Nostalgic and sad, NOT a rant tho........

[87sluggo]

Hi everybody!! (Hi, Doctor Nick!)

I'm at work, so I have nothing better to do, so I'm gonna just ramble on for a little bit, if you want to read it, if you want to comment then fine, if you don't that's fine too.

I'd like to start by saying that this ISN'T a "why are my/your/our cards so worthless?" rant, this is just a........sad little observation.........


I've been collecting cards on-and-off since 74/75 OPC, I got back into it for a few years beginning in 99/00 and then pretty much solidly for the last five years. Things have changed, this isn't exactly news........Wayyyy back at the turn of the century, I bought 3 packs of 00/01 Black Diamond from somewheres and I pulled this.......












This was the greatest card I'd ever pulled from a pack. It was Patrick Roy (ST. PATRICK!!!), it was 88/100, I was 30+ years old and I LOVED HOCKEY CARDS SO MUCH!!!!



Did you know that cards /100 used to be rare? That when you opened a pack and pulled something like that or one of them relatively new-fangled jersey cards or an autograph it was INSANE? Did you know that?? That I borrowed my buddy's scanner and learned how to use it and scanned my 00/01 UD Vintage Lemieux/Jagr dual gold jersey /50 that I'd pulled from a box and put it up on eBay where 90% of the time there were no pictures, and it sold for $375???





That was then. Things change, evolve or die, etc...........










A couple weeks ago I bought this from the eBay, a $9.99 BIN ..........














Now if you're not a Canucks fan, you're saying "meh" right now and that's fine. But to me, this card is SO full of awesome. It's almost.......... ITG-esque :D
AND it's numbered 11/50. Was this card a case-pull? Or some other crazy-odds type of thing? Remember when /100 used to mean something? Now........not so much.

Do you know what a $9.99 BIN card is? It's the seller not wanting to put it up for bids because he knows it's going to sell for two or three dollars. And $9.99 isn't so high that he'll be sitting on it for months and months, SOMEBODY will pick it up, it's only $9.99 after all! LUNCH costs more than that these days!






And I will bet you anything that whoever originally pulled it from the SPX pack experienced next to nothing. Because I'm guilty of the exact same thing these days - I buy a box of OPC and pull a Nordiques patch and look at it for a couple minutes and I'm asking "That's IT????"








That's all I got.

[netsinah]

Your viewpoint certainly reveals your "collecting age" since many of today's Board members won't be able to identify with your comments. I too recall with fond memories the "good old days" when higher end packs didn't cost half a mortgage payment and the odds of pulling ANY insert were very high...and people actually collected base cards to complete their sets and would pay good money for a Gretzky or Orr or Lemieux base card...when younger kids could afford a pack from a higher end wax product and you'd see more of them (the future of the hobby) in the card shops...when people "looking for a resale lot" were non-existent since everyone truly collected and no one was jockeying only for profit. Sigh. Double sigh. Days of old now a faded memory for us old guys.

[Zorro]

I fully agree...I realize however that memorabilia sells and UD and panini are in the business of selling cards and lots of them.

[pinchmebnl]

The set I was collecting at the end of my grade school career (before I left the hobby for a long long time) was 2000-01 Topps Stadium Club and that was the first product where I ever pulled two things-- and autograph and a jersey card. Autos were 1:118 (about 5 boxes) and Jerseys were 1:88 (3.5 boxes). I got a signature of Mark Parrish and jersey of Sergei Samsonov. And I was so happy to have those because they were so hard to pull and at that age I couldn't just go and buy a box.

Now if I buy a box and pull a jersey/auto and it's not an SSP I can't even give it away. Right now I'm trying to sell about 215 cards that are jerseys/autos/rookies/inserts/#ed etc and I can barely get $0.50 per card.

[route42nj]

I feel ya, sluggo. I have never in my collecting life pulled a Jersey, or memorabilia card. When I bought packs and collected the odds of pulling those cards was ridiculously high. I used to go to card shows and see them in screw down thick plastic cases behind glass. Seriously. I remember seeing them and hoping that one day I'd pull one from a random pack. I remember when SPx came around and how expensive those and Zenith were at the time. Seemed crazy. Now you can buy a box, only get around 15 cards and pay a car payment. A luxury car payment. Fast forward to today and I have a mortgage, car, serious girlfriend, pet, etc. Disposable income is spent on vacations, craft beer and Christmas. And yes the girlfriend.

I recently got back into it a bit and am shocked at how confusing a Beckett has gotten. And even that is twice as expensive as it was when I collected. I can probably go out an cherry pick some really cool cards from eBay (which I still may do) but much of the thrill of the hobby to me is the hunt. I think the thing that has stuck with me is the need for an "indoor hobby" and as interesting as coins and stamps are - hockey cards will always be my thing.

Anyway - I'm still hoping to pull that elusive jersey card one of these days and with today's over-production of them the odds are finally in my favor although I doubt it will be as sweet :)

[penguinsChief]

I too agree with the changing culture of collecting, and yes I am part of that. I used to have a wall full of binders that had sets in them, and a want list of 1000's of cards to complete those, and then my tastes changed. I was sick of going up against the "investors" to try and buy RC's, and disgusted when you try to sell something and get virtually little back. Being a pure player collector now, I still buy wax, just for fun. I will always pick up a good deal if I come across one. But honestly my money goes into my PC and what I have in boxes is all for trade to build that up. I don't mind pulling a nice card and trading it away for something I want. Heck, most rookies never pan out, but my guys are already HOF and you can't take that away. Times change, people change, but I still love collecting. I agree with the statement, the hunt is what it is about, which is why I am also taking up bow hunting along with rifle, more challenge and a lot of fun.

HUNT ON BROTHERS!!!

[RGM81]

Even as a guy that started off anew in the hobby five years ago, I am also at a point where I lament the lack of thrill of some aspects of the hobby. One of the first projects I undertook when I started up again was the 2007-08 Black Diamond set. It was a lot of fun. I traded, bought, and sold with a lot of people on 3 different boards as well as a couple other venues to put the 210-card set together. I also put together all the insert sets from that year's UD1 & UD2 sets. Everything was fresh and new to me. Couple that project with the excitement of the hottest rookie of the season being my main man CP, and it was a very interesting and engaging "welcome back" to the hobby.

Five years later - I haven't had any interest in a set project since 08-09, I have scaled back dramatically on the amount of wax I buy (though there has been a recent uptick in the past couple months), and I've moved out a lot of the cards in my Carey Price collection that became viewed as "fillers" in my eyes. A collection that once crossed the 600-card threshold has been reduced by more than half and includes the removal of many memorabilia, sticker autograph, and non-auto/memorabilia inserts and parallels--and a few high-end pieces that I thought I would never part with. But that change in mode of attack has reinvigorated my enjoyment of collecting on another level. Rather than being overwhelmed by a "gotta have 'em all" mentality, I am more at liberty to pursue a smaller group of nicer cards that retain my interest and appreciation.

If this is the change I've undergone in just five years, I can only imagine how different the landscape must look for people who have been doing this long before the "first" modern lockout in 04-05.

[87sluggo]

It's not the money, there's something for everyone out there, I can live with never opening a Cup tin.......it's the FEELING I miss.........I must have bought 3 boxes worth of 99/00 UD MVP from various 7-11's at the time. If I got a star-player Silver Script it was cooooool, if I got a MVP Talent or Hands of Gold insert (SO SHINY) it was awesome, and the Pavel Bure 90's Snapshot was like pulling a Bobby Orr auto today......and remember, I was 30+, not some kid just starting out...............

This isn't to say I'm not enjoying myself. ITG Forever Rivals gave me hours/days/weeks of fun, from breaking a case with a Leafs fan to filling out the base singles on eBay to hunting down the jersey cards. I've been pretty lucky lately with the box breaks, a Yakupov auto/rc redemption from UD Artifacts that paid for the box AND lunch, a Bobby Orr 4/10 SPA auto. I'm almost halfway through paying off a reallllllyyyyyyy nice card (12 EZ bi-monthly installments!!) that'll make me feel like MikeFitzpatrick for a day!! Life is good, right???

It's just that I was disappointed because opened a box of OPC and the "only" thing I got was a Nordiques patch. And then I went and complained about it. That's just......sad.

[Rob PBS]

The last box I bought (2011/12 UD Series 1) I pulled 2x jersey cards and a /10. I got really excited about it (might have been because it was the day after my wedding). I don't really buy boxes and I was all "Oooh, a jersey card, shame it isn't a patch, but I still like it." (Jordan Staal and Steve Mason were the players).
I suppose it's a case of too much of a good thing these days for some. I mean, I have loads of jerseys, patches, serial numbered & autos, but I got really happy because I pulled these ones myself, so they mean more to me.

[piper1]

When I started opening packs they were only a nickel or dime each and the only thing that mattered was getting the base cards of your favourite team or player. Instead of getting the Beliveau card I wanted, I kept pulling a Bruin's Rookie D-man with quite the buzz cut. Luckingly I had retained three of those Orr cards in the old shoebox, and when my son got interested in collecting he got them out. Over the years they helped pay for some great family vacations.