i'm curious about what sorts of things people wish would exist in the hobby. by "things" i mean anything really, from common practices to certain types of establishments or associations, products, services, etc. anything really that you've ever found yourself wishing would exist. i'll start:

- an enterprise solely devoted to the sale of pure research. specifically, an enterprise that would invest substantially in conducting research regarding all aspects of game-used items and parse off the findings into topic-related reports to sell to collectors. eg: if you're wondering about the history of new era caps from 1970-1980, they'd sell you a report detailing it all. or if you're interested in a report detailing the jersey sizes worn by cal ripken from 1990-1998, they'd research that and sell it to you. they'd sell pure research with very little interpretation. the interpretation would be left up to the collector who purchased the report.

as a collector, i have absolutely no need for any authentication service. i don't care about someone else's interpretations. what i want is the information to make up my own. (similar to how malta's release of the bat records finally enabled collectors to make up their own minds and devise their own standards rather than completely relying on bushing's interpretations). i have a huge need for the raw data and frequently find myself without the resources to discover the information i need. eg: i'm really interested in batting practice jerseys from 1987-1995. i'd like to know the manufacturers, styles, tagging, fonts, style details for every AL team during those years. unfortunately, i haven't the time nor the resources to find out. i can't blow $5k on videos, magazines, cards, etc. however, a commercial venture could justify that cost as they'd recoup it by essentially reselling the same research over and over. if they made a report on 1980-1990 AL BP shirts, for example, they would only have to create it once and it'd continue to sell for years.

large consultancies, research firms, think tanks, etc make a good living producing such customized research reports for companies. Toyota, for example, can easily find several top-tier companies that will prepare a data report showing the correlation between inflation and american vs japanese car sales for Toyota to use for their purposes. as collectors, we have a huge need for information and yet we're often forced to conduct the research ourselves, many times from unreliable sources. individually, many of us simply don't have the resources to find the information we need from primary sources. it'd be nice for there to be a pure research company with substantial resources that would spend their days studying video tapes, photos, conferring with equipment managers, players, manufacturers and then compile all of that information into topic-related reports.

- i wish auction houses would reveal the consigner behind every item. i understand why they don't. however, as a buyer it'd be very helpful in helping me to avoid items from dealers who i know offer bad items.

i'd be very interested to hear what others wish would exist in this hobby. anything really..including that bat rack shaped like scarlett johanssen.

rudy.