If you're looking to the card shop to send your kid to college......

The Stephen Strasburg example provides the textbook case of how sports cards as an investment are no safer in the long term than anything else you could sink your money into.  If investing in cards provide a better alternative than just taking your life savings and putting it all on one spin of the roulette wheel in Vegas, here's one player recommended as a target to put your money in.  An eBay search of the cards mentioned in the article indicates they can still be had for a song.......as low as 35 cents in one case (plus a rather exorbitant shipping charge for 2 baseball cards).  Then there's this one, which will cost you a little more. 

Clayton Kershaw's Los Angeles Dodgers rookie trading cards starting to pick up investment steam

Just sign here

This is one of those rare pieces that can is beneficial to collectors AND dealers, although it is quite obviously written for the casual collector who happens to run into a player or former player in public or attends a signing.  Whether you're looking to add a signed ball or two to the shelf in your "(Insert name of favorite team here) room" or hoarding them for a potential goldmine down the road, there is care and maintenance involved just as any other hobby........

How to take care of an autographed baseball

If you win it, they will buy

My best guess is you could substitute Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Houston, and possibly Detroit for the Phoenix area in this article and it would read exactly the same.  And my utmost condolences to anyone who loaded up on modern era Pittsburgh Pirates memorabilia thinking it would provide your kid's first class ticket to the Ivy League.........

Down year for Arizona sports team equals weak sales for Phoenix memorabilia dealers

Divine Intervention

The story from early November about a Honus Wagner card being auctioned off to benefit a Catholic school initially had a less-than-Hollywood ending, with the original winning bidder failing to produce the $220,000 pledged for the card.  Fortunately, and just in time for the holidays, the story took a brighter turn thanks to a doctor and card collector. 

Catholic sisters' baseball card auctioned off to new owner