The guarantees of life

Boy did I come back to blogging at the right time. There are exclusive contracts being given out like samples at Sam's Club, a new football season is just around the corner and there's good old fashioned blog war going on about Exquisite basketball. Let's start there...

You know there's two guarantees in life, death and taxes right? Well, I've come to conclusion of late there are actually three guarantees in life: death, taxes, and Gellman shooting his mouth off.

Something you may not know is that I don't link to his blog, his posts or anything else he does, and I never will. There's a couple reasons for it: 1) I don't like the frequent use of off-color language 2) I don't agree with 90% of what he says. And the current war he waged on Wax Heaven is just another example.

Exquisite basketball just released and from what I can tell, many people are disappointed. And how could you not be when you get five cards for $665? A quick completed listing search of "08-09 Exquisite" brought back just three cards that sold for over the SRP. Yes, they are several cards that are bringing in $100-$300, but what good is that going to do for you? (unless you are this guy)

Because let's be honest, most people who buy these high end products are looking for an investment or a quick resale. Yes, some people do buy these products because they collect high end of whoever they can take because they like autos and multi-color patches. Here's the difference. The people on side one can't always afford these products and are just ignorant to sale value. The folks on side two can afford and don't care about resale value. That is that.

Now the war that has raged was brought about because Mario made a post suggesting other things that one could spend $665 on. Nothing wrong with that. In no way did Mario bash the product or bash the people who buy the product. In case you've never noticed, many professional media outlets will show what you could buy with the amount of money the government spent on something or how much money a team spent on a free agent in sports. It's a normal thing to do in the media. And if we, the bloggers, really are media like Gellman likes to say, then there was nothing wrong with Mario's post. Just imagine if this guy had stuck it out.

So what was Gellman's response to Mario's post? Allow me to quote the introduction.

Every time a super high end product comes out, many of the blogs tend to focus on how terrible it is solely because of the cost. Not because of design, not because of content, but because of how much you spend for the amount you get. The problem is, many of the bloggers are one sport baseball collectors, who have grown up collecting cards in a vastly different fashion. So, rather than hear about the evils of high end from people who dont really collect it, I think its time to see some different opinions from someone who is a part of this hobby because of how great it is.

And by many of the blogs, he provided one link to Mario then proceeded to bash him for things his post never said.

Criticizing others' works is part of this whole blogsphere (obviously since that's what I'm doing right now), but you better do it responsibly or you just look like a fool.