While you do bring up some valid points, your comment about the hobby always having been driven by the rookie card is incorrect.
Rookie card mania really only began in 1984 with Don Mattingly.
Prior to that, set collecting was what drove the hobby, with most collectors striving to collect the complete Topps set each year.
Steve >>
Exactly what I was going to say. Before that, it was driven by the star (or favorite player) cards.
I do hope the end is near and we won't see anymore inserts, refactors, chromes or whatever. Maybe, just maybe kids will learn the joy of building sets instead immediately thumbing through a price guide.
Its all about the target market and marketing to that. And....IMO...it has followed the character of the sport from Gehrig and Williams to Bonds and Raffy, if you catch my drift.
Its all about (in order of importance):
1. MONEY
2. If not about money...see # 1.
I'll keep my monopolistic Topps from 56-61 in the old wooden Velveeta cheese box, lined up in order, waiting for better days.
(I'm very disappointed that my PSA8 from 1999 is now a PSA6....damn market shifted, I guess)
(Also, I save a whole summer of scrambling and trading now and just order a set.... as any true collector would do.)
ADVICE....Wise men don't need it and fools don't heed it
Would the prospectors be satisfied with a really nice set of minor league cards made by Topps or Upper Deck? I realize it isn't the same, but maybe it would help.
Looking to 2006, I think UD and Topps will continue this year's trend, and with less competition they may even make it worse -- a confusing sea of parallels and variations numbered 5-25 each. Slight changes in each: different color logos, autos signed in different color ink, some with frames some without, different GU swatches, minor changes in design and in the name of the parallel. Take a hypothetical Hall-of-Famer and some hypothetical variations:
UD MVP Cooperstown Calling (variations for Silver, Gold, Red, Framed, Unframed, Jersey, Jersey-Bat, Jersey-Bat-Pants, Jersey-Bat-Pants-Patch) UD MVP Cooperstown Clamoring (all the above variations with a red dot on the reverse) UD MVP Cooperstown Kings (all the above variations with a silver dot on the reverse) UD MVP Cooperstown Knockouts (all the above variations with a gold dot on the reverse) UD MVP Cooperstown Kapowie-Zowie! (all the above variations with a hologram on the reverse)
THEN you get all of the above in an autographed version. And that's just the Cooperstown subset. A player might sign 2,500 stickers that get divided up among a countless variety of parallels numbered to only 5-25 each. People love low-numbered print runs, so they get sucked in ... and then they find out two weeks later there is a minor variation on that parallel coming out.
I hope this trend not true. I hope that the condensed market means the sets will get simpler and easier to understand / collect. I know there needs to be some variety, something new to hold collectors' interest these days, but it has gotten ridiculous.
<< <i> UD MVP Cooperstown Calling (variations for Silver, Gold, Red, Framed, Unframed, Jersey, Jersey-Bat, Jersey-Bat-Pants, Jersey-Bat-Pants-Patch) UD MVP Cooperstown Clamoring (all the above variations with a red dot on the reverse) UD MVP Cooperstown Kings (all the above variations with a silver dot on the reverse) UD MVP Cooperstown Knockouts (all the above variations with a gold dot on the reverse) UD MVP Cooperstown Kapowie-Zowie! (all the above variations with a hologram on the reverse) >>
Comments
<< <i>JS...
While you do bring up some valid points, your comment about the hobby always having been driven by the rookie card is incorrect.
Rookie card mania really only began in 1984 with Don Mattingly.
Prior to that, set collecting was what drove the hobby, with most collectors striving to collect the complete Topps set each year.
Steve >>
Exactly what I was going to say. Before that, it was driven by the star (or favorite player) cards.
I do hope the end is near and we won't see anymore inserts, refactors, chromes or whatever. Maybe, just maybe kids will learn the joy of building sets instead immediately thumbing through a price guide.
Its all about (in order of importance):
1. MONEY
2. If not about money...see # 1.
I'll keep my monopolistic Topps from 56-61 in the old wooden Velveeta cheese box, lined up in order, waiting for better days.
(I'm very disappointed that my PSA8 from 1999 is now a PSA6....damn market shifted, I guess)
(Also, I save a whole summer of scrambling and trading now and just order a set.... as any true collector would do.)
Robert
UD MVP Cooperstown Calling (variations for Silver, Gold, Red, Framed, Unframed, Jersey, Jersey-Bat, Jersey-Bat-Pants, Jersey-Bat-Pants-Patch)
UD MVP Cooperstown Clamoring (all the above variations with a red dot on the reverse)
UD MVP Cooperstown Kings (all the above variations with a silver dot on the reverse)
UD MVP Cooperstown Knockouts (all the above variations with a gold dot on the reverse)
UD MVP Cooperstown Kapowie-Zowie! (all the above variations with a hologram on the reverse)
THEN you get all of the above in an autographed version. And that's just the Cooperstown subset. A player might sign 2,500 stickers that get divided up among a countless variety of parallels numbered to only 5-25 each. People love low-numbered print runs, so they get sucked in ... and then they find out two weeks later there is a minor variation on that parallel coming out.
I hope this trend not true. I hope that the condensed market means the sets will get simpler and easier to understand / collect. I know there needs to be some variety, something new to hold collectors' interest these days, but it has gotten ridiculous.
<< <i>
UD MVP Cooperstown Calling (variations for Silver, Gold, Red, Framed, Unframed, Jersey, Jersey-Bat, Jersey-Bat-Pants, Jersey-Bat-Pants-Patch)
UD MVP Cooperstown Clamoring (all the above variations with a red dot on the reverse)
UD MVP Cooperstown Kings (all the above variations with a silver dot on the reverse)
UD MVP Cooperstown Knockouts (all the above variations with a gold dot on the reverse)
UD MVP Cooperstown Kapowie-Zowie! (all the above variations with a hologram on the reverse)
>>
Brilliant.