Really good documentary on Baseball Card Collecting today

[conor912]

Originally Posted by mattsey9

But that's not a new phenomenon. In my (our?) day, we were looking for the Gooden RC out of our Topps packs just like kids today are looking for Machado/Harper/Trout.

The big difference is that in the 70's-80's when I started, there was one and later three sets that everyone had access to. They were the best cards available, and the cost kept everyone priced in. Now the best cards aren't available on store shelves and you have the be somewhat of an insider to know what's valuable and what isn't.

I agree to a point. Kids in 1933 were all looking for Ruth cards in their Goudey packs, too. Looking for the stars is certainly nothing new. But now it's all about the value, regardless of who the player is, so that they can presumably sell it. Selling my cards never even once crossed my mind when I collecting as a kid and I'm sure I'm not alone on this one.

[Bosox Blair]

I agree with some of Conor's thoughts, but I was more referring to what I thought was stores conducting raffles or lottery draws to get kids interested. I guess I don't know exactly how this works, but if you have to pay for a ticket for a chance to win a big card, I don't like that idea for kids.

I am a bit isolated from this aspect of the hobby, but I think this kind of thing is going on. Plus so-called "box breaks" where kids pitch in part of the money, but may walk away with pretty much nothing to show?

I might be misunderstanding how some of this works, but my point is that I think kids should be drawn in for collecting (accumulating things with some value), rather than true gambling (more often than not losing your money).

If, on the other hand, it was more like a customer appreciation draw (ie. spend $10 or more here today on whatever you want, and get a free ticket for a draw on an autograph card at 4PM), then I'm OK with that.

Cheers,
Blair