There are too many cards.

[mooneyes]

Of the current crop of young players I like Zegras the most, so I was searching eBay for an rc I might like. I entered OPC and...a zillion different versions of both regular and Platinum came up. At first it cool there are so many options, but than I realized with so many, none of them are special.

Than I searched his Artifacts rookies and similar results. There is even a clear cut parallel but worth much less than a YG clear cut so not really special. After a while, they all started looking the same to me and I got bored.
With such a saturation of parallels I can see why YG's are so popular because at least it's a true rookie. There maybe 40,000 of them or whatever, but at least it's an actual rc. This made me wonder why the base Platinum rc was so cheap but I guess there a million of them. So, if I wanted something a bit more special, as in rare, than a YG, I figured I should get a graded mint YG. I looked at a PSA 10 YG which was 5 X cost of ungraded one but the actual card looked far from mint so what exactly am I spending all that extra money for, a plastic slab? Seems weird.

So, uh...maybe I will just get a jumbo YG for $15 because no one wants them. lol
(Anyone know how rare they are?)

Anyway, just one man's ramblings about something that doesn't really matter.

Happy collecting.

[cjb]

Future watch auto's ate probably the way to go

[Drewk86a]

Could not agree more. Too many sets. Too many parallels, Too many parallel inserts. The argument used to be that more card sets made the hobby more accessible to collectors of all ages and income levels. But it seems the only really affordable set is OPC or MVP. $9.99 for a pack of Fleer Ultra? $6.99 for a pack of CHL cards? (OK you have a shot at Bedard)

Super high-end sets like the Cup, SPGU, SPX, Ultimate collection, Clear Cut, and the like are way too far out of my range. I could try to pick up singles on the secondary market, but when there are 30 different variations it makes it difficult to build a decent PC

[RGM81]

Many people over the years (myself included, many many many times - check the dates on some of these!) have lamented that there's just too much...of everything. Too many products. Too many parallels. Too many subsets. All of it. Yes, yes, collect what you like, but with the plethora of everything out there it's gotten pretty challenging to even find out what you really like because the cool stuff gets buried amongst all the nonsense.
Upper Deck is still recovering from the pandemic, and we are in a place now where the supply isn't able to keep up with the demand (we'll be seeing Cole Caufield rookie cards being released in his 3rd season), but the stuff that is being released often doesn't have sustained interest because people aren't necessarily taking to what is being put out there. Platinum, and yes I've harped on this a lot, it was inexcusable that it was that badly delayed and has so many QC problems--and at a time when they've jacked the price while giving people fewer quality hits. To double the price point while retaining 1 auto per box and adding another ridiculous wave of parallels (because other sports love shiny parallels, and we're apparently trying to get those guys to collect hockey now), yet the actual cards are badly off-centre and miscut....not good.

And this coming season, with Bedard Mania....it is only going to be ramped up even higher.

[Seahawks Fan]

Too many cards for sure but atleast Hockey hasn't come close to NFL nonsense. In 2021 Trevor Lawrence had over 7,000 different cards. 2020/21 1st overall pick Lafreniere had almost 800. Even if Bedard hits 2k it's not even 1/3 of the garbage NFL is pumping out.

[Gretzky9966]

It is time for collectors to take a stand and stop buying boxes and cases. With the quality issues, ridiculous prices, watered down product with all the parallels, and less hits such as one less auto in Sp authentic. The hobby has gotten ridiculously overpriced and is a rich man’s game. It is 100 percent gambling and that is probably why it is so hard for us to say no. But even if we stopped buying for a couple months, or a year, wouldn’t upper deck be forced to lower prices and fix quality issues???? Of course this is all wishful thinking on my part with Bedard about to be released. Maybe the year after??? Imagine pulling a high gloss Bedard yg with chipping issues, a knicked corner, print line, and scratches or pits on the surface. Would probably grade a psa 4-5. Still would be great to have but worth a fraction of what it should have been worth. Time to take a stand!!! I won’t even go into the joke of grading and zero consistency with it.

[odjickfan]

My answer to the situation is that I became very picky on the singles I buy. There's not much that I feel is a MUST add to my collection among all the stuff that is released. I still love to break affordable boxes, and I'm happy to trade cards for cards I like more, but I'm turning more and more into a seller.

[OscarsCards]

Amen! I have the same opinion.

[bali88]

I'm already sick of the many 1/1s. Lots of them. The player is uncollectable. I collect Callahan. 250 1/1 out of about 800 cards. that's a lot of...But I also agree that there are many parallels. One card has 9-10-12 parallels. unnecessary.The hobby is too diluted and the boxes are already too expensive.
in one ultra pro sheet fits 9 card. 1 base, and 8 paralell. I think that's enough.

[30ranfordfan]

I stopped cracking very much wax back in 2016. I do get the itch, and will do the odd one here or there. I did a box of series 1 each of the last couple of years... there's been a few other one-offs.

To be honest, very few of the products that come out anymore interest me. I'm with the other posts here. There is no way for me to justify buying a box for $150+, and the bulk of the hits will be scrub rookie parallels. 10 years ago they made a ton of cards of rookies... it's not like that's new.... but it seems that more and more, every set is watered down with rookie content. Yes, we all chase rookie cards (well, most of us). The ratio of vet-to-rookie content has swung WAY too far for my liking... it's not just the parallels.

Shane Pinto has 455 2021-22 cards. Taylor Hall had 357 in 2010-11. I picked a random rookie from 21-22 I had heard of.... but isn't exactly a big name... and compared him to a 1st overall pick in an era that we had two manufacturers, and he came into the league with a lot of hype.

Some of UD's best inserts (Limited Logos, SOTT, for example) have become filled with rookies. They never should have been included in those sets in the first place.... but the rookies (mostly) all sign, and sign for cheap. The vets won't always do it.

I dunno. The products keep selling, so maybe I'm just too old to appreciate the modern market. I do see the odd release that I really like (SP Legends was awesome. Chronology Vol 1 was really good, I think they could have done Vol 2 better..... I think with enough effort and trying to spread around the premium players, they could have made Volumes 3 or 4) from UD. So many of the sets that come out each year (credentials, allure, synergy, anything fleer / sybox / metal) - I just don't get the attraction (at the price point). Zero interest from me.

It makes it easy to pick up singles I want, without forking out big bucks to crack wax, and get a bunch of cool looking cards of players I've never heard of.