Quote:
Originally Posted by ASF123
There have been massive cultural changes since the junk wax heyday, most notably involving technology, the fragmentation of mass culture into countless consumption options, and what kids are into as a result of the first two.
Responding to this and the post above, color me skeptical that kids will ever again be into collecting pieces of cardboard with athlete photos on them simply for the sake of having them, at least on anything approaching a mass scale. That's not how 21st century kids relate to sports, or the broader world around them for that matter. I know this is not a unique view around here.
Also - even if cultivating a base of youth collectors were a viable strategy, when do corporations ever focus on long-term sustainable development over short-term windfalls these days?
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My comments were made at the risk of being a bit too wistful for the past, for a moment - I suppose. I would agree with you that the hobby has passed kids as mass consumers by for long enough to where it would be difficult to ever get those kinds of numbers back.
If it remains purely or even mostly about the money (and I have no reason to believe it won't...) then any type of physical distribution strategy may not be of concern to Fanatics or anyone else. They are just going to maximize profit and move on to the next thing when whatever it is is no longer grandly profitable.