State of the forums

Luongo Collector said:
Yeah I truly believe that these types of boards are the best. I know it's a little harder to post a pic, but I use imgur and its been fine. I love the feedback system, the ability to use lots of txt if needed, and just the overall comfort. I tried facebook for 1 week to try and get Luongo cards and it drove me over the edge. HI and SCF have always been my favs
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These types of boards are only worthwhile when there is good communications among members involved in hobby discussion, trades or sales. There is a lot less of that now than in the past. We live in an age where dialogue among members is simple and takes a matter of seconds. Here, I find that responses can take days, even weeks. I just don't understand it, and frankly, it takes the fun out of the hobby.
 
Some of the lack of activity is due to the currency exchange. 34% premium on anything with US funds helps to stifle sales for anyone buying from Canada.

Jeremy mentioned the fake patch and trimmed card problem. Fake patches have really hurt Cup sales. Upper Deck has not helped matters by not moving to reduce or eliminate it by numerous means...either put the cards in a holder like they used in Splendor or producing an annual photo album with complete pack out pics to eliminate the re-patching.

The card trimming really scares me. It affects current and vintage releases. When BGS and PSA are missing them, yet you can see threads on HI that show active cards trimmed and re-graded it is risky. I'd hate to spend the money on a big ticket item and then find out it was trimmed. And with exception of the last 20 years or so, there was no numbering of cards, so it becomes a lot harder to prove. If someone is willing to trim a Connor McDavid Cup RC, the sky is the limit to the extent they will go.

The Canadian Tire release has been well received because it was affordable, attractive and fun. Easy access and variations and hard to get cards have added to the fun.

The lack of creativity in some of the Upper Deck releases have certainly not helped either.

I'd like to think the hobby will come back but it is impossible to say. I sure enjoy reading the forums and looking at everyone's acquisitions.
 
ChuckNorrisFearsSid said:
I really miss the days when you'd post a thread for a break or a WTT/WTB thread and it would be buried 2 pages down the next day. I don't mean to be all sympathetic but all of YOU here on HI are basically my hockey card buddies. I only know one person personally that collects hockey cards remotely close to me. This has always been where i show off breaks and hits and whatnot. I miss posting a break and getting piles of replies and such. I wish we could get this forum humming again like it used to.
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Could not express it in better words!!! Thank you!:)
 
Last month marked my 15th year as a member of HI. I was over at Beckett and was part of the mass exodus to HI and it has been an amazing 15 years being here. I used to be incredibly involved here but now I'm down to lurker as I have cut my hockey purchases down to almost ZERO. Upper Deck has killed the hockey side of the hobby for me. I don't believe in their products and their practices (doubling the cost of The Cup artificially didn't sit well with me and don't get me started on their redemptions).

I've moved over to baseball and my success there has buried any success I have ever had in hockey. For these reasons, I don't feel I have much to contribute here any more as this is a hockey dominated site (not a bad thing at all) and my focus is baseball. As John (sprague11) said, the combination of family and life also contributes. I hope this site continues as this is a place that pushes honesty and even with all of the stuff happening in our hobby right now, we need as much of that as we can get.
 
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KAB-1993 said:
Just my two cents here, but it seems like there are too many means of communication/interacting within the hobby. I don't think hobby interest is waning, I'm more in the mindset that it is slowly expanding for hockey. That being said, the number of ways to interact with fellow is growing at a larger rate than the number of collectors coming in. before it was shows, forums. Now there is Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, multiple forums, etc. This also creates niche's within each medium meaning a smaller group of people interacting with each other on any given platform. Although this can have some advantages it also isolates and has many disadvantages. Many interesting thoughts and opportunities are missed due to the fact you just can't keep up with everything.

Perfect example is I am not on Twitter or Facebook therefore I miss out on potentially big PC items and HAVE. It would be nice to see a more centralized hobby platform that was visited by the vast majority... but obviously that would be a HUGE undertaking due to the nature/characteristics of collectors within the hobby.


Could go on for ages about it, but I'll stop here.



From a new "millennial" member.
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I remember the old days of the Beckett forums and the early days when we were a bunch to move here. ITG Ultimate and UD Premier were the only true high-end sets. There were so much people breaking loads of SPX, SPA, OPC, Rookie Update, ... Even the weaker products had a following. It was crazy during the Christmas holidays, so many breaks!

I slowed a lot after spending some solid money in group breaks in past few years. I didn't touch any 18-19 wax. I'm looking for the few high-end Odjick cards I need for my collection and I'm slowly selling the tradebait and some parts of side-pcs. I haven't traded much in the past few months. Harder and harder to complete deals.
 
odjickfan said:
I remember the old days of the Beckett forums and the early days when we were a bunch to move here. ITG Ultimate and UD Premier were the only true high-end sets. There were so much people breaking loads of SPX, SPA, OPC, Rookie Update, ... Even the weaker products had a following. It was crazy during the Christmas holidays, so many breaks!

I slowed a lot after spending some solid money in group breaks in past few years. I didn't touch any 18-19 wax. I'm looking for the few high-end Odjick cards I need for my collection and I'm slowly selling the tradebait and some parts of side-pcs. I haven't traded much in the past few months. Harder and harder to complete deals.
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I've never been a fan of group breaks, they are the purest form of gambling within the hobby. The 'house' wins every time.

Here's a thought to consider. As much as I hate redemptions and the outrageous prices when common players finally do sign their cards. How about this? Upper Deck should release unsigned rookie cards from any product whose redemptions are more than three years old. Luca Caputi is never going to sign his SPA FW, there are others. Let us complete our sets!
 
I've just been too lazy to make my list of cards up. I also probably spend too much time at the bar or working OT.... I guess health issues got me less in the habit of making trades or motivation to organize a list.



(I had a deal to sell my C. Price ice /99 a couple of years ago but the guy delayed more than a year... And then wanted to change term(was Canadian but had us po box.... Which would make it easy to insure and not be asked to under insure(which I have less problem for with a50.00 card vs a 2000.00 deal. I mostly want to get rid of 10+ years in base.... Maybe facebook might be a good option(large lots with majority of price being ship cost)
 
eishelges said:
Could not express it in better words!!! Thank you!:)
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I was going to say thanks, but then I saw you were an Ovechkin fan, and me being a Pens fan...WTF LOL. In seriousness, awesome collection man. Tons of really nice stuff on your page. I used to absolutely HATE him but as the years have gone by you cant help but appreciate what hes doing. Don't tell any other Pens fans but I was actually glad he won a cup and I'm legitimately hoping he breaks Gretzky's all time goal scoring record.
 
i love this forum, but since the last 2 years, i quit hockey card collecting and only doing baseball (hate upper deck), but i still lurk around reading the posts.
 
theviz said:
jeez... this is bleak

what's a "good" group on facebook?
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there are literally hundreds of small to medium groups, and only a handful of "large" ones. some are specific to geographic location, or specific team being traded within the group, some are even brand-specific. And "good" is relative. Be prepared - a lot of them only want to deal with EMT or cash in the mail. PayPal is not the de facto currency like on HI.
 
Does anyone know the admins of blowout forums? I have been trying to get registered there but haven’t been able to and no one responding to my emails. Any help would be appreciated
 

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