Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

Gabriella is a psychology major at Stern College for Women in New York and has both a father and brother who collect sports cards - she is writing a paper on our hobby and we discuss those issues practically and a little bit scholarly.

Detroit collector Frank Guastella and I fondly remember three great collectors from Detroit who were all outstanding ambassadors for our sports card hobby. 

How easy is it to manipulate the sports card market or at least the price or value of a specific card or player?  

Lots of changes from the card grading companies - restrictions and increases - how should collectors and submitters react and respond?

Rich basically interviews me on what I like to do when I am not collecting or handling sports cards.  Helping solve the problems of others is easier than solving your own!

As you recall, Rocco has been totally blind for the past 15 years, but that has not slowed his sports card collecting passion.

The economist, Chris Harris, asks the statistician, me, questions, and I reciprocate.

Rich and I discuss the relative merits of magical years vs. dynasties vs. superstar-dominated eras across all the major sports.

Frank Nagy was a hobby icon from Detroit who had on of the top collections in the world but was very willing to share first-hand information and promote this great hobby.

Using basketball as an analogy - here are six considerations for an avatar that might fit the way you collect during this bull market on basketball (and other sports) cards.