Haven't you noticed how every "old hand" makes you doubt whatever you just bought? Same thing happens with grills, trucks, and coffee makers. There's always some guy who's been doing it thirty years and thinks your way is wrong, and half the time he's just set in his ways.

Three years ago I paid $180 for a CGC 9.6 copy of a book I could've grabbed raw for $40, and that slab is now worth maybe $60 on a good day, so I get the sting. But here's where I see it different: slabs were never meant to be a quick flip game, and a lot of folks got talked into treating them like stocks at those con booths. The people who got hurt are mostly the ones who bought modern books that were hot that weekend, not the ones sitting on keys from the 60s or 70s that keep chugging along. I still buy slabs, I just buy them for books I actually want to own for years, not for whatever some guy in a polo shirt tells me is about to pop. If you're buying to read, floppies win every time, but if you want a nice copy that stays nice, a slab still does its job. The hobby didn't burn you, the timing and the hype did, and that's a different problem.