectors that do not even like sports have outbid and driven prices up beyond the average collector’s ability to compete. Traditional trading and bartering has been leveraged to the point that you only are credited about fifty-percent of value against one hundred percent of value on a trade. It is NOT the collectors of memorabilia that have ruined sports or sports collecting, it is GREED on the part of the companies and dealers that supply the hobby. One other and maybe even more egregious contributor to a bad image of collecting is the collective attitude of the professional athletes toward their fans. Back before the days of FREE AGENCY and mega contracts sports celebrities would gladly sign a baseball of 3x5 card for free. Now if a player hits.265 he feels entitled to charge a hundred dollars to scribble an illegible name on a ball. If you want to indite a group for ruining sports or the sport of collecting point your finger in that direction. Joe DeFazio