[tulsaboy]

I totally agree about the number of products being silly. It was my understanding that when MLB went to a single licensee, the idea was that they were trying to limit the number of products. That always seemed silly to me, as a healthy marketplace where different companies all put forth their products, and the best ones rose to the top, was a much better thing. Now we just have Topps (and soon Fanatics) producing stupid silly numbers of products. Personally I still have fun opening base Topps and hand collating a set the way I used to. It costs about 5-10x what it would cost to just buy the complete set from Target, but it's a lot more fun. The last two or three years I have gotten it to where I only needed 5-10 cards to finish my sets, and I've bought or traded for those last few cards. But the rest have come from opening packs. Occasionally I get a fun specialty card, but those I view just as bonuses. I really don't care that much about the myriad of inserts. I have started just stacking the inserts up in the box at the end of my set, and there they sit. I suppose if I ever found out that one of the inserts I got was unexpectedly a big deal, I would sell it off. But for now I just pile them up.
kevin

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Modern has a number of deficiencies from my perspective:

Confusing Multiplicity of Cards: Just the base issue of 2021 Topps had this (per baseballcardpedia):
Gimmicks (Tier 1) 75 - 1:79 1:69 ? 1:33 1:17
Gimmicks (Tier 2) 25 - 1:2348 1:2049 ? 1:966 1:492
Gimmicks (Tier 3) 5 - 1:88,187 1:74,986 ? 1:35,457 1:18,510
Gold Foil 330 - N/A N/A 1:2 N/A N/A
Rainbow Foil 330 - 1:10 1:10 1:2 1:4 1:2
Royal Blue 330 - N/A W N/A one-per-pack W two-per-pack W
Yellow 330 - N/A WGN N/A N/A N/A
Purple 330 - N/A MEI N/A N/A N/A
Gold 330 2021 1:27 1:23 ? 1:11 1:6
Green Foil 330 499 ? ? ? ? ?
Orange Foil 330 299 ? ? ? ? ?
Red Foil 330 199 ? ? ? ? ?
Vintage Stock 330 99 1:554 1:485 ? 1:229 1:116
Independence Day 330 76 1:703 1:615 ? 1:290 1:147
Black 330 70 1:175 N/A ? N/A N/A
Platinum Anniversary 330 70 ? 1:668 ? 1:314 1:160
Father’s Day Blue 330 50 1:1067 1:935 ? 1:440 1:224
Mother’s Day Hot Pink 330 50 1:1067 1:935 ? 1:440 1:224
Memorial Day Camouflage 330 25 1:2134 1:1875 ? 1:881 1:446
Platinum 330 one-of-one 1:52,912 1:46,867 ? 1:23,564 1:11,106
Printing Plates 330 four for each 1:13,324 1:11,717 ? 1:5516 1:2777
Advanced Stats ? 300 1:228 ? ? ? 1:48
Clear

That is way too many parallels to keep track of and chase after.

Impossibility of Completion: With all of the parallels, some of them numbered in the handful, it is very tough to collect a player. I tried to collect the rainbow of Errol Spence cards in the 2018 Leaf issue but quit in disgust when it became apparent that I was not going to get the 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3 cards. Very frustrating for a collector.

Too Many Issues: The 2021 releases:

2021 Absolute
2021 Bowman
2021 Bowman Chrome
2021 Bowman Chrome Mega Box
2021 Bowman Chrome X
2021 Bowman Inception
2021 Bowman Platinum
2021 Bowman Sapphire Chrome
2021 Bowman Sterling
2021 Bowman Transcendent
2021 Diamond Kings
2021 Donruss
2021 Donruss Optic
2021 Finest
2021 Finest Flashbacks
2021 Panini Immaculate
2021 Panini Mosaic
2021 Panini Prizm
2021 Select
2021 Spectra
2021 Stadium Club
2021 Topps
2021 Topps Allen & Ginter
2021 Topps Archives Snapshots
2021 Topps Chrome
2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller Edition
2021 Topps Definitive Collection
2021 Topps Diamond Icons
2021 Topps Fire
2021 Topps Five Star
2021 Topps Gold Label
2021 Topps Gypsy Queen
2021 Topps Heritage
2021 Topps Heritage Minor League
2021 Topps Inception
2021 Topps Luminaries
2021 Topps Mickey Mantle Collection
2021 Topps Museum Collection
2021 Topps Opening Day
2021 Topps Pro Debut
2021 Topps Rip
2021 Topps Sapphire Chrome
2021 Topps Sterling
2021 Topps Tier One
2021 Topps Transcendent Hall Of Fame
2021 Topps Tribute
2021 Topps Update
2021 Triple Threads

So many choices I don't know what to collect. Choose the right set and you get a $20,000 rookie card. Choose the wrong set and you get a $5 rookie card of the same guy.

Worthless Shiny Crap: Sorry, but that's the truth with regard to the base sets. It is still just trash to throw away. You open a box and it devalues like a new car just driven off the lot. I opened a case of the 2020 Heritage because I love the 1971 design. Now I have a small stack of cards worth saving and a 5000 count box of worthless junk I will eventually toss into a recycling bin.

Obnoxious Asshole 'Investors'. We may have a lot of weirdos and social defectives in the vintage field but the modern guys, it's like they are all competing to see who can be the biggest douche.

It's Gambling. Much of modern, not all certainly, but a big piece of it and certainly the visible part in breaks and investment discussions, is gambling on a key hit in a pack/box/case, storage of certain cards for potential future value, and holding the rest in case someone unknown becomes valuable. I don't see people taking a lot of pleasure in piecing together base sets, probably because you can just buy a run on the cheap. Now that might have been the case with earlier cards too had we had Internet access to material, I don't know, but we did not. It just seems wrong to have so much of the product effectively tossed aside. I would rather they make an issue that is nothing but the hits and the superstar variations and just admit that no one wants the rest. Pinnacle sort of did that with the select certified sets, and that worked out so well they went bankrupt...