Where is this hobby going??

[odjickfan]

Hi,

I was on eBay tonight, doing multiple buys from a guy who had a Pouliot that I need. So, I was looking at his store, and was able to buy stuff numbered under 50 with non-white swatches for prices of like 5$ and less. And, it's the same everywhere on the 'Bay.

Seems like nothing worth something except that multicolor RC auto-patch.

I'm kinda new to eBaying, but it looks like I'll stay far away for wax breaking in the future.

Did Artifacts killed the market on low-numbered stuff, or the market will take some strenght as we will have some traditional releases like SPx???

Or, a card needs a tag The Cup to be worth more than a couple bucks?

 

[DredJAw]

My word... I thought of posting this (with the exact same title) the other night. You completely read my mind. Shocked. Anyways...

Hockeys going to baseball route (if it isn't there already). Common jerseys can be had for opening bids of 99 cents and nobody gives 2 hoots unless its a Rookie Auto/Patch or a limited HOFer/really old guy Auto.

I remember years ago when complete packages (those cards with 4 memorabilia) were few and far between and were just awesome! Now I don't find they are as exciting because ITG feels its necesary to put them into everyone of their products (yes, a shot to ITG! Can you believe that!?!)

It's rather discouraging looking at where this hobby will be in 3-4 years time. Jerseys already don't matter... autos are close to that now... I'm telling you, pretty soon we're going to get a product with "A 1/1 per pack! And not a press plate!"

Edit: This is partly why I changed my collecting habits a little. Several reasons really.

a) It would be nice in 10 to 20 years time I look back at my collection and see a good representation of the league. Not just Lecavalier 3000 times over.

b) Its much cooler getting an auto/memorabilia of the older guys. How much longer will they be around? And not to mention their isn't an unlimited source for memorabilia. Look at a guy like Rick Nash or Ilya Kovalchuk. How many auto/jerseys do they ALREADY have? By the time Crosby retires he will have more auto/jerseys then old timers have in total cards.

 

[kennycolwell]

Do you think the hobby will ever scale down?

Maybe another idea for a good topic would be to cut back on player selection for the number of jersey cards and autos.

I always hear people complain that they never pulled Crosby, Gretzky, etc but they get players like Gary Roberts, Robert Esche or Bobby Holik. I hate the fact that the players that I collect are lucky to make it in one set per year. Instead we see the same players over and over even in the base sets.

 

[meatmancgy]

I'm one of the old school types... I remember getting $.10 from my folks and was able to buy a pack of OPC with the gum in it... I was so excited to get the gum while looking through what wicked cards I was getting.

Now I'm a collector, mostly of higher-end product... why? Hell if I know... I like the hard-signed autos for sure, but the joy of opening packs JUST to open packs is long gone when you're paying $10 to $???/pack for The Cup? There's no joy in pulling Brian Boucher or Brent Sopel card the way there was when I pulled an Al MacAdam or Dan Maloney!

My point... OPC (in Canada) and Topps (in the States) were the ONLY game in town, but they only manufactured ONE set nation-wide. There were local team sets and the odd Red Rooster or 7-Eleven set, but generally the only options were OPC and Topps. I'm not saying we need to go back in time that far... but what's wrong with a couple different sets coming out each year by UD and ITG? I dunno... I can just see in the next couple years a "base set" of auto/jerseys with shortprints of players' hair follicles or fingerprints in their own blood... okay, I'm being facetious... but you never know?

Bottom line... I'm only collecting the sets I'm collecting, and filling in my old OPC... not paying UD any more money than I need to in order to meet MY needs. ITG may be a different story... I love their product... and once one or two of my sets are done, I'll be after them again.

My two cents...

 

[TheGriceBoys]

I could rant on and on but it's the same thing I said since Pacific came to town in 97-98:

Parallels are killing the hobby. Whether it be different versions of memorabilia or base cards, we need a MAJOR reduction of these things, especially if you're a player collector.

1/1's are even kind of cheesy overall now. They aren't what they used to be. Artifacts even has parallels of parallels (regular AND auto versions of the same card numbered to one!).

Do I need a player's card in 12 different colors/foil stampings with different serial-numbers? Nope.

The best 1/1's are the stand alone types, one's that there are NO other variations of, like The Cup Property Of... or Dual Shields, etc. Those are sweet.

I also think we need more value for our buck. No one wants to be pulling Mark Parrish autos every product.

Look, I'll give ITG credit for what they do without any licensing. At least you don't pull any duds in their products. All the players are greats for the most part (aside from H&P).

I could deal with UD's scrub's auto's more if they were hard-signed, but, alas, stickers are here to stay. At least design the card so the sticker looks nice (See SPGU Statscriptions or Auto Draft).

UD's definitely needs to do more hard-signed auto's and get a better influx of vintage in their products.

Ok, rant over.........

 

[MGiuseffi1969]

Nice Rants guys. eBay is a simple thing, Supply vs. Demand plain and simple. For example Artifacts come out and has, surprise, Bill Guerin is in the Treasured Swatches set. That means that 400 or so of his jersey cards are packed out. The product is heavily busted so say 50-100 of his cards hit the eBay market in the first couple of months. Are there 100 people who even want a Bill Guerin Jersey card? Probably not. So you are lucky to get $.99 or your opening bid for a card like that. Now all you need to do is make Guerin a SP in the UD1 Jersey set and you might get $10+ for the same unnumbered jersey card. Why, people build the set and there is a demand. OK, enough of the Macroeconomics 101 lesson. Common Autos, GU, Inserts and parallels are not ever going to hold or increase in value long-term, but we all know that. True RC's, limited hard-signed autos and Vintage most likely will stand the test of time. My advice is take advantage of the buyers market for the common stuff and pick up some fun cards for a couple of bucks. My $.02... Mike