ABSTRACT
Baseball cards sit at the intersection of culture, copyright law, and economics. When vintage sets entered the public domain in the 1980s, reprints emerged as potential market substitutes. Standard theory suggests that substitution should lower prices of originals, but collectibles defy this logic due to the Norm of Authenticity – a phenomenon whereby collectors strongly prefer genuine items. We hypothesize that reprints not only fail to depress original values but may increase them through advertising effects. Using natural experiments, regression, and difference-indifferences analysis, we find that reprints raised prices of authentic cards. Our results challenge conventional assumptions about copyright’s role in preventing market substitution and suggest that, in authenticity-driven markets, the absence of copyright may enhance rather than erode the value of original works.
Schuster, W Michael and Holden, John, Superfluous Copyright and The Norm of Authenticity: An Empirical Study (February 20, 2026), Utah Law Review (forthcoming).
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