Baseball Cards and Stocks

rockiedog07

If you grew up in the 80's, chances are baseball cards and trading them were a recess and afterschool activity that backed up the five buck allowance. I'm finding that my baseball card days and my current stock trading practices have some amazing similarities.

As a child, my weekend visits to the comic book store included buying a Beckett Magazine. The magazine included the prices of baseball cards. Hot cards had an arrow up, cold cards got an arrow down, and some cards stayed the same. When hot cards got that arrow up, the comic book store would somehow stock up on those cards and sell it at a 20% or more higher price than the magazine. The lower cards would be priced at the Beckett price.

My tendency for buying baseball cards were to buy the low priced all stars and undervalued players. Guys like Greg Maddux and Tony Gwynn cards were steady eddie cards but never sky rocketted while guys like Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire skyrocketted like you wouldn't believe! Then of course, there were speculative cards like Devon White or Tom Glavine which I never quite knew if they would pan out, but would hold on to just in case of a hot month or a gold glove.

Currently, I watched the stock markets and Motley Fool with similar green arrows up and red arrows down like my childhood weekends with the Beckett Magazine. Hot stocks like RIMM and APPL looked great, but always out of my price range. Then there were my steady eddie stocks like MCD and GE (I know GE has gotten hit like a blown arm baseball player, but even John Smoltz came back). Then there's the stocks like AUY that's a speculative pick, but with potential like a Tom Glaivine (now worth 35 bucks that I bought in a buck pack).

Those hot Mark McGuire cards never really stayed with me (dang Olympic card now worth 120). I'd get rid of them quickly at the highest price I could get. I might have never gotten full price for the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card (now worth 80), but was able to buy Tetris and Mike Tyson's Punchout with that money! My steady eddie baseball cards like Greg Maddux (worth 120 today) are still in that cardboard box in the closet. Today, I might not be a motley fool all star, but have enough money for that weekend beach trip with the family with my stock trades and money made with dividend plays!

Today, fantasy baseball and football has taken the place of baseball cards, but my stock trading practices go right along with my recess and afterschool baseball trading days. If there was ever a day that the Comic Book store had a mad sale with prices astronomically lower, you'd better believe I'd be out there buying low price cards, so wtih the stock market at the place it's at, I've been buying pretty similarly.

If you grew up in the 80s and are trading baseball cards, what were your practices? Are they similar to your stock trading practices of today?