Posted By:
Tom HuffordIf Ebay ends up having problems, it will certainly change - for better or worse - the current products put out by Topps, Upper Deck, etc. (I know, this is a vintage forum and they're not vintage, but....).
I lost interest in the shiny stuff these companies are producing a long time ago - but there are those out there who really go after the stuff. The past couple of years, though, I have enjoyed the Allen & Ginter sets that Topps has put out, and I have put the "mini" insert sets together. With these cards seeded at only one per pack, and several hundred cards in the set, it would be impossible to put these sets together by simply buying packs or complete boxes or cases of the cards. And as far as the sets put out by these companies, if you're a "single player" collector, it would be impossible to find the cards of your favorite player that are numbered to only 5 or 10. You could go to every show in your local area, or the National, and never find the cards you want.
You CAN find these cards via an auction site like Ebay, though. Dealers know they can buy a box, open all the packs, and pretty much find a market for all the low population cards, making their money back, plus a profit.
If it becomes too expensive, or simply too much trouble, for dealers to sell on Ebay, the market that lets Topps and Upper Deck sell the products they do today will simply dry up. There's no way they could sell today's product, at pretty high prices, to a customer that has no way to put together a set or find the player/card that they want.
Not that some changes to todays cards wouldn't be welcome, but I don't want to see the manufacturers go out of business. There needs to be some current cards, if just to document players for the future, if nothing else.