Direction of the Hobby

[Helms83]

I, like many other collectors, am a collector from the late 1980s and early 1990s; better known as the ‘massed produced’ era. I stopped collecting shortly after the baseball strike of 1994. Whether the strike actually had anything to do with my ceasing to collect or the coming of age of an adolescent male is the true reason is another discussion; the point is I had stopped collecting and was reintroduced to the hobby pre-draft of 2006. I was amazed at the vast changes and advances the hobby had taken!

I was accustomed to star veteran players, rookie cards of hopefuls and inserts of various stats, but this new age of collecting was astounding! Cards have serial numbers, meaning there are only so many cards produced of that particular player. Cards have pieces of event worn fabrics called ‘game-used’; there were ‘patch’ versions meaning the game-used piece was multi-colored or there was stitching from a jersey number, logo, or name. There were cards with actual autos; when back in the day (which was a Wednesday – a little Dane Cook humor), the only on-card autos were the ones that had been in-person signed from sporting events or other special events. But now these cards were authenticated, logged in the annuals of the card company’s product history. There are online trade sites, auction sites, a mass community of collectors from all over the world that can discuss, trade, buy or sell; the possibilities of the hobby are endless! However, over the past few years I’ve noticed a trend beginning that lead to the decline of the value of sports cards in the late 1980s; that of mass production.

Every card company is competing to be the best of the best, better than the next; to make the top dollar. To do so, the theory seems to be to flood products with highly sought after collector items, such as: short print runs, game-used, patch variations, and autographs of rookies, star veterans, and hall-of-famers. The more a card company crams into a hobby box, the more hope is instilled for the product to sell, and to sell for a higher price, in turn making that ‘top dollar’. Which causes for concern; the more and more companies put into a product, what about the fear of once again flooding the market, decreasing card values, and creating a ‘depression like’ recession which the hobby faced in the mid 1990s. If history has taught anyone anything, it’s that history exists to not make the same mistakes twice. As hobbyist it is our responsibility to ensure this event is prevented. You as the reader might ask, ‘How; what can I do as one person?’ Well my fellow hobbyist, I am here to help.

As hobbyist, it is our due-diligence to take control of our hobby and let it known to those who create our hobby products what we want from them; the direction we want our hobby to take; our displeases, as well as our praises. The time is now, before reversing the mass production cycle is too late. I have created a short list of suggestions that card companies should take into consideration to hopefully regain the value and luster of sport card collecting. This list is not all inclusive, nor is it all comprehensive. These are suggestions from a fellow hobbyist to hopefully create a movement of thinkers and motivate others to save our hobby. Without further ado, here is my list of suggestion to card companies:

-Short print base cards – The days of set building have long been forgotten. I believe this due in part to the lack of value in completed sets. If base cards were serial numbered and there were only so many possible sets to be completed, I believe this would cause hobbyist to have a desire to chase base cards. Products have experimented with this idea and I believe this created a want for these cards, such as National Treasures’ base cards. Also, limit base cards to only current NFL players (further suggestions will adhere to past legends) and vary between products which player is in these sets. Collectors don’t exactly want to see the same five players from the respective teams in every product.

-Limit base rookie cards – Collectors do vary on which rookies they collect, and it is hard to please every collector. But not every product from every card company needs to have an all inclusive rookie print run. Maybe pick one product from each year (for instance I love Topps Chrome) and insert every rookie you would like into the base set. As for your other products, pick the best prospected rookies and make rookie cards for them (but limit the print runs of rookies). This, coupled with my suggestion for autographed cards, will bring back value and want for base rookie cards.

-Stop with all the parallels - There are way too many variations of cards in sets. For example, look at Triple Threads; how many rookie game-used auto variations are needed? If a card is serial numbered to 99, but there are six different variations of this card with the same serial number, wouldn’t that in turn create more print runs of that card? Collectors don’t exactly care if there if there are different colors, variations, and serial numbers of their player. We just want better quality cards of our players.

-Limit the amount of inserts in a product – Donruss Classics has so many inserts with so many variations that it makes price guides almost impossible to navigate through! Since base cards are of current NFL players, the inserts should focus on our beloved hall-of-famers and other legends. Or for the college collector hobbyist, make college inserts (I love Donruss Classics’ Old School Colors and School Colors; but Team Colors is not needed). Also, if an insert is a dual player card, make the card have some sort of correlation, such as a legend quarterback and the current quarterback of the same team. Collectors are sometimes baffled as to why two players are on the same card.

-Limit the number of autographed and game-used cards – As for the rookies, throughout the year maybe only allow the first 3 rounds of draft picks to sign cards and limit how many they can sign in a year. This will increase the value of these cards and also increase value of base rookie cards of people who didn’t have auto cards (look what happened with Romo and Brady cards). As for the veterans and legends, limit how many cards they can sign in a year. Remember when Sanders, Montana, Namath, Emmitt Smith and others rarely signed; how many cards do they have now? Limiting the veterans will also increase the value of their cards, because honestly, it’s appalling that the base rookie autos sell for so much more than the legends.

-Limit box hits - It seems every product guarantees three or four hits per box on average. There was a time when there was no guarantee to get anything other than to get 24 packs per box with five cards per pack. Collectors honestly don’t care if a hit in a hobby box is a game-used of some player they’ve never heard of and more than likely will never hear of again. The attractiveness of hobby boxes comes from the thrill of the chase and the excitement of the unknown, hoping for that ‘big pull’. This will also cut down on box prices, because honestly, anything pulled from a box over $100 usually doesn’t hold value.

The intent of this rambling is to hopefully influence other collectors to think of how to stop our hobby from repeating the event it experienced some 20 years ago; to encourage others to speak up, contact card companies to make suggestions of how to influence the direction our hobby takes. After the progression and advances our hobby has made, we cannot let there be another recession as there was after 1994. After all, those cards from the 1980s and 1990s do hold value, as the blogspot.com blogger titled ‘Voice of the Collector: The Anti Beckett’ has a video titled ‘The Long Awaited Junk Wax How To’ can prove.
http://voiceofthecollector.blogspot....ax-how-to.html.

Happy Collecting!

[Pheebs888]

Direction of the Hobby
By Joshua Helms aka Helms83

I, like many other collectors, am a collector from the late 1980s and early 1990s; better known as the ‘massed produced’ era. I stopped collecting shortly after the baseball strike of 1994. Whether the strike actually had anything to do with my ceasing to collect or if the coming of age of an adolescent male is the true reason is another discussion; the point is I had stopped collecting and was reintroduced to the hobby pre-draft of 2006. I was amazed at the vast changes and advances the hobby had taken!

I was accustomed to star veteran players, rookie cards of hopefuls and inserts of various stars, but this new age of collecting was astounding! Cards have serial numbers, meaning there are only so many cards produced of that particular player. Cards have pieces of event worn fabrics called ‘game-used’; there were ‘patch’ versions meaning the game-used piece was multi-colored or there was stitching from a jersey number, logo, or name. There were cards with actual autos; when back in the day (which was a Wednesday – a little Dane Cook humor), the only on-card autos were the ones that had been in-person signed from sporting events or other special events. But now these cards were authenticated, logged in the annuals of the card company’s product history. There are online trade sites, auction sites, a mass community of collectors from all over the world that can discuss, trade, buy or sell; the possibilities of the hobby are endless! However, over the past few years I’ve noticed a trend beginning that lead to the decline of the value of sports cards in the late 1980s; that of mass production.

Every card company is competing to be the best of the best, better than the next; to make the top dollar. To do so, the theory seems to be to flood products with highly sought after collector items, such as: short print runs, game-used, patch variations, and autographs of rookies, star veterans, and hall-of-famers. The more a card company crams into a hobby box, the more hope is instilled for the product to sell, and to sell for a higher price, in turn making that ‘top dollar’. Which gives me a cause for concern; the more and more companies put into a product also instigates the fear of once again flooding the market, decreasing card values, and creating a ‘depression like’ recession which the hobby faced in the mid 1990s. If history has taught anyone anything, it’s that history exists to not make the same mistakes twice.

As hobbyist it is our responsibility to ensure this event is prevented. You as the reader might ask, ‘How; what can I do as one person?’ Well my fellow hobbyist, I am here to help. As collectors, it is our due-diligence to take control of our hobby and let it be known to those who create our hobby products what we want from them; the direction we want our hobby to take; our displeases, as well as our praises. The time is now, before reversing the mass production cycle is too late. I have created a short list of suggestions that card companies should take into consideration to hopefully regain the value and lustre of sport card collecting. This list is not all-inclusive, nor is it all-comprehensive. These are suggestions from a fellow hobbyist to hopefully create a movement of thinkers and motivate others to save our hobby. Without further ado, here is my list of suggestion to card companies:


-Short print base cards
The days of set building have long been forgotten. I believe this due in part to the lack of value in completed sets. If base cards were serial numbered and there were only so many possible sets to be completed, I believe this would cause hobbyist to have a desire to chase base cards. Products have experimented with this idea and I think this created a want for these cards, such as National Treasures’ base cards. Also, limit base cards to only current NFL players (further suggestions will adhere to past legends) and vary between products which player is in these sets. Collectors don’t exactly want to see the same five players from the respective teams in every product.

-Limit base rookie cards
Collectors do vary on which rookies they collect, and it is hard to please everyone. But not every product from every card company needs to have an all-inclusive rookie roster. Maybe pick one product from each year (for instance I love Topps Chrome) and insert every rookie you would like into the base set. As for your other products, pick the best-prospected rookies and make rookie cards for them (but limit their print runs). This, coupled with my suggestion for autographed cards, will bring back value and want for base rookie cards.

-Stop with all the parallels
There are way too many variations of cards in sets. For example, look at Triple Threads; how many rookie game-used auto variations are needed? If a card is serial numbered to 99, but there are six different variations of this card with the same serial number, wouldn’t that in turn create more print runs of that card? Collectors don’t exactly care if there if there are different colors, variations, and serial numbers of their player. We just want better quality cards of our players.
-Limit the amount of inserts in a product – Donruss Classics has so many inserts with so many variations that it makes price guides almost impossible to navigate through! Since base cards are of current NFL players, the inserts should focus on our beloved hall-of-famers and other legends. Or for the college collector hobbyist, make college inserts (I love Donruss Classics’ Old School Colors and School Colors; but Team Colors is not needed). Also, if an insert is a dual player card, make the card have some sort of correlation, such as a legend quarterback and the current quarterback of the same team. Collectors are sometimes baffled as to why two players are on the same card.

-Limit the number of autographed and game-used cards
As for the rookies, throughout the year maybe only allow the first 3 rounds of draft picks to sign cards and limit how many they can sign in a year. This will increase the value of these cards and also increase value of base rookie cards of people who didn’t have auto cards (look what happened with Romo and Brady cards). As for the veterans and legends, limit how many cards they can sign in a year. Remember when Sanders, Montana, Namath, Emmitt Smith and others rarely signed; how many cards do they have now? Limiting the veterans will also increase the value of their cards, because honestly, it’s appalling the base rookie autos sell for so much more than the legends.

-Limit box hits
It seems every product guarantees three or four hits per box on average. There was a time when there was no guarantee to get anything other than to get 24 packs per box with five cards per pack. Collectors honestly don’t care if a hit in a hobby box is a game-used of some player they’ve never heard of and more than likely will never hear of again. The attractiveness of hobby boxes comes from the thrill of the chase and the excitement of the unknown, hoping for that ‘big pull’. This will also cut down on box prices, because honestly, anything pulled from a box over $100 usually doesn’t hold value.

The intent of this rambling is to hopefully influence other collectors to think of how to stop our hobby from repeating the event it experienced some 20 years ago; to encourage others to speak up, contact card companies to make suggestions on how to influence the direction our hobby takes. After the progression and advances our hobby has made, we cannot let there be another recession as there was after 1994. After all, those cards from the 1980s and 1990s do hold value, as the blogspot.com blogger titled ‘Voice of the Collector: The Anti Beckett’ has a video titled ‘The Long Awaited Junk Wax How To’ can prove (http://voiceofthecollector.blogspot....ax-how-to.html).
Happy Collecting!

[Pheebs888]

Here is the link to it on the article site: https://www.sportscardforum.com/articles/?p=612

Very good article Joshua, feel free to write again on another topic if you like!

digg: http://digg.com/football/Direction_of_the_Hobby
propeller: http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/...orum-articles/
buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:0433...b7d3be03?usc=1

[Helms83]

thanks, it was a fun topic to write about. ill try to write an article for you again to help the site and hobby.

[Pheebs888]

Brilliant! I'll look forward to it!