Is There Just Too Many Cards Out There?

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Seems like every year, more and more hockey products are being produced. If it’s not a rookie card or something cool, how can cards hold up their value? Take guys like Vinny Lecavalier and Jeff Skinner for example. One retired and one active player. Is there a market for their cards if not a 1/1 or rookie? Even an auto patch of these guys and similar players can be found for $20.
 
It's not enough variety imo. Would be way better if UD was limited to 8 products and the let a Panini and Topps produce a few of their own.
 
If you are looking for a player to retain value, they can't just be HOF'ers, they need to be the best of their generation.

Gretzky, Roy, Lemieux, Crosby, and Ovechkin will always retain (if not go up in value). The card also has to be from a desirable set.
 
My hobby/collector thoughts:

Great topic. If 8 is too small of a number, there defintely has to be a nice sweet spot for the industry, because the current product offering is way too much, in my opinion, when looking at this topic within the hobby.

Business thoughts:

On the flipside, as a business, cutting 3-4 products out of their lineup would be throwing away money. And no company wants to throw away money.

So unless UD find a way to keep the same margins and cut products out (consumer will pay for it with the remaining products they do offer), I just don't see it happening in this current environment unless sales start to plummet and they can't get their inventory out of the wharehouse. Which, again, I don't see happening.

If all products sell, why should the model change?
 
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I have been collecting Sebastian Aho with my son for probably a year now. He's popular here in NC, though I have no idea how other regions view him. His rookie year stuff is still pretty pricey, and my son prefers quantity over quality (though I balance it out).

What is NOT fun is the tons of parallels we have to chase. I get that something like OPCP is a perennial favorite, but chasing almost 20 parallels from that set makes me dread seeing the checklist every year. Or Allure, or the sameness of Artifacts every year.

I get it--it is cheaper for UD to use the same photo and a ton of parallels. But I would like to see less to chase per set and more variety. Maybe rotate some of the sets on a year-by-year basis.

And I get that retro is still cool, but I think they are going to that well far too often.
 
I will say especially when it comes to autographs, the serial numbering really gets too much focus especially when many people ignore overall print run. A rookie can easily have 5000 autographed rookies come out from one year. That trend doesn’t really slow down unless they refuse to sign. I wouldn’t mind seeing some picky signers get drafted in there future. Imagine if a star like Lafreniere or Shane Wright only signed at actual SSP levels? Maybe The Cup/99 and Exquisite.
 
Yes, there's a lot of stuff out there. I'm getting more and more picky as time goes. For 19-20 products, I only broke 1 MVP pack, 1 SP retail box and 5 UD 1 blasters during the Black Friday sale. Also, I learned to stay away from group breaks.
 
The problem is that us hockey collectors are a different breed than collectors of other sports. In other sports collectors are after the different colouring parallels. The lower the number the much more that they sell for. Hockey we are not into parallels as we like hard signed autos and patches. Those are much more expensive for card companies.
 
habscards said:
The problem is that us hockey collectors are a different breed than collectors of other sports. In other sports collectors are after the different colouring parallels. The lower the number the much more that they sell for. Hockey we are not into parallels as we like hard signed autos and patches. Those are much more expensive for card companies.
Click to expand...

Yup I could care less for parallels. You are right on the other sports. I just red Rob Kardashian hit a 1/1 Tom Brady from a 2020 product that could sell for half a million. Why?!
 
weasel-king said:
I have been collecting Sebastian Aho with my son for probably a year now. He's popular here in NC, though I have no idea how other regions view him. His rookie year stuff is still pretty pricey, and my son prefers quantity over quality (though I balance it out).

What is NOT fun is the tons of parallels we have to chase. I get that something like OPCP is a perennial favorite, but chasing almost 20 parallels from that set makes me dread seeing the checklist every year. Or Allure, or the sameness of Artifacts every year.

I get it--it is cheaper for UD to use the same photo and a ton of parallels. But I would like to see less to chase per set and more variety. Maybe rotate some of the sets on a year-by-year basis.

And I get that retro is still cool, but I think they are going to that well far too often.
Click to expand...


I felt the same way about 6-7 years ago with my player collection. At the time he retired, there were hardly any cards of his coming out in a given year (14 cards in 2008/09 and just 1 single offering in 2009/10.....and it was a Panini sticker). Slim pickin's.

Then his stature as a retired player/legend/call it what you want came into play. Over the next three years he had 85, 103 and 167 cards produced that were added onto my wantlist. Huge numbers in my collecting world.

I was frustrated for a while. I thought to myself "How am I going to be able to keep up to all of these cards?". That's when it hit......I can't. Or more importantly - I won't.

I knew decades ago that obtaining one of every card of my PC player was going to be impossible. There is nothing wrong with having gaps in the wantlist. I quickly geared down and started enjoying the "chase" at my pace.

Nowadays, I don't feel as though i have to chase anything. The manufacturers don't dictate my collecting pace.....I do. Now I enjoying the window shopping and the great cards being shared by people. I add to my collection when the time, card and price are right for me.

It's been so much fun over the past few years not having that weight on my shoulders.

Are there too many cards out there? Nope. As long as I'm still able to add to my collection when I want, there will never be enough. :)
 
bamlinden said:
I felt the same way about 6-7 years ago with my player collection. At the time he retired, there were hardly any cards of his coming out in a given year (14 cards in 2008/09 and just 1 single offering in 2009/10.....and it was a Panini sticker). Slim pickin's.

Then his stature as a retired player/legend/call it what you want came into play. Over the next three years he had 85, 103 and 167 cards produced that were added onto my wantlist. Huge numbers in my collecting world.

I was frustrated for a while. I thought to myself "How am I going to be able to keep up to all of these cards?". That's when it hit......I can't. Or more importantly - I won't.

I knew decades ago that obtaining one of every card of my PC player was going to be impossible. There is nothing wrong with having gaps in the wantlist. I quickly geared down and started enjoying the "chase" at my pace.

Nowadays, I don't feel as though i have to chase anything. The manufacturers don't dictate my collecting pace.....I do. Now I enjoying the window shopping and the great cards being shared by people. I add to my collection when the time, card and price are right for me.

It's been so much fun over the past few years not having that weight on my shoulders.

Are there too many cards out there? Nope. As long as I'm still able to add to my collection when I want, there will never be enough. :)
Click to expand...

I really appreciate your point of view. I moved from a "I need them all" to "I'll pick it if I like it and it's a fair deal" for my main player collection. I enjoy what I have and get, and for the rest, just too bad!
 
cardboardnostalgia said:
I will say especially when it comes to autographs, the serial numbering really gets too much focus especially when many people ignore overall print run. A rookie can easily have 5000 autographed rookies come out from one year. That trend doesn’t really slow down unless they refuse to sign. I wouldn’t mind seeing some picky signers get drafted in there future. Imagine if a star like Lafreniere or Shane Wright only signed at actual SSP levels? Maybe The Cup/99 and Exquisite.
Click to expand...

I was kinda curious how much these guys sign once I read this -
so I looked into 19-20 releases (before Clear Cut and The Cup are even released)

Jack Hughes autographs:
197 different auto'd cards for a print run of 7091, 36 cards dont even have serial numbering

Quinn Hughes autographs:
169 different auto'd cards for a print run of 6745, 32 cards dont even have serial numbering

And how about a lesser auto pull like Nico Sturm:
84 different auto'd cards for a print run of 5985, 15 cards dont even have serial numbering
 
numbern9ne said:
I was kinda curious how much these guys sign once I read this -
so I looked into 19-20 releases (before Clear Cut and The Cup are even released)

Jack Hughes autographs:
197 different auto'd cards for a print run of 7091, 36 cards dont even have serial numbering

Quinn Hughes autographs:
169 different auto'd cards for a print run of 6745, 32 cards dont even have serial numbering

And how about a lesser auto pull like Nico Sturm:
84 different auto'd cards for a print run of 5985, 15 cards dont even have serial numbering
Click to expand...

Absolutely crazy when you put hard numbers behind it. I’m pretty convinced that 2019-20 will be looked back upon as one of the weaker rookie classes in recent memory once the “defenseman” factor settles in for Makar and Hughes. Once guys like Wright, Bedard and Mitchkov arrive a player like Jack Hughes who might reach Gaudreau/Marner levels of success is definitely going to lose further value.
 
numbern9ne said:
I was kinda curious how much these guys sign once I read this -
so I looked into 19-20 releases (before Clear Cut and The Cup are even released)

Jack Hughes autographs:
197 different auto'd cards for a print run of 7091, 36 cards dont even have serial numbering

Quinn Hughes autographs:
169 different auto'd cards for a print run of 6745, 32 cards dont even have serial numbering

And how about a lesser auto pull like Nico Sturm:
84 different auto'd cards for a print run of 5985, 15 cards dont even have serial numbering
Click to expand...

That's a lot.
 

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