Amazing how companies ruin the hobby!!!

[sackingsr1]

You see these legends or some players that sign very few autographs are held in very high status in the Hobby world as their autos are very hard to find and expensive! So you get people going after them because they are nice to have and you can show them off

BUTTTTTTTTT, now you get companies paying some of them big $$$ to sign with them so they can sign more cards to insert into their products. But what they dont realize is if you sign a big player to sign cards to make more money, costumers are not going after those cards cause if a player signs one to many cards their value shoots down and eventually does not have much of a market value anymore.

Larry Bird signed with fleer for the authentix excutive decision lol, before his autos were expensive and now if I am not mistaken its $75.00 to get that card; I mean WOW! Reggie Miller signed with UD and man did his autos drop because before no less than $100 for his auto! Now Charles Barkley signed with Fleer for the New Product 04-05 Fleer Premium coming out for the legends set. Now if thats all he is signing for its not too bad as I say they will go for around $150-$200 but if he signs a lot more with fleer bamn, they are now at a market value of $75-$150 easy! Before you could not get Barkley's auto for less than $250-$350 as he signed very limited amount.

I say the hobby will be destroyed if two major players known for not signing start signing and they are Allen Iverson and Chris Webber! But the fact that Iverson is Iverson I dont think he will sign anymore LOL. And Webber I doubt he cares about a little paycheck from a card company just to sign more autos!

-sackingsr1

 

[Casket]

Why would signing Barkley, Reggie, Stockton, Ewing or Bird destroy the hobby? If anything I think that's a good thing because now one can actually get an auto of those guys at an affordable price. I don't hear anybody crying about Jordan, KG, Kobe & T-Mac auto's being inserted in about every UD release, on the contrary, people buy those products because they want a shot at pulling a card like that.

The only thing that's really destroying the hobby is Fleer with all it's crappy releases and endless serial numbered cards, not companies signing guys whose autograph was simply unable or way too expensive to get.

 

[BigDAlcala]

I don't think Chris Webber signing autographs would affect anything at all. One would be crazy not to avoid his autographs like the plague.
We all must accept the fact that YES, the hobby IS crap right now. Game-Used jersey cards are overproduced, as are autographs. But that's what happens ever since they started to mass-produce cards. Think about it:
- Basketball cards started off as just cards.
- They then started to throw in insert cards. Not everyone LOVED the insert cards, but hey, they were considered a part of the set so we collected 'em.
- They started new and improved ways to design their inserts, such as "Hologram," "Embossed," and "Prism," cards. All of these were a HUGE hit with collectors, especially the Prism variety.
- Noticing that collectors loved those types of inserts, they start making entire sets out of them. SPx became completely hologram, and Topps Chrome became completely embossed. Amazingly enough, prism cards are still rare and hold premiums, only now they're called "X-Fractors" by Topps.
- They introduce the Jersey card and the autograph. Neither started off as much of a hit not because there wasn't high demand, but rather because there were so few produced that hardly anyone knew about them.
- They start producing a bit more on the Jersey and Autograph card end to test the waters. As predicted, they were a HIT just like the old-style inserts.
- Now that they know we like jersey cards and autographs, they start mass-producing them. We get sets like Topps Jersey Edition, which is completely jersey cards (see a trend yet?), and then we get sets like Exquisite and Autographics, where you get an autograph in either every or in every other pack.

You see, it's not any different for player-specific autographs. If they sell, they will make a lot more in an attempt to make more money. Thing is they know we will buy, because collecting is a worldwide tradition, so instead of lowering priced due to overproduction, they're able to RAISE them due to increased quality.

It's just the way it is. The only thing that will stop them from overproducing everything is a widespread boycott of their products. When that happens, let me know so I can snag everything up while everyone else is at home.

 

[sackingsr1]

Well Casket I see your point, but my point remains that it takes the fun out of collecting those nice rarer autos of certain players. And sometimes if you pay $300 for a card and then a players signs more cards it reduces that card to $150-$200 which is disapointing. About kobe, garnett, jordan, they have always been signing as thats their trend so obviously there are no complaints! When someone gets a jordan auto its not like they say they just got a rare card, its just they got an expensive card (dont I wish I would of pulled a jordan in my life lol)

And BigD lol, nicely put! I mean I dont know what they will come out with next as autos are too out there so the only thing I can think of is the 1/1 logo patches cause even the regular 1/1 are overproduced now! And eventually they will make way too many 1/1 logo patches so it will be interesting to see how they keep the hobby going with new and surprising things.

-sackingsr1

 

[Bargey]

I think it ****s that UD in particular just overproduce everything and immediately bring the values of cards down. I was talking to BigD the other week about how before you know it Bird & Magic autos for example will be $40 or less because all of a sudden there are Bird & Magic autos in everything. If someone has invested a large chunk of cash on a dream card of a rarely signing player then they're certainly gonna lose interest in the hobby when a year later that players autos are everywhere and the auto they bought for $300 now sells for $50. It ****s how many products come out each year now, it would be much better if each card company made about 3-4 products a year and made them of a better quality, instead of just pumping out set after set of garbage.

 

[BravesFan4Life]

But you see Bargey your whole comment is too complex for anyone in the card industry to understand, they dont care about quality, they want quantity to make the bling bling, if they actually cared about the collectors they would scrap all this buttloading **** they put out each year and put out 3-4 really nice sets but thats by and far asking too much from them.

 

[Bargey]

I think last year's exquisite was the perfect example of why card companies don't need to make quantity to make the bling bling. The less there is of stuff, the more in demand it will be, and the more money they will make from their products. They could cut back on 50% of their product, layoff half their staff, pay less for player signing contracts, use the half the materials, make half the product, and still probably make MORE money.

 

[Casket]

3-4 sets a year? Fine by me, but then don't start complaining about auto's getting way too expensive, etc...
People have to start realising this isn't the year 96 anymore. Thousands have started collecting since then, most of them because of things they see on the internet, others because of advertising. If companies still made the same number of products as they did back then, even your common Greg Ostertag RC would cost $2. Well not really but you get the point..

 

[sackingsr1]

See heres my problem Casket, now that companies over produce it almost makes it impossible to gain close to your money back when you buy boxes even if you pull some nice cards!

So that really makes it harder on people that love to bust boxes because they realise its just cheaper to buy the card they want as a single and if everyone eventually realises that then there will be barely any boxes being busted because the money card that is hard to pull but overproduced is just barely bringing your money back.

The only company that you can get huge $$$ is Upperdeck just because they have MJ, Kobe, And Lebron otherwise all other autos exept stockton has hit a low and are not as exciting pulling anymore.

I dont buy boxes for certain players, I buy boxes to pull a $$$ card but the chances really **** and they are not like they used to be.

-sackingsr1