Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
Other than cutting something up for no reason, the problem with these cards is that you might just have swatches of someone's little league jersey. There is no provenance given for any of the material on the cards that the companies insert into products as chase cards, thereby selling the product on the pretense that a person has the opportunity to own a piece of......something.
In my opinion, if you're going to use the memorabilia as a pretense for selling merchandise, there should be some kind of history associated with what you're selling. Why can't consumers know where the material they're purchasing came from?
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The companies mostly document the process closely.
If you want to search them out when the product is announced or being released, they will list the item of memorabilia and where and when they attained it eg. Auction or private purchase with photographs of that specific piece.
They take pictures of the item in their ownership and in preparation of 'dissection'.
They don't hide from the fact the item is rare, expensive, and therefore has assumed value for collectors to chase. It's not so much they make their money back from the sale of the memorabilia card itself (though they do over many subsequent releases in updated designed cards as you can squeeze ALOT of small numbered runs out of a bat or jersey) but because it encourages collectors to buy packs/boxes/crates of the stuff in search of these special pieces. In this way, the hype for the memorabilia cards funds the production and sale of the singles that cost nix to create and disseminate but brings good dollars in return.
And without this advent, I have a strong feeling collecting would never have had the resurgence it's experienced with new generations and with luck their subsequent interest in the older gear we enjoy.
The fear so many have about provenance is simply an excuse based on snobbery and the search for that excuse to smear the activity.
Collectors who don't like it - much like they don't like kids playing on their lawn - love to create the fearmongering to explain why they don't think it should be happening.
Others moan about slabbing as unholy.
It's all good in my opinion, it's a fun interesting hobby and should take whatever form it needs to maintain relevancy to ongoing collector interest.