So if GU and autos went away...

Would there still be interest in the hobby? Or is it pretty much an absolute no? The reason I ask is I always check in the 90's thread and I see cards numbered to /100 or /50. Yes the cards look pretty cool. But, if there had been anything better, would it have killed off some of the interest in the lower numbered stuff? Like Crusades or Mirror Golds. Yes those are cool. But we all know they couldn't compete today. If that was all they had though, would it increase the value or interest in a card numbered like that? I'm talking pure inserts here. Like Topps or whoever would literally have to revert back to a base set, maybe a few parallels of said base set, and then pure inserts that are in no way shape or form a parallel. Most would say that's impossible, they'd never go back, etc., etc.. But they could. And they could certainly cut costs way down by not having as much GU and autos. I don't think they'll ever fully do away with them. But as has been suggested before, it sure would be nice to have them fall like maybe one or two per case. Topps saves money on production and people will still bust looking for them. If the cards were truly that rare, it would be worth it to bust because if you pulled one, it's certainly harder to hit. And topps could focus more on including only star player or highly collected players. That way you don't buy a case and get stuck with a rare auto of a nobody.

I guess the way I see it, people want to collect no matter what. And if the hobby suddenly overnight changed like this, people will still collect. The base sets could get more attention from the manufactures and the insert cards would actually be worth something. Product could be a lot cheaper and Topps could sell a lot more of it so they may, in the end, still achieve good profit. Think of how many more boxes would be purchased if they were $50 a pop instead of $80 or more. And the redemption process, and even the GU "real or not" problem could go away because with less jersey's to secure, it would make it cheaper and motivate the companies to ensure they are getting the real deal. They could even go back to the picture of the jersey on the backs of cards. Hell, the cards could all be jumbos too. None of this stuff of tiny slices numbered to /500 or /250.

Opinions?

It would ruin the "hobby". Part of what helped cards gee their original appeal was that it was hard to find pics of favorite baseball players, especially back in the good old days. Now thanks to the internet, it renders pieces of cardboard obsolete.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

predatorkj said:

Would there still be interest in the hobby?

Click to expand...

I would have interest still - baseball is my favorite sport and I'm a set collector so I don't necessarily need hits/autos although they are nice to have for the niche team collection part of the PC that I do outside of collecting sets.

Take away hits/autos, the inserts will be the focus for most people so they better be nice and fancy and numbered to have any resale value. If inserts were bland and unnumbered like Topps flagship series 1, 2 and update inserts, they don't have much value and are hard to get rid of since they are so common.

Think of how many more boxes would be purchased if they were $50 a pop instead of $80 or more.

Click to expand...

disagree about box price being a driver of purchases. A lot of topps flagship boxes start out at $50-60 and most can be found now below $50 and they are still sitting on card shop shelves and in warehouses trying to be sold. I don't think I"ve ever come across a topps flagship *hobby* box being listed out of stock on very many websites, I don't know what you do to actually persuade box purchases other than drop the price to $25 or less just to move them at a huge loss to card dealers or just have Topps quit mass producing their flagship product each year/series so that the product will sell out in a couple of years at a decent $45-50 settled box price.

It really would not bother me in the slightest. I am and always have been a set collector, I have a player collection that I have some gu and autos of, but it is not the end all be all thing for me. They are nice to have for me, but not a necessity.

That said, I do enjoy collection the gu and autos of the one player that I do collect!

nappyd said:

Part of what helped cards gee their original appeal was that it was hard to find pics of favorite baseball players

Click to expand...

This is an under estimated factor. Back in the day you had box scores and baseball cards and occasionally a magazine picture of your childhood idols. In today's world you just have to reach in your pocket and pull out your phone and you can relive almost any moment of your team or read stats with a few taps of your finger

There would still be interest, I think there is still a segment of set builders in the hobby.

I think there would be a bigger impact if autos went away than GU. I think the autos, especially rookies and rare cuts, drives a lot of the hobby spend on unopened and secondary. Seems like GU is becoming a nice to have, not a need to have, IMHO.

darrend505 said:

It really would not bother me in the slightest. I am and always have been a set collector, I have a player collection that I have some gu and autos of, but it is not the end all be all thing for me. They are nice to have for me, but not a necessity.

Click to expand...

Totally agree with this, I love gus/etc.. But I'm a set builder first

Just waiting for the next big idea to kill whats hot now. GU cards used to be THE cards to get. Now I dont place value to them much more than regular inserts. So if GU and autos went away, whats left? Parallels? Refractors? Some collectors are already sick of parallels.

I'm still in the boat of scaling back all the fanciness. Make a huge base set and minimize the number of hits to make them worth a damn.

rsmath said:

I would have interest still - baseball is my favorite sport and I'm a set collector so I don't necessarily need hits/autos although they are nice to have for the niche team collection part of the PC that I do outside of collecting sets.

Take away hits/autos, the inserts will be the focus for most people so they better be nice and fancy and numbered to have any resale value. If inserts were bland and unnumbered like Topps flagship series 1, 2 and update inserts, they don't have much value and are hard to get rid of since they are so common.



disagree about box price being a driver of purchases. A lot of topps flagship boxes start out at $50-60 and most can be found now below $50 and they are still sitting on card shop shelves and in warehouses trying to be sold. I don't think I"ve ever come across a topps flagship *hobby* box being listed out of stock on very many websites, I don't know what you do to actually persuade box purchases other than drop the price to $25 or less just to move them at a huge loss to card dealers or just have Topps quit mass producing their flagship product each year/series so that the product will sell out in a couple of years at a decent $45-50 settled box price.

Click to expand...

I'm not talking about flagship per se but yes, that product could provide more of a punch by limiting the crappy stuff and just focusing on a few really cool inserts.

I'm talking about any product. Like you used to have topps finest, topps stars, etc. Now we have finest but it's more parallel and auto driven. Let's see them get back to insert driven.

I just don't see people up and quitting the hobby. There would be a bunch if griping initially. But people would come back. You'd just be changing the focus. Allows for a better base card, inserts, and value to be realized on stuff other than what we do now. And you could still do gu and autos. But with the way lesser amount produced, it might not drive prices up for older players with a ton out there. But with new players going forward, it would help. I just want to see 10 card insert sets that are actually valuable and actually matter again. I think it could be done.

I'd like to see Topps create a variation set of the flagship that is inserted 1 per box of Bazooka bubble gum.

It would be the same set just a picture variant. If there were 700 odd cards inserted I would assume that they would be rather rare and very difficult to obtain.

It wouldn't be manufactured scarcity, it would be scarcity driven by how well a product moves.

When they started producing them they were scarce and sought after. You started out wanting that game used. And they kept adding more and more. Yes there ate plenty of crazy player collectors. But many more general card collectors or team collectors I suspect. There's a few guys who chase them all but most collectors are happy with owning one auto or one GU of the superstars. Beckett list 1519 relic cards for Pujols. In 2 years time he'll likely have twice as many Jersey cards available as my main player collection has total cards. This is insane. With those numbers why would many collectors care about base cards?

Brewer Andy said:

When they started producing them they were scarce and sought after. You started out wanting that game used. And they kept adding more and more. Yes there ate plenty of crazy player collectors. But many more general card collectors or team collectors I suspect. There's a few guys who chase them all but most collectors are happy with owning one auto or one GU of the superstars. Beckett list 1519 relic cards for Pujols. In 2 years time he'll likely have twice as many Jersey cards available as my main player collection has total cards. This is insane. With those numbers why would many collectors care about base cards?

Click to expand...

I understand. I'm just shy of 500 different gu for Bagwell and to me, one of the only factors making that feel good is there being a light at the end of the tunnel. If I had to hardcore collect a current player, it would be rough to keep the wind in my sails throughout all the releases.

I guess I just feel if it's not there, it's not there. And when something is not there, people go after what is there. Base sets have looked like crap since what...2001 or so? Same picture used year after year. You take some of the time and money and focus off of gu stuff, it's easily spent on shoring up what you do have. So the photography could be more selective, the design could get better, and the overall look could greatly improve. And if it's the only thing there, along with inserts, and the desire to collect something, anything really, is there...I'd say the product would sell. And perhaps the hobby would be better off?

I often forget that when I fell in love with the hobby there were no cards with embedded pieces of game-used material and autographs were so rare that I didn't know they existed in the products I was busting until I saw one at a local card show. I'd still collect cards because I love the hobby and "regular" inserts could again fuel my fire. Alas, it will never happen.

X Fractors fool!

So, is the general consensus (though I'm not getting a whole slew of feedback just yet) that it wouldn't happen? Or that it couldn't happen because it wouldn't work. Obviously one kind of drives the other but I'm of the frame of mind it might work so I can't personally say it won't unless I see it tried first.

I remember back in the early 90's when the Donruss Dominators /10,000 were the cards to chase. You claim to have one on BMB and you're the man. I can't remember if you were able to post a scan back then, but dang, that feels like forever and a day ago.

I could go on collecting without autos and game used cards. don't have many of either now. As far as the hobby not sure, it get rid of all the fake auto's and patches that people seem to love to buy.