Current state of the hobby

[3rdlinewinger]

Hey fellas, it's been a minute since I've been in the hobby, what has changed in the last 10 years? Upper Deck has a monopoly on the hobby, how has that been working out? When did Panini lose its license? What has happened to ITG or leaf or whatever it was called lol. Should I be buying cheap(ish) Bedard Young Guns? Is McDavids young guns going threw the roof if he lifts Lord Stanley? Hope to hear from some of the ol' chaps I used to deal with.
Eric

 

[FrozenInferno]

Panini lost its license after the 2013-14 season.

The price of boxes has gone way up, and the number of packs and cards in those boxes have come way down.

Leaf bought ITG around 9-10 years ago. I used to love ITG but Leaf doesn’t interest me whatsoever. Still has its own dedicated following though.

If you weren’t here during the big pandemic boom from around 2020-2022 way too much happened to even list. The industry is still correcting itself. UD is still far behind on product releases (2022-2023 The Cup hasn’t even come out yet) but has caught up a lot in the last year or so.

Just a few things that come to mind.

 

[Avalanchefan21]

A lot of the "hits" are lame inserts (disguised as "tech" cards), some #d bs, a bajillion parallels. Not to mention mem cards aren't even "game worn" anymore. Its always "event used" or "not from any particular player or event"

It just sucks

Dont waste your money opening boxes/packs
just buy the stuff you want

You get almost nothing good nowadays in packs

The only value in things is Series 1 / 2 btu they dont even have mem cards anymore

 

[creasecollector]

To add to the comment about Leaf/ITG - After ITG was bought by Leaf, Brain Price started another company called "President's Choice Trading Cards" in 2016/2017. They make some really cool stuff.

I see your interested in cards of fighters, they just released a new product called 'Tough Guys' if you want to check it out.

I would say buying singles in this new market would be a nice way to dip back in. Buying boxes is really risky in this new age of the hobby IMO. Box prices have increased and there is less to go around.

Regardless, this hobby is as popular as every and it is very enjoyable! Stick to what you like to collect and carve your own path and you will never be bored.

:beer:

 

[deepbluejacket]

The pandemic years were pretty exciting. It felt like 1990 again for a brief moment.

 

[iceberg08]

I'm just finding my way back into the hobby after MANY years away and several attempts to start up again that ultimately got put on the back burner. Life gets busy! Hopefully this time will stick (I'm quasi-retired now!)

Hmm, I loved ITG and need to find out more about President's Choice Trading Cards to see if these will fill the void.

Wondering what the current going rates are for standard bubble mailers within Canada and to the US these days?

 

[WatchMyBreaks]

Since breaking become prevalent its become pretty boring in my opinion. Companies are printing worse than the Federal Reserve and catering to the breakers churning through product on their streams. Its kinda grimy like watching NHL games where they're advertising betting constantly. I mean there has always been a degree of gambling in the hobby but its at the forefront now unfortunately.