Did Becketts kill the hobby?

[DanielSweeney]

A couple guys on a local (Buffalo, NY) radio sports talk show got to talking about trading cards and sports memoribillia yesterday. They talked about sky-rocketing prices and how this makes it difficult to collect because there are so many brands out there and they are so expensive. One of the guys came to the conclusion that this all started with the Beckett guides pricing the cards.

It was an interesing conversation. Just wondering what others thoughts are on this topic?

[eastslastheart]

It's definately an interesting discussion and it may be true to an extent...but the prices in Beckett are based (primarily, at least) on how much cards are selling for ... i would say that eBay has just as much a role in "killing the hobby" as beckett does...

[BamaFan]

I go in a totally different path of thinking on this, I think Beckett definately made the Hobby what it is (for better or worse). Alot of people complain about flooding the market and complain about $10 gu and autos of nobodys, but not me. My Favorite collection is my 02 Rookies, Jason McAddley, Freddie Milons and Terry Jones Jr. I love the fact that even though these guys arent starting in the NFL, I still have a chance to own some nice gu stuff of them.
What really killed the Hobby for alot of people is Beckett pricing cards so high, manufacturers SRP being so high and singles selling on ebay for next to nothing.

[adadas101]

Yeah I agree with ya bama..I think its sad that I own cards that have actual swatches of sports-stars jersey's, headbands, etc...and they sell for next to nothing.
Whats more pathetic, is that some of these cards are coming from packs that cost an arm and a leg, and then you dont get what you paid for.

[tutall]

it has killed the singles dealer part of the hobby but anyone who collects for pure fun i believe it has really helped

[diamondbacks_8]

Really its all on which side your are looking at. Going with tutall, for people looking for one or two cards it helped. Bulk buyers are getting the shaft due to pricing. I find it to be a pain seeing GU's and Auto's of no names. Personally, they should be reserved for the stars or semi-stars however if all of them were stars and semi's then their value would go down.

As for "killing the hobby", its the individual dealers. Or the dirty ones at least charging too much for nothing. Also, as far as base cards go, Topps seems to be the lowest in BV. Think they may have flooded in early years and it is hurting their price now. Donruss has a fairly decent BV for current cards however their older sets are next to nothing.

Really all on the perspective.

[BlackDiam0nd66]

I don't like beckett, but it is necessary to a point.

IMHO the thing that killed the hobby is the manufacturers. I used to enjoy the hobby until they went nuts with the amount of cards out there...on one hand that's all great and good, but for us collectors who have a thing about getting 1 of each card of a certain player, they have all but made those type of collectors obsolete.

I also blame the losers who steal, lie, cheat, etc (IE- Fake patch makers, card trimmers, etc)

Peace~
Rima

[TurdFerguson]

I agree with Rima. The manufacturers have killed the hobby by making so many cards and with the 1/1's it's impossible to collect every card of a single player. My good friend Kirk, who is also a member here (kirkcopper) had every Mike Schmidt & Jim Palmer card until the recent boom of retired players in sets. Don't get me wrong, I think the 1/1's and reitred players in sets are great since I collect some retired Cubs players, but this stuff has killed an aspect of the hobby that can never be regained.

[jayk1998]

IMHO, one thing that is killing the hobby is the absolute unoriginality on the part of the card manufacturers. They're all copying each other, and it's really getting ridiculous.

Take the "vintage" set phenomenon. UD Vintage was an okay product, aside from the blatant theft of Topps' designs. Topps followed suit with Heritage, which worked very well because they actually had the history. Then Fleer jumped on the bandwagon by altering Tradition, which had been a solid product on it's own before the switch (1999 Fleer Tradition is one of my all-time favorite sets). Then the Topps 206, Cracker Jack, UD Play Ball, sets sprung up....

Another is the proliferation of super-high-end products. There are no quality low end sets anymore, it seems all of the creative energy is going into the high dollar stuff, and quite frankly, those aren't that attractive either.

The only attempt I can think of to make a good, inexpensive, and fun-to-collect set is Topps Total. Most of the time, it seems like the companies throw together a "kids' set" (like UD Heads Up) which doesn't sell because it's so god-awful ugly, then they shrug their shoulders, say "I guess people don't want quality low-end products", and go back to focusing their energies on the latest "4 cards for a C-Note" product.

[tutall]

Another is the proliferation of super-high-end products. There are no quality low end sets anymore, it seems all of the creative energy is going into the high dollar stuff, and quite frankly, those aren't that attractive either.

The only attempt I can think of to make a good, inexpensive, and fun-to-collect set is Topps Total. Most of the time, it seems like the companies throw together a "kids' set" (like UD Heads Up) which doesn't sell because it's so god-awful ugly, then they shrug their shoulders, say "I guess people don't want quality low-end products", and go back to focusing their energies on the latest "4 cards for a C-Note" product.

thats what they make money on though and obviously we pay it so they make money... it would be like making a t-shirt that mde you 3 dollars each shirt or making a long sleeve dress shirt that made you 20 bucks a pop... which would you make more of?

if we keep paying 100 dollars a pack they will keep supplying it and rolling in their own money