[Jayworld]

Rich:
Yes, I agree that 25-30 products a year doesn't touch the 90 products in the over-saturated 90s, but I still think 25 products a years is WAY to much, especially since it seems (perception, perhaps not reality) that Topps still puts out quantity over quality…. Also, the 90+ releases were by all companies in the business at that time, correct (Topps, FLeer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and their subsidiaries Leaf, etc.)? With Topps churning 25 products this year, and Panini doing 5-10, and a few others out there, we still are at 40-50 different products…

The designs on Topps cards have not been really good in several years, and competition can improve that. Topps put out some great, clean designs in the late 1960s, early-to-mid 1970s, and started to slip some prior to Donruss and Fleer entering the market, and things picked up for a while (design wise). As a collector (and a designer for over 25 years), I thought that Fleer produced some nice, clean, well-designed cards in the 1983-86 period, with the team logo on the front rather than the team name. Topps overdid it in 1985 with both the logo and name. Several would disagree with me, I think, but the Topps set from 1976 is very clean and graphically interesting with the position of the ball player graphic on each card. You just don't see that anymore. Lots of embossing and metallic coats and inks that are often times hard to read.

You are right; Al at Triple Cards thinks that the "slowdown" in products has hurt his business, but then he told me he has a few customers that come in and drop over $5 grand a pop on new product (mostly Bowman Chrome). WOW.

So you think today's average modern collector collects for the "hits" (jersey, autograph, limited printing, etc.) in order to flip and make a profit (investment - which I have no problem with) or are more collectors right now into building sets?

I was a set collector, that's what got me into baseball cards and spurred my interest, and I think that set building has all-but-vanished is why I rarely collect or buy modern product. Heck, even at $1.99 a pack, that's too expensive for me to try to build a set…. and I know I'm probably in the minority on that.