Why Is This Hobby So Unkind To Some Of Its Players ?

[Yzerfan]

Steve Yzerman (who I do not believe was as good a player as Francis) has a huge following due to being one of the all time great Wings, multiple Stanley Cups, etc. Canadian Olympic Gold helps him too. Huge following mean his cards sell for pretty high prices.

You watch your mouth, LOL.

[Crosby 87]

Besides me who quasi collects Francis I think there may be one other person who collects him on here. You would think with him playing for a popular team like the Pens he would have more collectors but alas he doesnt.

[Wickabee]

Crap. This thread is convincing me to start collecting Francis. All these accomplishments and cheap cheap cheap!

[Estovia]

What you've done here is name a large number of players who, while they might have made an impact on the game in their time, are just not big enough to overcome both the fact that they played during an era in the hobby where their cards aren't worth much, and the fact that a lot of people skip right from "current player" to "HHOF player."

A lot of people who are collecting cards nowadays are interested in current players on their preferred teams and big money cards of the big stars and rookies.

Guys who had an impact on the game 20 years ago, even if they might have made the HHOF since their retirement, just don't garner much interest from their new product, and can't garner much interest with RCs worth less than $10.

[Sportfreund]

You think that's bad, you should look at how few cards are produced for NHL stars who played before the mid 50s. There are some like the Rocket and Ted Lindsay who retired or were at their peak around that time but almost none of them get cards nowadays minus a few like Howie Morenz or Cyclone Taylor. It's almost as if there were no star NHLers before the 60s based on cards. Most of them have never had a card produced showing their full career stats. If it weren't for cards from ITG in the past decade, some of them would have almost no cards made since the 50s.

Also I don't buy the argument of HOFers or current players. There are HOFers like Langway who are forgotten too or 70s and 80s HOFers. It's only the very high end players like Bobby Clark or Bobby Hull or Lemieux who hold value.

I don't really care because I don't sell but it would be nice if some of those older players got at least a base card once in a while. The main problem is that hockey is not popular enough to be that well documented. It's documented but let me rephrase that, it's not popular enough for the history of the sport to be a big seller like it is in baseball.

[CoolHandLuke]

Demand drive the prices. Mainly all reason why someone collect a player in the end affect demand. Crosby was a canadian kid. Often having visibility in news or hockey TV show. Ovechkin and malkin did not receive this publicity. So Crosby had a long pole ahead of the other two to become collectable. The team a player played influence a lot. Francis is Hartford did not have a huge fan base and the team is gone. Player that played all their career in detroit were in high demand because of the good fan base and history of the team and most did not play for 2-3 or 4 teams. So it explain the popularity. Also in between the end of a career and becoming HOF fan do loose interest into collecting them and turn to collect other player liek in Montreal when PK came in, collector started to spend on him so the money do not go on player not active anymore.

All these factor in the demand.

[andrewconnors9]

Tim, check out this years The Cup and Ron Francis (pictured on leafs), hes for once getting some mad hobby love like he deserves

[Frendo]

Yes just insane that players like Tony Twist (haha!) and Richard Brodeur gets plenty crazy ultra high-end cards like NHL-Shields or Logos cards while such many great players gets crap crads or nothing!

But I don't agree that Lindros is falling off, he got some absolutely amazing cards at lately..also Francis has at last got some love at lately...but sure took a quite time for that...

I'm also puzzled by that many goalies which aren't sooo that good but gets amazing cards while many other golaies with superior stats or merits gets crap cards or nothing...of course it's just popularity but I still don't understand why such many players (especially goalies) gets "unlimited" hobby-love but has bad rep among with non-collecting hockey fans....

I gets stunned when I reads threads at HOF-forum which are filled of bashing comments about how bad those players are but at same time the very same players gets crazy love among us collectors...just strange!

I'm truly offened by that Tony Twist gets such sick cards constantly while such many greats gets nothing! Come again! Tony Twist...The Cup cards with just HIM!?!?

Upperdeck is absolutely a joke sometimes (often at lately)!

There are like 100 goalies who're better and has more wins than Richard Brodeur but maybe only 10-15 goalies even comes near to his level of cards....even thought that his cards doesnät even sells well according my researching (often less than $10 for his The Cup Logos card!) but he stills get crazy cards year after year...why???

Goalies like Barrasso, Vanbiesbrouck, Richter, Moog, Vernon etc are waay superior and has Stanley Cups or harwares or international merits or 15x-20x better stats but still R.Brodeur beats crap outta those goalies in card-wise (ITG cards not icluded!)....pure insanity!

Rant over....

[ajcorleone]

I agree with this and I say it like a broken record.Many not all go after rookies in hopes of Tom Brady or the now hot Colin Kaepernick.I would much rather invest in a star of HOFer but I have changed collecting habits to what I like and certain players.It is easier that way

This is a rookie and vintage driven hobby, those guys are in the middle of the ether. It's also a team driven hobby, and almost all of them played in America, you try finding hockey wax in Las Vegas, or even Seattle! I have one or two memorablia cards of all of those guys, but they're parts of jersey sets that I wanted to complete, not guys I'd ever chase otherwise.

Plus most of their rookies and subsequent cardscame out in the MASS-produced 90's, I don't have the binder space for a "worthless" player collection, I already have Markus Naslund hahahahaaaaa. There's still a ton of unopened product full of those guys :(

[Wickabee]

I really wish they'd start giving Kirk McLean the Richard Brodeur treatment.
Nothing against Brodeur.