base cards

[blacksheep]

I recently wrote an article about base cards on my blog, but wanted to share it with you all! Original post here:
http://thecardboardreview.blogspot.c...se-darned.html

Before autographed cards, memorabilia cards, parallel cards, or even insert cards... there was the base card. And in fact, it wasn't called the base card... it was just 'card', thank you very much! One set of cards came out each year and most players just had a single card. And collectors would try to complete an entire set of cards (usually a very large set of cards) in a season through the buying of wax packs and by trading with friends. Well, times have changed, and I think the way base cards are done should also change. Here are some of my ideas as to how the hobby can adapt to changing times.


When the typical adult collector buys cards, he or she will typically rifle through the base cards looking for the hit (autograph, parallel, memorabilia, insert) with little to no mind in regards to the base cards. Some older collectors may frown upon this, but that's just the fact. AND IT'S OK. There is really no way to make someone care about base cards. There just isn't. So the solution is not to try and change people's minds. The solution may be to change how base cards are done.


I'm not proposing to get rid of base cards. I think base cards are important because they are the foundation of the hobby. Long ago, getting a base card of a star player was like getting a hit. In the past, if you got a Wayne Gretzky or a Michael Jordan card, that was a successful pack. If someone gets a Crosby or LeBron base card in a pack, nothing may even register in terms of excitement of the pull. In fact, if there is not hit, there is not excitement no matter how awesome the players you got in the pack were. So what can be done?


Like I said, base cards are the foundation of the hobby. I think putting out big base card sets like O-Pee-Chee and Score in hockey are necessary. In baseball, the standard Topps set is a model for how modern large sets should be done. Having an all-encompassing base set helps keep the history of the sport alive through cards. It also keeps the traditional hobby sensibility alive. These sets tend to be cheaper to buy, and thus kid-friendly. But this model should only be applied to lower-end sets. Mid to higher-end sets should be treated completely differently.


Collecting cards started off as something for kids to do, and these big lower-end sets keep kids in it. What Topps has done in baseball is add in rare variant cards as well as the chance for an autograph or memorabilia card once in a blue moon. These extra goodies allow the more serious collector to have an interest in this lower-end product. Though packs may be cheap, the prospect of pulling an ultra-rare autograph of a star or hall-of-fame player is always good. And for a young collector, pulling something like that out of a pack would be unforgettable.


So I say keep the big sets, but make them interesting with the chance to pull something good on the rare occasion. I would follow Topps' example of having a lot of cool subsets and inserts to pull as well. Creating unique base set designs that are memorable would could only help make collecting these sets more fun and desirable.


For mid-tiered sets in the hobby, I suggest a radically different approach to the base card. The hobby is flooded with mid-tiered sets that cost between $7-20/pack with boxes costing about $100 each. Most products fall into this category. If you look at these products, they all spit out about 3-5 hits per box no matter what the pack configuration is. In terms of hits per box for the price, they are all in the same boat.


In hockey, you have sets like SP Authentic, SPx, SP Game-Used, Crown Royale, Contenders, Limited, Ultimate Collection, and the like. Who here collects the base set from these sets? Well, I know some do. But it's definitely a more rare for collectors to go all in getting sets of these base cards. These are usually the cards that collectors leave behind at the shop after all the hits have been collected. These are the cards that go into a big box and sit in a closet for forever.


Instead of offering a ton of base cards in these products, why not just limit the base cards to one-per-pack. It would make the base cards much more valuable and desired. It would eliminate a lot of printing of cards that nobody really cares about. I would not suggest simply discontinuing the base cards of these sets, but rather making the base cards more of interest and more rare. I would also love to see more of an effort in making these types of base cards really stand out in terms of design. I mentioned Crown Royale earlier. Those cards look awesome to me, and to get only one per pack would make them more meaningful.


Super high-end products like The Cup and Dominion already limit the base cards to one. And they are not necessarily highly collected base sets, but those high-end cards are a different story.


Super high-end products only come with one base card, but with products like those, the hits completely overshadow the base. Also, the extreme price of those packs ($300-$700) makes even wanting to get the base set a scary proposition. But if you want your favorite player's base card from these super high-end products, it generally isn't too hard to find or get. And a lot of collectors don't really care about them too much.


Panini recently released the most ridiculous high-end brand in basketball - Flawless. Each base card had an embedded jewel inside. I have to tell you who don't follow basketball cards... these cards command high prices. And these cards are more desired than many of the patch and autographed cards found in Flawless.


I'm not saying to put jewels in all the high-end base cards... but perhaps having base cards at the highest levels include autographs or something else that is very unique and special would be appropriate for the highest-end cards. Making the high-end base worthy of high-end collector tastes would be quite a feat. But it is not impossible as seen in Flawless late last year.


So in summary, here are my ideas for each level of product:


Low End.
- Make large sets of base cards that include a comprehensive checklist of players
- Include subsets and variations cards to add variety
- Make rare autographs or memorabilia cards available to find (perhaps one-per-case)


Mid End.
- Put a strong effort into the design of the base card
- Make the base card only one-per-pack
- Continue to put in cards that collectors want at this level (ex. SPA should continue with FWAs)


High End.
- Continue one-per-pack base card idea
- Make the base card a hit too by adding something unique to it
- Potentially have the base card more desirable than some of the other hits in the product

[JVW]

Interesting read. Have to admit that I started collecting cards in the 80s with OPC...so for me, I still make getting all the base cards a priority for each collecting project I set.

I was thinking that one base card per pack for mid-end might not be enough. I was thinking about this year's Prizm and how it replaced Certified. I liked putting the Mirror Red Base card sets together each year for Certified. For two years I worked on the blue (still working on them in fact...see my signature). What I liked about those parallel cards is that they were numbered. With Prizm, there are a lot of coloured parallel cards, but they are not numbered.
I do like the Prizm cards, but I only went after the purple redemption cards.
Maybe a mid-end product could have 2 regular base, 1 red base, and 1 of some other colour. As for alternate colours, maybe they could be numbered like black = 1, gold = 50, blue = 100, green = 200, red = 999. Maybe then, people might get back into set building and try to put multiple sets of different colours together?

I don't know...just throwing this out there. Interested in hearing what other comments people have on your article.

[CoolHandLuke]

25 years ago, the kids that became adult realize that their old cards had some value. Then it was followed by a frenzy were many got back into the hobby. Since, the hobby only adapted to the demand. Now if all cards were hits like you suggest for certain product then they would not be hits anymore. The more auto you produce, then less desirable they become. I think manufacturer try to keep that in mind and a consensus seem to come out from the hobby that already way to many are produce and value tend to go down way to much. I think the base cards will remain in every product as they serve the purpose of what a hit is. Remove non hits and then the rest will not be all hits.

If you take ITG, I think they did get a good understanding of where the market is at. Like decade 90's, out of 14 cards, I believe you only get 3 base cards and yet the product sell under 100$. In the end you do get a good value and balance.

[Inferno]

I was a game-used/autograph guy for years until Prizm came along, now I'm putting the base set together and having fun doing it. Base cards will always have a place!

[blacksheep]

thanks for the interesting comments guys! i definitely - like i said in my article - don't think base cards should go the way of the dinosaur, but i would like to see a change in them. one base card per pack might be a little stiff, i'd be willing to go up to three for some products. just me personally, but i'd like to see just one crown royale base card per pack of those and maybe 3 for a product like sp authentic. i also think spa could use a huge pack reduction per box.

as for prizm, i almost consider that a low end product. you can hardly get good autos out of it, and there aren't any jersey cards. that product can stay the way it is. prizm is definitely on the side of a set builders set over a hit collectors product.

[centrehice]

thanks for the interesting comments guys! i definitely - like i said in my article - don't think base cards should go the way of the dinosaur, but i would like to see a change in them. one base card per pack might be a little stiff, i'd be willing to go up to three for some products. just me personally, but i'd like to see just one crown royale base card per pack of those and maybe 3 for a product like sp authentic. i also think spa could use a huge pack reduction per box.

as for prizm, i almost consider that a low end product. you can hardly get good autos out of it, and there aren't any jersey cards. that product can stay the way it is. prizm is definitely on the side of a set builders set over a hit collectors product.

2 or 3 base cards per pack has happened a long time ago. A Premium product - Pacific Invincible of 97-98 was one of the first in the 90's to offer a card total pack. Two base cards, and a 1:1 Subset NHL Regime Parallel, or a colored parallel plus the Regime, or one of 2 other Inserts Subsets…. Revolution followed and did the same with a 3 card pack-out, but with no alternate Subset like NHL Regime, yet the same number of colored parallels.

The weirdness about Invincible, is that it's Subset Issue, NHL Regime, had 225 cards total, and the regular base card itself was only 150. So achieving the subset taking into account correlation which was very decent, you had to buy around 11 boxes of the stuff to complete the Subset.

Both sets, beautifully constructed cards, and in a Hobby Box, and in collation not one repeat for me on any of it per box. You had to buy about 8 full boxes to be able to be to complete the base set in the Invincible 150 card Issue, and pretty much the same in the Revolution 150 Card issue.

Revolution had more Insert Subsets to fill than Invincible did and continued successfully until 00-01. Invincible ran once in 1997-98, then showed-up again in 2003-04.

Both these issues produced Base, Parallel, and Subset Insert Issues that were tough to pull, beautiful in design, and still nicer than any other company has really ever made since they started in 97-98.

Your comment about jersey cards? I think jersey cards are garbage, always have. A good issue to me does not have to have fabric in it to be a good issue. The 96-97 SP issue showed this, the 98-99 SPx Finite showed this as did everything made by Pacific from 1997-2004.

The Prizm cards of this year, are a prime example of a good set. Beautifully constructed, well made cards with little chance of coming bashed to death in the box. Wonderful, full-coloured parallels. The only thing wrong is the sticker-autos. Who cares about dime a dozen jersey cards?

[odjickfan]

ITG did something right with their 1 pack per box products. The 5 or so base cards in there are limited, and building the base set is a nice challenge.

[centrehice]

I am in full agreement with making the base set a wonderful set to achieve. As a company, you have made the decision to do this and you decide to Short Print the Base Card Set, lets say Serial Numbered to #/249 or #/299.

Great…….. But what is overlooked is the quality. Yup. The Cup Base Cards Serial Numbered to #/249 are about the ugliest things I have ever seen.

Lifeless, & too similar to the previous year, etc. What happens when your Base Card is not technologically and visually appealing, it becomes a $1.00 card on the Resale Market.


Here are 2 wonderful examples:







The Larry Robinson Card is from "The Cup". Price per box - $500.00 plus (more expensive if you can find one)
The Keith Primeau Card is from Revolution. Price per box - $32.00 at the time of listing (now cheaper if you can find one)

Where the disconnect comes in? The Primeau Card is a Parallel, but the Base card looks exactly the same, only a different foil colour of gold instead of Red.

The Revolution card is dynamic, bold, exciting, technologically advanced and appealing to the eye.

"The Cup" card is grey, dull, beyond simple, not appealing to the eye, and offers nothing in regard to technological appeal.


Both of these cards sell for about $1.00 - $1.50 now on the re-sale market. You then have to ask yourself this ……


Why would I want to collect the Base Card Issue of the Cup? You find your self answering -"Well it's only serial numbered to #/249!"

That in itself is not enough. When looking at these 2 cards, they sell for the same amount? Why is that? The reason being, that one card is appealing and technologically superior to the other.

All things considered, and based on Price Point of initial purchase, the Robinson card should technically be re-sold at $9.99 - $12.00 minimum, but it fails so badly, that it only grabs $1.00 - $1.50 on the resale market.

Bottom Line" If you are going to limit the Base Card set and make it a Short Print, for crap-sake, make it appealing.

[blacksheep]

yes! i totally agree... companies need to make the base cards more appealing. i love the cup, and i get why the cards look the way they do, but they just don't hold up in terms of interest. the base cards of the cup should be worth a lot more. and i do think their plain jane sort of look diminishes their value greatly.

panini added value to the base card by putting in a gemstone with flawless. that's kind of silly... but it worked and basketball people went gaga over them.

but with the cup, maybe having a design that mimiced the stanley cup would have been nice, with a lot of foil done in a classy way.

panini has those silver bar cards in dominion. i'm not sure i like that a hit, but having maybe a thinner piece of silver or something like that would be pretty sweet for a really high end product.