Hockey card conspiracy

I'm responding to the Wick's article ["Card Sharks," Nov. 12], which has some accurate--if understated--opinions about the sports card industry. For reasons of self-preservation, I can't reveal my name: I work for a sports card distributor.

I must confess that I'm sickened by the entire market. Not only are there heavy elements of price fixing and creating an artificial scarcity of any given "hot" product, but there is the ever-present bottom line: most of this crap (I would guess upwards of 90 per cent) comes from our friends south of the border.

This mean that Canadian kids and collectors are basically pouring money out of the country. And they are indirectly supporting the principle behind the ongoing NBA lockout and the need to burn marks in Germany to keep warm in the '30s: artificial value.

The so-called "high end" collecting cards that the Wick mentioned--which come under a variety of clever, long-winded names--instead of being valuable because of their rarity or innate quality, are valued because the manufacturer says they will be valuable.

Two of the four major card producers in the the States have filed for bankruptcy in the past few years, proving to me that the vast overproduction of so-called "rare and collector's" items like hockey or baseball cards is in fact nothing more than an enormous scam designed to bleed gullible kids and obsessive-compulsive adults into spending their hard-earned money on junk.

The industry has seen to it that the "big secret," that these cards are actually mainly worthless, has been cleverly kept from the consumer for one reason: greed. Everyone down the line gets their cut: manufacturer, distributor, sub-distributor and finally the retailer. The people who publish literature (if you can call it that) that inflates the artificial value of these cards are also a part of this cartel.

The real losers here are the kids buying this crap at outrageous prices under the impression that they are "investing" in something worthwhile.

--"A snitchin' card shark"

Orpheus philosophizing

Your report on the virtual performance Orféo ["Dying for a virtual kiss," Nov. 26] has Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon claiming that imagination is superior to knowledge. I admit that, having to choose between the two, I would choose the former. But I would be mindful of the dictum that states: "A little learning is a dangerous thing," and that flawed reasoning leads to silly conclusions.

Lemieux, thinking of quantum physics perhaps, is reported to state that even scientists say that matter is an illusion. I do not think they do! If matter were an illusion, no scientist could possibly judge that this is so, given that science is empirical and based on observation and rational analysis.

Aristotle subscribed somewhat to Plato's view that the physical world is simply an illusion of our senses, but held that physical matter is the stuff of reality and not to be despised.

This is not to claim that it is easy to define matter. A Victorian joke highlights this: "What is matter? Never mind. No matter!" Whereas matter is thought by many to be soul, spirit or energy, modern science generally considers it to be what is fundamental in existence and what is conserved in change.

Even in favouring imagination, one must recognize that imagination ensues from life and consciousness, which in turn are emergent properties in complex patterns of organization of physical matter. Orféo may be illusory and hallucinatory, but it is the product of someone's brain.

--Frederick J. Tatlow

Jangling Christmas nerves

Isn't it insane to hear relentless jingling and lardy "hohos" to advertise the merchandise being sold this season? How irritating and so massive a turn-off. It's time we get past the notion that jingling bells are the ultimate harbinger to Christmas and the new year. It's actual harassment! There simply is no excuse to rattle on with so much jangling, tinkling, jingling pestilence.

If Christmas is about tradition busting out all over, I think it's time Santa bags the belly-ache and cuts the canned laughter. No one truly likes a phony. I wish!

--Elaine Synowicky

Plea from a party seeker

I'm coming to Montreal for New Year's Eve and I am wondering where the big parties are. I hope you can help me, it would be very much appreciated.

--Anne Hoefnagels

Somewhere in Southern Ontario

[Ed's note: Next week's edition of the Mirror will carry a complete guide to New Year's events in Montreal. Stay tuned!]