My Rant / Opinion / Idea about this hobby...Warning Long Read!!

[CoolHandLuke]

Born in 62 so end of 60's is when I started to buy cards in the 70's we were playing a game on the wall, putting cards on spike of our boke wheel and trading cards alot since all kids had some. We were bringing the card at school to trade them. There was just sentimental value and collector were a rare bread.

It all change in the 90's when more manufacturer came in and started to create many set and the insert set started to grow. This is also when Beckett came in and became a bible by all seller. All tought they could make money and cards started to be over produce and in three years, the big boom became a big crash, many collector just left the hobby then like I did too. Many are now coming back to collecting.

The 90 started the perception you could make money and some do. Most spend ton of money...

Would I go back to 2 sets? NO Why, because I like the card market we have today will all sick cards they produce. Would I change things, sure.

The market is again over producing and ITG is not helping with production on many low serial cards. The other two manufacturer just exagerate but more on the number of sets then the low print run.

To many 1 of 1, too many auto and jersey. It kill value. But if you like them it nice too have many. I think when they start making less money, maybe they will learn. Sometime I feel like it's a race to get dollars and the manufacturer just try too much...

[Jesse011]

It basically comes down to a gamble. In any higher end product you're basically paying for every jersey, gu piece of equipment, or autograph from a player in addition to high quality card stock. Sure there are nice cards in some products but you can also pull a Hall of Famer autograph that's worth nowhere near the price of a box.

The breaking point for me was buying 1997 or 1998 Donruss Signature packs and getting a really nice card-a Johnny Bench autograph (basically the best Catcher to ever play the game) and the thing was basically worth the price of two packs of the product.

I'm not saying I don't buy packs or boxes at all anymore but I seem to lose money on it 95% of the time. My last box was a 2003 UD Prospect Premieres I had sitting around and that turned an $80 investment into well under $10 in cards. I think I'd be better buying scratch-off tickets as they're much easier to cash out

[adamslogik]

I think that ebay is simultaneously helping and hurting the Hobby in different ways.

Pro- Ebay helps collectors track down cards that may otherwise never cross their paths. I mean, when a card is numbered to /10, what are the chances that I will ever see one in Brockville Ontario, with 1 LCS and maybe a couple of dozen collectors?

BIG CON - Ebay is killing the book values of cards. Say a card comes into production, lets say a Jimmy McBlankerson (great name, eh?) signature sensations cards from Upper Deck Series 1. The first year they make this card, the average sale of it on ebay is $60. The listed value when pricing comes out is likely to be in the $70 range. Once this pricing is released, people will then be unwilling to pay more than about $40 for this card at auction, which means that when next years version comes out, collectors will assume it's value will be the same, and only pay that same $40. Because sales of this card are now in the $40 range, the pricing will be at $50 when it gets released a month or so later. NOW since the book value is at $50, people will be unwilling to pay more than $30, which means that AGAIN, when next years comes out, it will be valued even lower.

This same pehnomenon is also killing trade values. You get a card worth $100, but since the last 2 sales of it were in the $60 range, alot of traders will value it in THAT area. Forget about the 100 or so previous sales in the $100 range, since TWO sold cheaper, all of the sudden THAT is where they want to value it at.

I'm getting a bit sick of the attitudes of collectors in general. There are way too many collectors out there treating this like a business instead of a Hobby. I swear to god, I watch videos of guys breaking boxes who mispronounce STAR players' names because they don't even know who they are. Everytime I see a post of someone breaking an awesome box, followed by "everything is for SALE only" it makes me a bti sick to my stomach.

If you need to worry about whether or not you will get your money back out of box of cards, then don't open it. For me, this is a hobby, and not to say that it is not a business at the same time, because it is for some (LCS Owners or Dealers) BUT right now we are at a stage where most people in the hobby are more interested in being business people than collectors.

This hobby is not about $$$ for me, and it's a shame that for SOOOOO many people, that is literally all it has become.

Sorry, my rant was almost as long as Kroetche's.