material worth: the worth of materials
a few weeks ago... on NPR they were talking with the author of a book called "Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession". When I looked it up online SLATE.com notes: "How come that Frank Thomas rookie card you stowed away in 1990 is now worth less than a Happy Meal? Chalk it up to the baseball card bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s."
So brutal but so true.
I, too, thought that one day I might excavate my entire baseball collection adn retire on the mad profits reeped when it was sold at auction. The Mickey Mantle I found it my grandparent's basement might be work a damn but the rest of it might just as well be used as really cool wallpaper.
But in my mind it also begs the question: How long is it before art also goes the way of the beanie baby?
Towards the end of this century when we are fighting over clean drinking water or struggling to figure out how to keep reproducing or are simply running around like Mad Max savages and the weather is beating out livelihoods to shreds who is gonna give a flying frak about art (or its supposed worth) anymore?