I believe we are all addicted to something, and that something can change over time. Heck, at one point, I was addicted to drinking water. I've always been addicted to toxic women. But I am big time, totally against modern chase cards. Especially when a new case of cards cost $4000 and there's one big case hit. But then two years later, that same case hit is selling on ebay for $20 and dealers at card shows have one dollar autograph boxes, and these were the cards that you were buying hobby boxes at $350 for. A few weeks back, Fanatics said they were going to release something that was going to be a generation changer, and the biggest announcement of all time. That makes me nervous for many people, and I shared my thoughts on what I believe would be a true generation changer. It's a long read, and I might lose a few of you along the way, but here it is. Don't say I didn't warn you.
MY IDEA FOR A FANATICS GENERATION CHANGER
I know what I’d like as a generation changer. It’s something that I’ve mentioned in the past a couple times. First thing I have to say is I’m not a collector of modern cards, but do purchase a few Don Mattingly cards because he was my favorite player as a kid. I’m a collector of original T206 cards, and I specialize in all the different front/back combinations. I enjoy the set because nobody knows what a complete set consists of. Every year, maybe one or two new combinations are discovered. I’d like a set of cards released that don’t have card numbers, no inserts and no parallels. Just regular cards that are printed on 1980’s type cardboard, so cost of production is low and we can get back to a 15 card pack for under a dollar. So no checklist, but have cards from every sport, including all minor league players, and even cards with the people behind the scenes, such as owners, office workers, scouts, referees, coaches, just everyone. So a set would have a minimum of 20k cards. But the fun part is not knowing what exists. Plus this product could be issued over multiple years and have different poses on the cards, but still not have any way of knowing what year it’s from. By doing this, collectors will have to build their own custom checklists and even share their finds with other collectors. Remember, numberless cards. Have it set up so only 100 master sets can be built, but keep the lower print run cards a secret. Have different print runs for all the cards, so collectors have to research the cards and do their best to determine what cards belong in certain print groups. Every diehard T206 collector will tell you that collecting the cards is just part of the fun, the time spent on researching the set is just as much fun. Remember that I’m talking about the T206’s that were released in 1909-1911. Having a modern set of cards released, with so many unknowns, would be the best scavenger hunt ever. Because you would open a pack of cards and have absolutely no idea if a card is a common, or a card somewhere in the middle, or a card that is one of the ones that only had a hundred produced. Obviously cards that have a rookie or star player would have a premium, but some may have a higher print run, so the value may not be there, because it’s a game of rarity, but you won’t know what’s rare and what’s not, until collectors do research and share information with others. The main thing is keep production costs down, so a full box can sell for $36. Bring back the 15 cards per pack, 36 packs per box. Don’t offer any other types of packaging. No hobby, jumbo, tins, hangers, nothing. Just one type, on standard 1980’s type cardboard, keep costs down, so everyone can afford to be a part of the biggest multi sport card collecting scavenger hunt of a lifetime. The T206’s from 1909 to 1911 was and still is the biggest scavenger hunt of all time. With between 5000 and 6000 different combinations possible, and over a 110 years later, and still new combinations are being found. Many cards from that set only have one or two known cards of a certain combination. I’ve done so much research that I know of certain rarities that nearly all T206 collectors know nothing about. To them, it falls into the commons pile, but me knowing what I know, I purchase that common because it’s actually an extremely rare combination. So, just like I mentioned before, you would open a pack and not know what’s rare and what’s common. I think it would be a ton of fun, especially if it was done over multiple years. Heck, I wouldn’t mind if the only information released was that the product would be sold during a five year period, with 50 thousand different cards, and only 100 possible complete sets. Keep everything else top secret, including keeping as much information from the printers and the employees. Because if a product like this was produced, and someone from the inside leaked a checklist that included print runs and what cards were the rarities, then the research and sharing between collectors would just not exist, and the fun would be ruined. You should be able to open a pack and not know the difference between a 10 cent card and a 10 thousand dollar card. Yes, I know I typed a lot, and repeated many things, but it’s because I’m passionate about this idea, and feel that it would bring back that feeling from the mid 1980’s when packs were affordable. All people care about nowadays is the hits and inserts. They open packs and go straight to the inserts and parallels, and don’t even look at or care about the other cards in the pack. What a waste. That’s why I don’t buy new products ever. Every card should be just as important as the next one in the pack. That’s what true collecting is about. Everything I see nowadays is basically like gambling. You either get the case hit or you don’t, and the rest of the cards nobody wants. Even some case breakers only send you the hits and who knows where the rest of the cards go. Probably to some company that sits on the commons for a few years, then they use them as fillers for repacks. Hopefully Fanatics somehow sees this post and just considers my idea as a possibility, when everyone eventually catches on that everything is overproduced unless it’s serial numbered, jersey patched, or autographed. I think many collectors are blinded by the inserts and case hits. The sad reality is that I will see a case hit card that was pulled from a $3000 case, and a couple years later that case hit card is listed on eBay for $20. Plus all those autographed cards, dealers selling them for a dollar each, and they came out of a product that was $200 a box. That’s just sad and not good for the hobby. It’s like the hype of a PSA 10 card that sells for thousands, but you can buy hundreds of the same card for a dollar or less, just because the centering is a bit off, or a corner is not razor sharp. Sorry, but I’d rather have a thousand of one card, rather than one card that cost me a thousand dollars. I probably have over a thousand original T206’s that would grade a 1 or is already graded a 1, and it’s still collectible, because of its rarity. I get it though, you could have a card that’s graded a 10, with a population of just that one card, but a million of that same card exists in lower grades and ungraded cards. Now think about a T206 that’s graded a 1, but the population report shows no cards graded higher, and none graded by SGC or BVG. I’d choose that 1 over that 10 every single day. Let’s make collecting fun again. Don’t get me wrong, making money is fun too, but I see too many people getting into the hobby and making some bad decisions, and then getting out. I’m also seeing collectors from the 80’s and early 90’s that left the hobby because of overproduction and just too many different sets being made, are getting back into the hobby because everything is shiny or sparkling, and autographs and 1 of 1’s. But after a few years, realizing history is repeating itself. I know of T206 collectors that started in the 1970’s and are still collecting that same set. Continuous collecting, even during the up’s and downs of the hobby. Why is that? It’s because it’s a fun set to collect. I’ve even had collectors agree with me that it’s almost like they are an archeologist, because of the research and the hunt. I’ve been interviewed many times on the hobby, along with other hobbies, but this one interview, I was asked what I planned on collecting after completing the T206 master set of over 5000 different cards, and my answer actually stuck with the person interviewing me, because he just didn’t like my answer, but after asking me about it again, he understood my answer clearly. I told him that I hoped that I never completed the set. Sounds odd and totally unexpected, right? Well, once you complete a set of something, what happens? You get to brag about it, others envy you, and this goes on for a few weeks to even a couple months, but then you find yourself getting bored with the set you just completed. Because you now realize that the fun was in the hunt and not in the completion of the set. So you then find yourself looking at other sets to start collecting, but money is tight and you have so much equity tied up in the set that you just finished, so you decide to sell your set, do a set break, auction the cards off, or even consign it to an auction house. If you’re lucky, you come out ahead of your investment. But the reality is that you are lucky just to break even, after fees and taxes, but most will actually lose money. But you get to start a new set and get that fun feeling of the hunt. In 2010 (I wish someone told me the things that I shared in this post, when I first started collecting cards in 1983. I would have saved a ton of money and time, plus I’d probably have a 30 million dollar set, instead of a million+ dollar set and a truckload of 1980’s and 1990’s cards.) I choose the T206 master set, because nobody has ever completed it. A few have come close, but still not complete. Mainly because nobody knows what a complete set consists of. So the hunt never stops, and I’m explaining all of this, to help make it easier to understand my reasons for wanting a 50 thousand card set, or however many, that has no way of knowing what to look for. Like a scavenger hunt but without the list of things you’re hunting for. If you made it to this point of my post, I thank you for sticking with me. I also apologize for the inconvenience and length of my post. There were just some things that I’ve been wanting to say, along with my idea for the ultimate multi sport and multi year product that can be made affordable to everyone. In my mind, that would be the set of a generation.