Did the 1994 strike affect your card buying?

BBCgalaxee · Oct 8, 2015

Granted it was over twenty years ago but for those who don't know, the baseball card market completely tanked during the strike and into next year.

Pre order sales were so horrible that card companies openly stated approximate production runs for some of their products (unimaginable just a couple years prior) just to entice collectors with rarity.

So, were you around during this time and did you stop buying?

BBCgalaxee · Oct 8, 2015

I was completely out of cards in 93/94 and barely dabbled in 92 (non baseball less). You know, girls school and partying.

But one trip to a toys r us in late 94 or early 95 changed that.

They were closing out series two of 94 collectors choice and I really liked the cards, especially rookies and silver signatures.

Then I found 95 collectors choice SE and Topps at a CVS and I liked those as well

Next thing you know, I was buying pack after pack of 95 Leaf retail at a local candy store.

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Brewer Andy · Oct 8, 2015

The sale prices of '92 Fleer Rookie Sensations and '92/'93 Elite Series cards had already chased me away by then as a 14 year old making $4/hour part time. Screw that noise. I was angry about it for awhile. Didn't come back till 2003

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AmishDave · Oct 8, 2015

HUGE ! I didn't buy baseball, really hardcore, til '97 again. I started up in '96, but lost out on late '94 products and most anything '95. They screwed the pooch huge w/that strike.

RStadlerASU22 · Oct 8, 2015

Never changed for me and probably 1994 was my favorite year for baseball. Back then I was into FB and BK pretty heavy too, but was probably the year I spent the most on BB. 1995 followed up strong too for me.

The keys for me:
1994 Flair Hot Gloves
1994 Fleer Update Set was key
1994 Leaf Limited and Rookies was pretty big
1994 Leaf Gold Stars
1994 Pinnacle was one of my favorite releases of all time
1994 SP Holoviews and Red Die Cuts are one of my Fav insert sets of all time and ARod
1994 Score Cycle and Gold Stars were hot
1994 Score RT w the ARod
1994 Topps Traded was cool for me cuz Konerko was in it and he played at a rival HS
1994 Choice w MJ plus Gold Sigs
And last but not least 1994 UD had a lot going for it w ARod and Jordan plus the parallels were big even for one per pack. Then I loved the Diamond Collection plus there was the Griff/Mantle

There was more I'm sure I liked , but those were key for me!

Then into 1995 was big for me too.

1995 Bowmans Best Refs esp the A Jones and Vlady 1995 (even the non refs)
1995 Finest was a nice product overall
1995 Flair Hot Gloves again
1995 Leaf Stat Standouts are one of my Fav inserts ever
1995 Pinnacle was a great follow up to 94 with Museum , TPs, Red and White Hots etc
1995 Select introduced the Mirror Golds
1995 UD Minors ranks up there for product I opened the most of ever
1995 SP Top Prospects was great
1995 Zenith ZTeams were, well, awesome

Ryan

finestkind · Oct 8, 2015

I started building sets instead of buying new stuff.

BBCgalaxee · Oct 8, 2015

From what I remember reading......

94 Sportflics rookie and traded was announced and then cancelled because of the strike.

Shortly after, collectors started seeing it at retail stores and were baffled because last they heard it was canned.

Topps announced that their 95 base set was the shortest production run since 1965.

I believe donruss announced that the 95 set was the least produced since 84.

95 collectors choice SE was produced at only 25 percent of 94 collectors choice production.

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mrmopar · Oct 8, 2015

I had just gotten back into collecting seriously in 1993 after a 5 year break, so my buying habits were unaffected by the strike. I bought a lot of the Sportflic R/T boxes at Kmart that year for $20 or so, if I remember correctly. I frequently bought boxes from Kmart then as they had a great selection and the prices were great too..

u2me57 · Oct 9, 2015

BBCgalaxee- Thank you for another great question to start another great thread!

I was pretty upset about the 1994-95 baseball strike. But I still bought baseball cards. Up til this point in my collecting career I had pretty much only bought Topps cards. But in late 94 or early 95 Wal-Mart was selling small mixed (different brands) baseball packs for .50 or $1 a pack. They had 94 Sportflix Movers, 94 Pinnacle, and other stuff in them. I liked those other brands, especially 94 Pinnacle. I ended up with quite a few of the Gwynn Movers cards. Then I bought quite a few packs of 94 Collectors Choice for .99 a pack at CVS. And boxes at K-Mart for dirt cheap. Bought a lot of 94 and 95 Topps. 95 Topps and the Cyberstats cards were awesome.

Hawk8 · Oct 9, 2015

The strike didn't affect my card collecting at all

magicpapa · Oct 9, 2015

BBCgalaxee · Oct 9, 2015

u2me57 said:
BBCgalaxee- Thank you for another great question to start another great thread!

I 95 Topps and the Cyberstats cards were awesome.

Thanks! Me too with the Cyberstats, thought those were awesome and still do.

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Hendersonfan · Oct 9, 2015

BBCgalaxee said:
From what I remember reading......

94 Sportflics rookie and traded was announced and then cancelled because of the strike.

Shortly after, collectors started seeing it at retail stores and were baffled because last they heard it was canned.

Topps announced that their 95 base set was the shortest production run since 1965.

I believe donruss announced that the 95 set was the least produced since 84.

95 collectors choice SE was produced at only 25 percent of 94 collectors choice production.

Sent from my HTCONE using Freedom Card Board mobile app

I loved the Collector's Choice SE and have a hand collected set. Also a ton of silver signature cards. I was 13 and they were cheap but so cool!

Dilferules · Oct 9, 2015

I did pretty much all baseball prior to 1994 but ended up buying mostly football from late-1994 through 2000. Some of that was due to the strike, with baseball being so unpopular I tried other sports and it stuck for a while. Some of it was due to my team sucking around that timeframe. And right in the middle of that the internet came along and it became possible to hyper-focus on one player and realistically get almost all of their cards...and that player for me happened to be in football.

I got back into baseball mostly in 2001 due to a combination of that great year in baseball cards, the A's being good and more collectible again, and my football player collection reaching the point where it was getting tough to find cards I still needed. Now I don't even like football anymore, the only game I watch each year is the Super Bowl, ha.

RNCoyote · Oct 9, 2015

I went to collecting basketball cards for a while. How could you not enjoy Grant Hill and Jason Kidd rookies? After 95 it was hard find cards because there were limited at Walmart and K-Mart.

gamecockfanatic · Oct 9, 2015

i heard about all the major production cuts for 1995 so i actually bought everything i could find locally (no super premium stuff here - mostly just your basic topps , donruss , fleer , score , upper deck , collector's choice , and pinnacle) and just tucked most of it aside on the premise that EVENTUALLY it would be seen as (relatively) limited and either attain or maintain value better than other years from that era....

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Did the 1994 strike affect your card buying?

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