Your Beef with the Hobby or Why You Don't Care.

[011873]

As a card store owner, here are mine (Baseball only):

1. Attack of the retro products. Enough is enough with Heritage and Ginter, those are fine. Stop with any others.

2. Total lack of modern day players on cards featuring modern technology with a $5 srp. In other words, what Donruss used to do so amazingly.

3. Too many super low end products, are five really needed? It may not sound like a lot but with only about 17 products issued, five is too many.

4. Total bull crap ads on tv and print. These SHOULD show the amazing stuff you can actually find in the packs (GU, autos, numbered cards, inserts, cut autos, patches).

The recent commercials have all, every one of them, avoided the above and instead they focused on BASIC cards. Thats like a steakhouse commercial which DOESNT promote its steaks and instead promotes the free parking in the rear.

5. Lack of on time products. Year after year, product after product, excuse after excuse, it never ends. First it was blamed on the players not getting their autos back on time. Then it was delayed because they said they avoided redemptions. THEN they blamed the printers.

6. Backdoored shat. Unnumbered gold refs, etc. Ok so the printer secretly printed these or whatever the excuse is but what about those sheets after sheets of Bowman red unnumbered 1/1 cards that TOPPS sent as a thank you to whoever?

7. Sheer lack of products. I have customers walking out of my store because theres nothing new released, oh except $100 shat like TTT or ANOTHER retro product.

8. Everthing is a sort of niche product. Prospect loaded or $50-$300 packs or retro or no frills. Outside of Chrome, nothing else comes close except perhaps the over priced $70 Finest mini box of SIX packs.

9. KNOWING that MLB thinks they are doing the right thing and that everyone has been crazy happy with joy over the shat issued for 2010. KNOWING that MLB has no clue whatsoever about how to market baseball cards and what most collectors are looking for.

10. Its time to understand that adults keep the Hobby going. Sure theres a lot of kids involved and no one should turn their backs on that but the fact remains that there are far, far fewer kids today than a decade ago despite all the stuff geared to them and all the online codes on the cards etc that have been trotted out the last fifteen years.

11. Enough with all these stupid ass non baseball related cards in products. Keep them in Ginter ONLY unless they are super super duper shortprinted. Maybe then the hobby will be happy to get a card showcasing the first toaster or the man who invented The Clapper.

12. We've put people in space, men on the Moon but cards cant be cut right? Boxes cant always have the promised GU/ auto count?

13. Arent we at a point where $100.....make that $50 packs....... should ALWAYS have an auto in them?

14. Redemption cards for the card company SPOKESPERSON? Seriously?

15. No competition for Topps outside of 1-3 products by UD and Donruss.

 

[hofautos]

sticker autos
no more fan favorite autos
no more ud baseball cards
time for bowman chrome for facelift
change something for 1/1 1/25 1/50 cards besides the color
sticker autos
sticker autos

 

[mmier118]

My biggiest beef with the hobby is that wax is too expensive. I'd love to put together the base topps set from wax but it just doesn't make sense from an economic prospective, instead i wait and either buy a hand collated set or if i wait long enough you can ususally get a factory set pretty cheap online. It's not that I couldn't spring for 4 to 6 boxes of topps and put together the set it's just that you can get so many amazing cards on ebay for the cost of those four to six boxes. But, on the other hand that's one of the things that brought me back to collecting. I love that singles are affordable and you can get just about any card you want online. The other beef I have with the hobby is that it's really not accepted as mainstream by most people. It's "cool" to spend tons of $$$ and time on fantasy baseball for some reason but if you collect cards it kind of makes you a dork. I really don't know how to fix these problems nor am i sure that they need to be fixed. Overall I am enjoying collecting quite a bit and if that stops i just won't buy any cards, I've done that once already lol (1999-2007)

 

[srstetler]

I don't care about sustainable equity because the industry doesn't care about sustainable equity in their product.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

I enjoyed your perspective and feel your frustration. I'm not disagreeing with you as I want every good LCS to succeed, I'm just offering a different perspective you're probably aware of already anyway.

4. Total bull crap ads on tv and print. These SHOULD show the amazing stuff you can actually find in the packs (GU, autos, numbered cards, inserts, cut autos, patches).
The recent commercials have all, every one of them, avoided the above and instead they focused on BASIC cards. Thats like a steakhouse commercial which DOESNT promote its steaks and instead promotes the free parking in the rear.
I hear this, but it almost sounds as if you're putting down basic cards... I assume there's a much greater margin on 'steaks' than on 'potatoes', no? And a lot of places sell the potatoes already like Walmart. But is there anything to stop distributors, dealers and card store owners from advertising on their own? Aside from the advertising on message boards I mean.

Steak cards are most likely to end up on the secondary market anyway soon after release, manufacturers don't care much about the secondary market especially since most of their steak they've dished out gets eaten anyway. I've wondered whether the margin manufacturers make on the steak subsidizes the potatoes...and wonder if marketing the steak is more like marketing gambling? Gambling is an image the MLB wants no part of.
9. KNOWING that MLB thinks they are doing the right thing and that everyone has been crazy happy with joy over the shat issued for 2010. KNOWING that MLB has no clue whatsoever about how to market baseball cards and what most collectors are looking for.
The MLB seems much more concerned with promotion of the game and collecting rather than marketing and a secondary market they don't control. The 'potato' cards seem to do this well enough for them, plus they're trying to reach kids more than adults. Seems that someone else would need to market the steak better like distributors and store owners, but they'd need to do it in a way that doesn't interfere with MLB's message - ie don't put down 'potato' cards.
10. Its time to understand that adults keep the Hobby going. Sure theres a lot of kids involved and no one should turn their backs on that but the fact remains that there are far, far fewer kids today than a decade ago despite all the stuff geared to them and all the online codes on the cards etc that have been trotted out the last fifteen years.
The adults often like the steak cards, and a lot of them like to put down the potato cards that kids can afford. Perhaps the best thing here is to not put down the potato cards - but promote them! - and the kids will buy more of them. Granted again the potato cards may not produce the best margin, but hopefully kids will buy steak when they get older.
11. Enough with all these stupid ass non baseball related cards in products. Keep them in Ginter ONLY unless they are super super duper shortprinted. Maybe then the hobby will be happy to get a card showcasing the first toaster or the man who invented The Clapper. This emphasizes again how the industry is more interested in general collecting of any sort and not looking to get too serious all the time. A clapper card is a memorable card though!

 

[RandomH]

My only beef is that I know companies are capable of producing nice stuff, but yet they always seem to fall short.


In almost all cases, they can do better, they know how to do better, but don't.



But outside of that, no one is forcing me to buy anything, so I really don't care what they do. It's their product, and if they want me to buy it, they had better make it good. Or I simply won't buy.

QFT. people buy whatever so they make whatever.

 

[cgilmo]

Prospecting. It seems there are more prospectors today than there are legitimate collectors. I say legitimate because that is precisely what prospectors are not. If you buy cards with the explicit intention to flip them, then you are no longer in it for the same reasons that kids have gotten into it for the last hundred years.

For those that have been collecting for decades the most enjoyable posts for us on boards like this are the ones where a set collector finishes off the last 5 cards he needed for his 1986 Topps set, or the Dale Sveum collector who picked up that card he's been after for 20 years. That is what this hobby was truly about.

Prospecting... my beef.

agian, what do you care what other people do with their time and money?

 

[autocut]

On top of the integrity issue, which is non-existent, people's issue with "overpaying" for a card is comical. A card is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. That's what determines the value of a card (not a price guide or past auction sales). That's why flips are possible. So, everytime I see a post where someone ask if they overpaid for someone, it brings a quick chuckle. Everything is always based on supply, demand, and super collectors who will pay whatever to fill those holes in their collection.

 

[predatorkj]

Not that anybody cares but my biggest beef is this money, unlike in the past, almost has to revolve around money now.

Sure in the past many people purchased cards thinking one day they'd be rich but for your money you could get a lot of cards. And all cards were created equal. Sure a lot of stuff wouldn't blow your socks off but it didn't have to. Now, with the price of packs, you almost feel deserving of the cards being a worthwhile investment. And it shows because the price of packs go up. And so does the "collector's" expectations. They get mad that they spent $209 on a box of Triple Threads and got burned. I saw a dude bust $1800 worth in like 20 minutes the other day and I'd have to say...I don't see him making much more than maybe $500 topps for what he spent.

And that is where the plot thickens. Now we all know nobody wants to feel like they got ***** on a product they purchased but I think out little hobby has grown much too big for its britches. People always want to push the envelope and want more and more. Companies will give it to you but at a price. You want insane stuff, they will have to screw 4 out of every 5 people to give it to you. And "collectors" are so absorbed by the $$$ aspect of the hobby. I see people buy stuff all the time, rip it, and then yell excitedly that they just pulled a card worth $***. Now does it affect me? No. But I just don't understand this hobby. It doesn't have to be this way. We ourselves have made it this way. This is our monster.

This is the real reason we have people here who think if your collection consists of base cards and lower tier cards, then you are a pack rat. They can't fathom how somebody could enjoy anything not very rare or not worth a lot of money. For me, I can't understand why you can't enjoy something if its not worth a lot of money. Why can't you enjoy it for what it is. Now I do understand some people and their ideas...I actually exchanged some pm's that helped me gain some of their viewpoint. But there are many who are not in those type of situations.

I think this hobby has evolved into gamblers and people who like to play a stock market type game with cards. I have no beef with that but I do see that(as you alluded to Gilmore) this does affect me. It does bother me. Because the entire hobby seems to be centered around the $$$. It used to be only the dealers were worried about the money but now every single collector is worried about it. Its killed creativity. Its killed meaningful looking and worthwhile sets. Its killed anyone's love for what the hobby used to be about. Its turned it ugly and hateful. Its caused products to change so drastically that the base cards and even inserts are nothing more than packaging material. And it swallowed so much of its own BS that it eventually even killed the $$$ aspect. It self destructed.

Some were talking about star player autos being worth a lot less now. Only in this day and age would we bitch about something like that. Its not like..." Hey...great, instead of paying $300 for a Ken Griffey Jr. auto, now I can pay $40 and have the same card.". No. Now its like..."Damn...I wish Ken Griffey's autos would be worth more so my collection is worth more ,because now that my collection is filled with $40 cards instead of $300 cards, I hate it and don't feel like its worth having.". Yeah, I don't get that. I am fine with that because I'll be glad to take them at that price.

But the main point is people are just too damn caught up in the value. We forgot why we were collecting. And because of that we have changed the entire landscape of collecting. Cards weren't good enough anymore. We had to have more and better. Autos and the like. And now, in the great age of being able to go to walmart and buy a pack of cards for $3 and pull an auto of a player who is a major league all star , we shake our heads in disgust? We're mad? Angry? We feel cheated? You can't blame the companies. This reminds me of Ivan Pavlov and his dogs. We did this. Can you blame the dogs(topps etc.)? And can you call yourself a true hobbyist now? Can you say you collect for the reasons this stuff was meant to collect?

And now you get mad that you pulled a major league player's auto, an auto that I should remind you, was inconceivable to pull back when we were all kids. This concept was so space age style that it was nuts. It totally made the hobby even better. And now we get mad that it wasn't worth much. Seriously guys, you can't step back from that and see there is something wrong? That's the problem and that's my beef.

 

[predatorkj]

On top of the integrity issue, which is non-existent, people's issue with "overpaying" for a card is comical. A card is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. That's what determines the value of a card (not a price guide or past auction sales). That's why flips are possible. So, everytime I see a post where someone ask if they overpaid for someone, it brings a quick chuckle. Everything is always based on supply, demand, and super collectors who will pay whatever to fill those holes in their collection.

I like to think of cards as worth what I will pay for them. Just because somebody else paid a certain price doesn't mean I will. I think people get way too ticked off when they feel you aren't meeting their expectations on a price point.

 

[Mr.Whipple]

Prospecting. It seems there are more prospectors today than there are legitimate collectors. I say legitimate because that is precisely what prospectors are not. If you buy cards with the explicit intention to flip them, then you are no longer in it for the same reasons that kids have gotten into it for the last hundred years.

For those that have been collecting for decades the most enjoyable posts for us on boards like this are the ones where a set collector finishes off the last 5 cards he needed for his 1986 Topps set, or the Dale Sveum collector who picked up that card he's been after for 20 years. That is what this hobby was truly about.

Prospecting... my beef.

agian, what do you care what other people do with their time and money?

Because companies see the market created by prospectors and employees from companies back door cards and such. That hurts the hobby as a whole honestly. Now every product has prospects and rookies in it and that blows. Topps Tribute was all hof and legends at once, but now has rookies in it. MLBP seen the prospect phenom and made companies put them in products to make more money. I dont see prospecting being big in a year because of Straburg and his injury. Topps will probably push vets and hof players. To many casual collectors took a bath on his cards and their plans on flipping died. Him being in every product inflated secondary market prices and pushed collectors away from wax. Topps seen this and probably got alot of cancelations on cases. They tried prospecting and it failed. They had there guy in Strasburg, hyped his ass up and put a big price tag on him. Made a killing on some product, but got beat on everything after. Now there stash sucks. If only they would of read FCB and would of did it the right way. Kept him out of everything but chrome,bowman and sterling.

 

[autocut]

On top of the integrity issue, which is non-existent, people's issue with "overpaying" for a card is comical. A card is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. That's what determines the value of a card (not a price guide or past auction sales). That's why flips are possible. So, everytime I see a post where someone ask if they overpaid for someone, it brings a quick chuckle. Everything is always based on supply, demand, and super collectors who will pay whatever to fill those holes in their collection.

I like to think of cards as worth what I will pay for them. Just because somebody else paid a certain price doesn't mean I will. I think people get way too ticked off when they feel you aren't meeting their expectations on a price point.

People get mad all the time when they get out bidded or if someone is willing to pay more than they feel its worth.

 

[Mr.Whipple]

My only real beef is people who rip 10+ cases of a product and sell every card. Because they used a cc, house payment, food money or borrowed it. They have to sell it just to get all the money they can back. I have bought collections from people like this and cant figure out how they are so addicted. Once paid 1500 bucks for a 75k dollar card collection, Best was the guy bought 1000 in wax the same day he sold me the cards. The stuff he pulled was in the boxes. Know a guy who had to move back home cause of cards. I used a CC once and it was for 12 bucks doing pack poker and I was short cash. Once my cash is gone, I am done buying or will trade for wax. One trade night a guy sold me a pair of Ali,Clay dual signed gloves for 40 bucks. The pair of gloves alone cost 100 bucks. Knew it was legit as I was with him at the signing. But needed that 40 bucks to have enough for a box. These are the people who list cards on ebay and sell it for 20 bucks when the past 10 sold for 100 a piece and kill the market doing so. The end of month panic sale is what I call it and is also the best time to roam shows and make pick ups.

 

[predatorkj]

On top of the integrity issue, which is non-existent, people's issue with "overpaying" for a card is comical. A card is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. That's what determines the value of a card (not a price guide or past auction sales). That's why flips are possible. So, everytime I see a post where someone ask if they overpaid for someone, it brings a quick chuckle. Everything is always based on supply, demand, and super collectors who will pay whatever to fill those holes in their collection.

I like to think of cards as worth what I will pay for them. Just because somebody else paid a certain price doesn't mean I will. I think people get way too ticked off when they feel you aren't meeting their expectations on a price point.

People get mad all the time when they get out bidded or if someone is willing to pay more than they feel its worth.

Well yeah but I think they are angrier that it went down that way rather than because they would have paid more. I bid on a card I really want and lose, I'll get slightly ticked but I am still not paying more than what I bid for it. Its a kick in the nuts but an acceptable one.

 

[FortyFour]

Not that anybody cares but my biggest beef is this money, unlike in the past, almost has to revolve around money now.

Sure in the past many people purchased cards thinking one day they'd be rich but for your money you could get a lot of cards. And all cards were created equal. Sure a lot of stuff wouldn't blow your socks off but it didn't have to. Now, with the price of packs, you almost feel deserving of the cards being a worthwhile investment. And it shows because the price of packs go up. And so does the "collector's" expectations. They get mad that they spent $209 on a box of Triple Threads and got burned. I saw a dude bust $1800 worth in like 20 minutes the other day and I'd have to say...I don't see him making much more than maybe $500 topps for what he spent.

And that is where the plot thickens. Now we all know nobody wants to feel like they got ***** on a product they purchased but I think out little hobby has grown much too big for its britches. People always want to push the envelope and want more and more. Companies will give it to you but at a price. You want insane stuff, they will have to screw 4 out of every 5 people to give it to you. And "collectors" are so absorbed by the $$$ aspect of the hobby. I see people buy stuff all the time, rip it, and then yell excitedly that they just pulled a card worth $***. Now does it affect me? No. But I just don't understand this hobby. It doesn't have to be this way. We ourselves have made it this way. This is our monster.

This is the real reason we have people here who think if your collection consists of base cards and lower tier cards, then you are a pack rat. They can't fathom how somebody could enjoy anything not very rare or not worth a lot of money. For me, I can't understand why you can't enjoy something if its not worth a lot of money. Why can't you enjoy it for what it is. Now I do understand some people and their ideas...I actually exchanged some pm's that helped me gain some of their viewpoint. But there are many who are not in those type of situations.

I think this hobby has evolved into gamblers and people who like to play a stock market type game with cards. I have no beef with that but I do see that(as you alluded to Gilmore) this does affect me. It does bother me. Because the entire hobby seems to be centered around the $$$. It used to be only the dealers were worried about the money but now every single collector is worried about it. Its killed creativity. Its killed meaningful looking and worthwhile sets. Its killed anyone's love for what the hobby used to be about. Its turned it ugly and hateful. Its caused products to change so drastically that the base cards and even inserts are nothing more than packaging material. And it swallowed so much of its own BS that it eventually even killed the $$$ aspect. It self destructed.

Some were talking about star player autos being worth a lot less now. Only in this day and age would we bitch about something like that. Its not like..." Hey...great, instead of paying $300 for a Ken Griffey Jr. auto, now I can pay $40 and have the same card.". No. Now its like..."Damn...I wish Ken Griffey's autos would be worth more so my collection is worth more ,because now that my collection is filled with $40 cards instead of $300 cards, I hate it and don't feel like its worth having.". Yeah, I don't get that. I am fine with that because I'll be glad to take them at that price.

But the main point is people are just too damn caught up in the value. We forgot why we were collecting. And because of that we have changed the entire landscape of collecting. Cards weren't good enough anymore. We had to have more and better. Autos and the like. And now, in the great age of being able to go to walmart and buy a pack of cards for $3 and pull an auto of a player who is a major league all star , we shake our heads in disgust? We're mad? Angry? We feel cheated? You can't blame the companies. This reminds me of Ivan Pavlov and his dogs. We did this. Can you blame the dogs(topps etc.)? And can you call yourself a true hobbyist now? Can you say you collect for the reasons this stuff was meant to collect?

And now you get mad that you pulled a major league player's auto, an auto that I should remind you, was inconceivable to pull back when we were all kids. This concept was so space age style that it was nuts. It totally made the hobby even better. And now we get mad that it wasn't worth much. Seriously guys, you can't step back from that and see there is something wrong? That's the problem and that's my beef.

Your post are awesomely long.

 

[predatorkj]

Not that anybody cares but my biggest beef is this money, unlike in the past, almost has to revolve around money now.

Sure in the past many people purchased cards thinking one day they'd be rich but for your money you could get a lot of cards. And all cards were created equal. Sure a lot of stuff wouldn't blow your socks off but it didn't have to. Now, with the price of packs, you almost feel deserving of the cards being a worthwhile investment. And it shows because the price of packs go up. And so does the "collector's" expectations. They get mad that they spent $209 on a box of Triple Threads and got burned. I saw a dude bust $1800 worth in like 20 minutes the other day and I'd have to say...I don't see him making much more than maybe $500 topps for what he spent.

And that is where the plot thickens. Now we all know nobody wants to feel like they got ***** on a product they purchased but I think out little hobby has grown much too big for its britches. People always want to push the envelope and want more and more. Companies will give it to you but at a price. You want insane stuff, they will have to screw 4 out of every 5 people to give it to you. And "collectors" are so absorbed by the $$$ aspect of the hobby. I see people buy stuff all the time, rip it, and then yell excitedly that they just pulled a card worth $***. Now does it affect me? No. But I just don't understand this hobby. It doesn't have to be this way. We ourselves have made it this way. This is our monster.

This is the real reason we have people here who think if your collection consists of base cards and lower tier cards, then you are a pack rat. They can't fathom how somebody could enjoy anything not very rare or not worth a lot of money. For me, I can't understand why you can't enjoy something if its not worth a lot of money. Why can't you enjoy it for what it is. Now I do understand some people and their ideas...I actually exchanged some pm's that helped me gain some of their viewpoint. But there are many who are not in those type of situations.

I think this hobby has evolved into gamblers and people who like to play a stock market type game with cards. I have no beef with that but I do see that(as you alluded to Gilmore) this does affect me. It does bother me. Because the entire hobby seems to be centered around the $$$. It used to be only the dealers were worried about the money but now every single collector is worried about it. Its killed creativity. Its killed meaningful looking and worthwhile sets. Its killed anyone's love for what the hobby used to be about. Its turned it ugly and hateful. Its caused products to change so drastically that the base cards and even inserts are nothing more than packaging material. And it swallowed so much of its own BS that it eventually even killed the $$$ aspect. It self destructed.

Some were talking about star player autos being worth a lot less now. Only in this day and age would we bitch about something like that. Its not like..." Hey...great, instead of paying $300 for a Ken Griffey Jr. auto, now I can pay $40 and have the same card.". No. Now its like..."Damn...I wish Ken Griffey's autos would be worth more so my collection is worth more ,because now that my collection is filled with $40 cards instead of $300 cards, I hate it and don't feel like its worth having.". Yeah, I don't get that. I am fine with that because I'll be glad to take them at that price.

But the main point is people are just too damn caught up in the value. We forgot why we were collecting. And because of that we have changed the entire landscape of collecting. Cards weren't good enough anymore. We had to have more and better. Autos and the like. And now, in the great age of being able to go to walmart and buy a pack of cards for $3 and pull an auto of a player who is a major league all star , we shake our heads in disgust? We're mad? Angry? We feel cheated? You can't blame the companies. This reminds me of Ivan Pavlov and his dogs. We did this. Can you blame the dogs(topps etc.)? And can you call yourself a true hobbyist now? Can you say you collect for the reasons this stuff was meant to collect?

And now you get mad that you pulled a major league player's auto, an auto that I should remind you, was inconceivable to pull back when we were all kids. This concept was so space age style that it was nuts. It totally made the hobby even better. And now we get mad that it wasn't worth much. Seriously guys, you can't step back from that and see there is something wrong? That's the problem and that's my beef.

Your post are awesomely long.

As long as they make sense. I wish I was better at consolidating my thoughts into a shorter post but I never post unless I really want to say something. Unfortunately, its always a lot of something. ::facepalm::

 

[Mr.Whipple]

Not that anybody cares but my biggest beef is this money, unlike in the past, almost has to revolve around money now.

.

Your post are awesomely long.

As long as they make sense. I wish I was better at consolidating my thoughts into a shorter post but I never post unless I really want to say something. Unfortunately, its always a lot of something. ::facepalm::

We all do also hahaha. Their is a drinking game about your posts also. It depends on how many paragraphs you write. Thank god I dont drink, We only have had 3 incidents of alcohol poisoning.

 

[predatorkj]

Not that anybody cares but my biggest beef is this money, unlike in the past, almost has to revolve around money now.

.

Your post are awesomely long.

As long as they make sense. I wish I was better at consolidating my thoughts into a shorter post but I never post unless I really want to say something. Unfortunately, its always a lot of something. ::facepalm::

We all do also hahaha. Their is a drinking game about your posts also. It depends on how many paragraphs you write. Thank god I dont drink, We only have had 3 incidents of alcohol poisoning.

Lightweights...

 

[jrinne]

I dont think prospecting has killed the hobby at all. I think its actually increased people interest in the sport. People use to never pay attention to prospects as they came up in the organization and now people have the ability to keep tabs on guys as they progress with a team. I prospect all the time but at the same time I have my core interest in the hobby. Prospecting is an easy way to keep recycling the money to continue buying the cards I want. This hobby is a legalized way to gamble, all to often I see people on the transaction board saying they need to sell cards so they came make payments on their car, pay rent and so on.

 

[Mozzie22]

Prospecting. It seems there are more prospectors today than there are legitimate collectors. I say legitimate because that is precisely what prospectors are not. If you buy cards with the explicit intention to flip them, then you are no longer in it for the same reasons that kids have gotten into it for the last hundred years.

For those that have been collecting for decades the most enjoyable posts for us on boards like this are the ones where a set collector finishes off the last 5 cards he needed for his 1986 Topps set, or the Dale Sveum collector who picked up that card he's been after for 20 years. That is what this hobby was truly about.

Prospecting... my beef.

agian, what do you care what other people do with their time and money?

I don’t care what people do with their time and money so long as they don’t come on a message board “for collectors by collectors” and discuss at length their prospecting hits and misses. If someone wants to blow their money on cases with the intention of flipping that is their right to do so but they better never confuse themselves with real collectors…remember those, the ones that do it because they love the thrill and not the potential.

If you prospect you are not a “collector,” you see it as a business not a hobby.