What does the hobby "need"?

[joey12508]

2013 topps tek, the chase for the rare card of your favorite player. more competition, topps just doesn't get it.

 

[Matsuicollector]

Donruss/Playoff/Leaf/Absolute...you get the idea

 

[magicpapa]

Sticks of gum in packs.

I just wish it was simple again. Going to happen? Not a chance in hell. But hey, I can wish.

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[MansGame]

2013 topps tek, the chase for the rare card of your favorite player. more competition, topps just doesn't get it.

I hope not.


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[RiceLynnEvans75]

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Ha! Awesome!

 

[mjbuchanan80]

Sticks of gum in packs.

I just wish it was simple again. Going to happen? Not a chance in hell. But hey, I can wish.

I don't see why it couldn't happen. Topps Bazooka used to do this by wrapping the gum in cellophane.

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[Ghumbs]

Card shops should be better and there needs to be more of them. The Internet has its place in the hobby, but nothing replaces the experience of going to a shop and talking about cards or sports with the shop owner and fellow collectors.

This is part of the reason I don't have a problem with "Hobby Exclusive" product. Going to Target to buy cards is not even close to the same experience as going to the card shop. You know the packs have been searched and there's nobody there to talk to about cards. I don't have a problem with Target selling some cards, but it's in the best interest of the manufacturers to entice people to go to card shops because of the sense of community the card shop provides.

That said, almost every shop I've been to is pretty bad. There's stacks of shoeboxes of opened cards stacked around that nobody has any idea what's inside. You ask for something you collect and they tell you to check their website, leaving me to wonder why the hell I came into their shop in the first place. And there need to be more events the shop puts on. Trade nights, pack wars, signings, etc. Even just having an area in the store to hang out, watch sports, and open cards.

Instead of being a fun place to go, it's often a place where you have to walk around narrow aisles between cases full of stuff I could care less about while the shop owner stands there and lists stuff on ebay.

 

[MansGame]

Less parallel variations.......one refractor insert and maybe a 1/1 is enough. make serial numbers worth something again.

Totally agree here. Serial numbers are pointless now. It's sad. They just serial number everything and no one even cares now. Christ, in Tribute, every Belle card has a 1/1 and then a parallel of the 1/1! Lol! Just sad.

 

[RiceLynnEvans75]

Card shops should be better and there needs to be more of them. The Internet has its place in the hobby, but nothing replaces the experience of going to a shop and talking about cards or sports with the shop owner and fellow collectors.

This is a big part of it for me. I love shooting the bull with people in the shop and, along with making it more fun, gives me that added motivation that I need to stay in the hobby. True, I love going online and picking up cards that I wouldn't be able to get otherwise at the shops/shows around here but at times it just feels so mechanical.

 

[bkdlots]

To do away with super rare and 1/1 items. The prices of packs to even have an attempt to get a nice card drive away the casual collector and kids as well.

Wrapper redemptions were great in the 80s, All star sets, painters hats, even if i didn't get the cards I wanted I saved the wrappers for something else.

Less trying to out collect others and trying to get blood from a stone, instead working together to help each other. Yes there are some who are going to be idiots and try to "ching a ling" others, but a great example is The Team Collectors from Beckett now on Nimster's site.

 

[nappyd]

It needs rarity and chase.

Make the rare top end truly rare.


It needs a few sets that the public thinks they just aren't cool enough to have.

You mean the sets or the public isn't cool enough to have?

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[nappyd]

Donruss/Playoff/Leaf/Absolute...you get the idea

It would give cardcop a place to work again

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[cgilmo]

The industry certainly cares. Topps and other companys simply cannot survive without this rapid exchange of cards from person to person. It fuels sales of sealed product that keeps them going.

Who cares? Someone who is in this to sell. I know people like to sell and prospect but this is a hobby. You can't be getting mad when it's not easy for you to sell.

As far as I'm concerned...I like Bowman and I hate it. About the only reason I like it is you get the chance to get cards of guys who never made the majors. I actually had a handful of cards of a guy I met and went to school with. I had him sign them for me. That was neat. But other than that aspect, and the cool photographs they use on the cards sometimes, Bowman in and of itself is useless as far as a collector standpoint. And if they are going to have Bowman cards, they need to either do away with the RC logo or consider the first year cards that come out to be RC's. Why the holy hell that has changed is beyond ridiculous. It's why I hate Baseball RC collecting now. I can buy all the RC logo cards I want for cheap, which is nice, but they aren't real rookies. So even them existing, let alone me having any, is downright weird. And it's also why I gravitate more towards collecting football and basketball rookies. Because those are real rookies. There is none of this "prospect insert" crap and then 2 years later they have an official RC. It would be one thing if this was just a personal pet peeve. But I have yet to hear even one good reason for this change.

Obviously they'll never get rid of Bowman. It's too much of a cash cow for Topps. So why not just work with MLB and get this fixed.

Oh, and the licensing dollar issue won't get fixed until they can't find a buyer at their price. As far as MLBP is concerned, nothing is wrong.

 

[cgilmo]

To do away with super rare and 1/1 items. The prices of packs to even have an attempt to get a nice card drive away the casual collector and kids as well.

This is a nice and nostalgic approach. However it's simply impossible. The industry will die if they take this route.

 

[cgilmo]

This is a big part of it for me. I love shooting the bull with people in the shop and, along with making it more fun, gives me that added motivation that I need to stay in the hobby. True, I love going online and picking up cards that I wouldn't be able to get otherwise at the shops/shows around here but at times it just feels so mechanical.

I agree with you and [MENTION=6641]Ghumbs[/MENTION]

However for every good shop, there are two XXXXty ones.

 

[magicpapa]

To do away with super rare and 1/1 items. The prices of packs to even have an attempt to get a nice card drive away the casual collector and kids as well.

Wrapper redemptions were great in the 80s, All star sets, painters hats, even if i didn't get the cards I wanted I saved the wrappers for something else.

Less trying to out collect others and trying to get blood from a stone, instead working together to help each other. Yes there are some who are going to be idiots and try to "ching a ling" others, but a great example is The Team Collectors from Beckett now on Nimster's site.

 

[MansGame]

Awesome.


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Looking for Albert Belle cards! PM me!

 

[predatorkj]

The industry certainly cares. Topps and other companys simply cannot survive without this rapid exchange of cards from person to person. It fuels sales of sealed product that keeps them going.



Oh, and the licensing dollar issue won't get fixed until they can't find a buyer at their price. As far as MLBP is concerned, nothing is wrong.

Uh, why does topps care if people can prospect or flip prospects? They've proven time and again as long as they get the product out the door, they're happy. You might argue that if people can't make money on the secondary market, wax sales will go down. But practically every other product has this reality of not being able to make a profit on busted wax. Yet people still buy it anyways.

Maybe I'm not understanding your statement? Not sure...

 

[srstetler]

What does the hobby "need"?

Global appeal? Asian distributors? China? Competition not just among a few collectors but rather competition among global distributors.

 

[KCBeltranFan]

If it were up to me there would be far less relic and auto cards to go around. There would be no sets with 650 parallels of the same jersey card. I miss the days of set building without ssp cards that sell for a hundred each. If I had my way, we'd still have formats like the early to mid 90s.

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