is 2023 flat for baseball cards?

[bongo870]

it just seems to me baseball cards this year is flat. there isnt much out there. seems like in the past every week there was something new. now? eh. Yes, I'm a pack ripper. but not for much longer. Donruss panini can no longer use current players. I got used to the no logo, but you can't collect your fave player. then you have Topps regular. 9retail was just horrible!) then Topps chrome (same cards as basic Topps just shinny) unless you have a spare 1,000 bucks laying around what is out there. I had a lot of fun with Panini USA and Sportkings. mainly because it was something different out there. I don't know....

 

[gitarst182]

Topps Pristine is all the rage right now, but it's about $450 a box now, maybe even higher. I am even bored with Topps Sterling. Once you see three cards, everything looks the same with little variation. I will say, those Oh Snap autos from Pristine look nice, that's about it. Diamond Kings used to be my go to break because of the price and variety of cards, but since Panini can't use current players anymore... where is the collectability... It'll be interesting to see what Fanatics does with cards going forward, we are a little ways away from seeing that though. I think the Topps license runs through 2025...

 

[zyceoa]

Definitely for me. All I bought this year was a Series 1 super box and a Heritage mega box. I don't like how they turned Big League into a joke with 5 tiers of base cards in a kids product. And they axed retail brands such as Gallery and Fire which I enjoyed. I'll buy a hobby box of Archives IF it's not also cancelled. Outside of that, minimal interest. It feels like all current sports cards are in a hiatus, mainly football for their licensing fiasco. Glad I don't collect that sport anymore.

 

[abide]

Fanatics bought Topps for the brands, so the various Topps products should continue, every year they purge a few concepts that aren't selling well, and add a few new concepts.
And let's not forget that the [Fanatics with Topps] plan is to grow the hobby 10X, so they need to have a lot of product for the hobby to buy, however we in the hobby buy.
Whether we buy a box to rip at our LCS, or at Target / Walmart or other retail. Whether it is ripping a couple packs, a box or a case.
Whether it is self ripping, or breaker ripping.
Whether we who choose to join a break, choose one that is randomly assigned players or teams, or bidding for players / teams in the set.

I suspect that to grow the hobby, they have got to put out high end product that everyone who opens it, gets value more than the price of what they opened.
That will get people in the hobby who have started to pull back, to jump back in.
That will attract new money to the hobby.

A friend of mine thinks that Fanatics wants to attract gamblers to the hobby. Pull in gambling money, people that don't collect and don't care about cards.
They just buy, rip, sell on ebay or COMC or ALT, and get a return greater than they put in.
Of course whether it is gamblers or hobbyists that start growing their spend based on ROI, the game of musical chairs has got to keep going.
When the music stops, the hobby growth would eventually stop and reverse.

Fanatics bought an on-line gambling app. Probably they want to use the hobby to attract gamblers to their app. Cross selling.

We will see how this master plan plays out. It will be interesting.