The Hobby is Dead

[capt55]

I will say the hobby has gone flat from years ago, I had Roy cards worth 1K and more, now they book at 300.00, the hobby will never be like it was, cards out of 25 were so rare, 1/1's were worth a ton of money, now there's so many 1/1's its a joke, but that's the card companies fault, I don't do wax anymore, not since 05/06 UD, I got 3 Crosby rookie and I was 3 ud yg's short of a sent, just my thought's.

[FrankToronto]

Let me share my perspective as a card show promoter...

When our venue went under construction, my plans to move the show to a temporary venue became sidelined because I got massively swamped at my day job. It's a long story, but it was insanity (I worked 9am-10:30 each week day, Sundays, and a couple stat holidays like clockwork). So I "took a break"... when I returned to the boards, it was clearly noticeable that they were less active. I was able to notice it like night and day.

However, online message boards and trading sites have always been a small but significant reflection of the hobby. The industry as a whole needs some revamping and improvement to ensure that it grows over time but it is fairly strong. I say "fairly" because it's far from mainstream and constantly on shaky ground because a too strong portion of sales is attributable to "super collectors" making it less mainstream than it has already.

My understanding is that hobby shops that have kept up with the times are doing OK but there are numerous variables that don't make it easy (so support hobby shops please!). Don't discount low end products such as Victory and MVP because, guess what, they're selling very well at Target and Toys'r'Us and we constantly hear stories that that's how kids have gotten introduced to the hobby. As far as card shows are concerned, the Toronto Card Show has experienced its highest attendance during the Summer since we began in 2006... this Summer was supposed to be our downtime!

Taking things back to the message boards, I believe that they are losing ground to other online activity. Just as people have only so many hours to watch TV, spending time online in the hobby is shifting to online group breaks and the need for interactivity with other collectors does take place there as well. I'm even seeing more buy/sell/trade activity on Twitter! I've been on the boards since 2004 and online activity has shifted dramatically over the past 10 years.

So I don't think the hobby died on September 15th. I think the activity on message boards has decreased significantly and shifted elsewhere.

I hope so... because we're expanding the Toronto Card Show to the Amsterdam Brewery on September 28th and launching the Newmarket Card Show on October 18th! (So please don't freak me out with these posts! I'm already working hard and nerve wracked as it is! )

[palantri]

the hobby is better for me- Ive quit collecting modern stuff and am sticking solely to vintage. its more fun, the collectors are generally nicer people, and I know for a fact that my older graded stuff of stars isn't going to devalue the way new stuff can so easily. And im saving tons of cash by not buying boxes and getting frustrated. nowadays everything I buy is stuff I want for me- my collection is stronger, my enjoyment of the hobby is greater, and my bank account is less stressed.

unfortunately, this forum isn't good for vintage, so I am all but gone here...

[flemingc04]

I don't believe the "hobby is dead" gloom and gloom at all. In fact I think it is quite absurd like Gene Simmons thinking rock music is dead. Boxes and cases seem to be selling fairly well for the most part, and everywhere you look a lot of people are chasing cards from some of the latest releases. Two comments above stood out to me that I 100% agree with:

The hobby is far from dead. You get out of the hobby exactly what you put into it.

However, online message boards and trading sites have always been a small but significant reflection of the hobby

To add to the second comment, just from walking into card shops, meeting people in the community, looking listings on sites like Kijiji, and going to cards shows, I have come across many local collectors who are local and buy/sell/trade cards but do very little to nothing online. Since I first joined SCF in 2008 I think I could count on just one hand the number of people I have met online from the city I live in, and 10-15 people within the area. Would this be a fair sample size to declare the hobby is dead among collectors in a city of 50,000? What if we doubled the sample size? Absolutely not. While the ratios would vary a bit between communities when you compare the total number of collectors to the number of collectors online, we must must understand that the online community is still a very small portion of the overall card collector community.

One thing that I would declare is: Online collecting habits changed soon after postage rates jumped!

This shouldn't come as any surprise but back in the day a lot of people used to fill the sets online with base cards, rookies, and inserts until postage rates jumped in countries like Canada and the USA. Now it's a lot tougher for people to justify the postage just to acquire a couple dollars worth of cards. The only time I send base is toss it in around the main card I am sending because it would still add as padding...and people love getting free stuff. This is the main reason why I believe that the buy/sell forums tend to be more active than the trading forums. I don't find cards I want online for trade nearly as often, and so I often have to buy them. To buy them, I need hobby money, and to get the money I must sell my cards. I also believe that the increase in postage costs has made it more difficult for younger people to collect online, which used to be a huge demographic for trading online. I remember seeing a lot of teens on trading forums until they went to college/university. With the increase in rates, it's a lot tougher for teenagers to get involved in online trading.

Also, with everything in life, fads come and go and we have also seen a jump in popularity of box/case breaks, and a booming trend in group breaks. Many people also finding group breaks to be a fund way to be involved in a break, pay a little less, and receive cards of players from teams they choose.

Overall though, I still see this as a very active hobby. What we see online is just a small sample of the overall industry. The ways we collect has changed and many people are finding tons of great cards for their collections. We can either accept the changes that come in life or just reminisce about how things used to be.

[canucksfan007]

Just set up at the show this past weekend where there were hundreds of customers walking around, as well as bout 50ish dealers ..... and thats only on the lower mainland. Next month we will be having our biggest show of the year, where there will be over 100 dealers and I would guess over 1000 people walking in the doors over the 2 day event. There were old guys breaking cases ( 60+ ), there were young guys breaking cases ( under 18 ) and a ton in between .... not to mention the 20-25ish people we see every month that were basically introduced by the online community.

Ive been doing the online thing for about 10 years now ..... and yes trading has drastically gone down ..... but cards trading hands hasnt. It does seem like everyone is collecting the same thing ( or doesnt mind taking in those fey players everyone wants ), and of course no one has the sets from the mid 2000s or earlier. Cash is king in todays market, its hard to always have a Crosby Auto to trade for what you want, but its easy to have $100 to buy what you want

[Rraincock]

WOW! Some great opinions and viewpoints! I do love it when a post catches the attention of the members!

[Rraincock]

What a ridiculous concept.

... ok, fair opinion... why don't you tell me why you disagree?

[KingKuba]

You guys forget about inflation...$3 is like a $1 back in the good ole days.

I don't see gas for .49 cents do you? That was not that long ago.
Everything goes up in price.

If you want cheap packs...they'll be worthless just like 90's..

A pack of Series 1 is like $2.5 if you are buying a box so not bad.

But the hobby could be a lot healthier, just not enough disposable income for all these cards. People don't like burning money and that's what cards are...

[RGM81]

... ok, fair opinion... why don't you tell me why you disagree?

See my other posts in the thread. But congrats on a magnificent click-bait title.

[87sluggo]

The hobby is just fine. A million other things surrounding the hobby are constantly moving around, some for the better and some for the worse, but the hobby.......is just fine.

I spent the day without the interweb, so I got to come home and read all of this thread all at once. SO much interest from so many of us!!

First off, I just want to say to Cygnus (no I'm no calling you out haha) that the Show n' Tell forum is so much more than just showing off a bunch of hits and waiting for the obligatory "Cool cards!!" comment. You can turn it into a forum for just about anything, you can show off your idiot kids, your other hobbies if you have any, your LIFE!!! You can spin it off into discussions about anything, you can make friendships with guys with common card interests and sometimes someone will come along and see what you're collecting and they've got something soooooo sweet that they want to unload on you and it's the greatest day EVER! I get to see Jon's amazing customs, I get to see Adam's Gordie Howe collection grow, I get to see Brian's Guy Lafleurs, Paulie's nutso patch collection, that guy with the nameplates (you know who you are) Chris' obsession with Erik Karlsson, Rich and his baby Habs, Sean's Coilers, and Ron who will one day in the near future be showing off a card soooo amazing that you just might poop yourself, just the PM from him telling me he had it reserved on layaway made me fart. Can I say that here? And that's just off the top off my head. And it's because they took the time to scan their crap up and share it. Believe me, I know that maybe three people on this planet including myself care about my Ryan Kesler collection, but do I care? Helllllllllllllll no, because I can sell that thread, baby!

It's my favorite forum don'cha know.......

As for the rest, I have problems focusing on anything for more than two minutes at a time, so it's pretty much a blur.

But................a couple months ago I set up a table at the Bonsor show and had a decent time of it. I didn't sell that much but I did give away a bunch of stuff to a bunch of kids, and there were a bunch of kids there. This last Sunday at the show I saw a 12-ish year old kid sit down at a table with a CASE of SPA. He said he'd saved up for it but I think his parents are stinkin' rich, but what does it matter. Me and Persian and later Steffen stood there and watched him open up the first box and good grief he asked us if we wanted to open a couple up, so we did and for a few minutes we were all 12 years old again. The kid hit a MacKinnon /99 auto redemption of some sort from the first box, he was pretty happy and we were pretty happy for him yessir.

OT Sports Cards opened up about 18 months ago in Vancouver, Derek has turned a teeny little business into a much bigger community. There's a brand new LCS opening up in North Vancouver hopefully this very week. The demand from collectors is still very strong, it's just carved up into so many more niches than it used to be. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

For me personally, I've never been in to the buying/selling end of it so all I've really ever known is the hobby part. I buy or occasionally trade for what I like for myself, not to flip. I've been here on SCF long enough that people are going to be decent to me when they have what I want because they know I'm not going to try to burn someone else on something. The hobby, for me and for a whack of people I know here and in-person, is justtttttt fine :)