I Was Supposed to be a Millionaire by Now . . .

Well hello hello,

So remember when you were a kid back in the late 80s - early 90s? Remember saving up your weekly allowance so that you could go to a card store to pick up a set of Upper Deck or to check out the new Fleer Ultra set? Remember grabbing the new monthly Beckett to see how much your Griffey Jr. went up or what was the highest valued card to date? Remember when a card store didn't have Hallmark cards but Topps, Donruss, Upper Deck, Fleer or Bowman?

If you in fact remember any one of the above than you probably are constantly wondering why you still have boxes upon binders upon hard cases of sports cards in your basement or at the top of your closet. Back in the day, kids like us declined offers to sell our sports cards from 40 year old men who sat behind glass cases. We declined their offer because we knew, we hoped, we invested in the belief that this same card was going to be worth hundreds of dollars by the time we got to be adults. We all hoped that we would pass on our Frank Thomas Topps #1 Draft Pick card from generation to next generation as our family would go on to become the 21st Century version of the Rockefellers. There was no doubt in our minds that one day . . . our cards would make us rich!

And now here is the reason why I have been asking you all to remember . . .

This post on YouTube absolutely SHATTERED any hopes of my Randy Johnson rookies, Michael Jordan Upper Deck, or Bo Jackson Rated Rookie being worth any more than $10. The baseball card industry has officially made a joke of itself and is trying out the 3D field like every other dorky media manager who bought Avatar on blue-ray and is convinced it has changed his life. Baseball cards were never meant to be seen in 3D and never meant to be anywhere close to a computer screen (unless maybe you're selling your card on eBay for as much as you can).

Although the Advertiser in me thinks that this is pretty cool, and I'm sure there is a niche market out there somewhere for this, the little kid in me wearing a backwards hat and umbros is kicking my shins. I'm all for Augmented Reality and its potential concepts and executions but I just don't get why we always have to take a good thing and try to make it "better" (please God don't have Hollywood try and made Waterworld 2).

Please note: If you read the first paragraph and could not remember any of those, please ask your parents how month old bubble gum tastes or just check out this kid's collection and realize the power sports cards had on us (this is what Becketts and the promise of inflation did to all of us The Card Room)