OT - Example of why card collecting is dying re: Topps

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by packs

Personally I don't think uncommon commons or scraps have much a future in collecting. The window is closing if you ask me, same thing with the pop fanatics. I think we'll see a pretty steady decline in the next few decades.

haha 'next few decades' that's anything, ....VHS was doing well for less than a decade ..so were CDs...fortunes made 5x over in a few decades and lost as well....

heck not sure why I studied hard for my job..since can only work for a few decades.......a few decades means to me 20-30 years.... lots of things change in that amount of time....baseball cards is the least of my worries..

[chaddurbin]

modern card buyers are not collectors, they are amateur day-traders. everything they have is for sale at a moment's notice, they don't focus on anything besides the hottest prospect of the week or base their whole buying/selling around the release of the top 100 list, awards ceremony...and which teams are still in it.

baseball is an old man's audience...i'm tired of all the heart pain, acid reflux, and penis problem ads aimed at middle-aged white men. baseball is doing nothing to bring in the younger viewers. with the slow death of football i'm hoping that'd bring more athletes to start playing baseball again.

the "card hobby is dying" cry has been around forever true, but let's see in 20-30 years when today's teens grow older if they even know what "baseball" and "card collecting" is...

[glchen]

As long as they keep producing new baseball cards every year, I think the hobby will survive. If the 90s card bust and the cancelling of a World Series didn't destroy the hobby, I don't think anything will. I know people become worried by constantly seeing mostly old white people at the conventions, but the hobby's changed from the past. Kids have a lot more options for their money these days, and they're not buying packs from the corner drug store for the gum anymore. So I understand for the hobby that it's important to continue to get kids and young people involved. However, I think the hobby offers a lot of things other collectibles (like coins and stamps) don't have. Basically, there are different ways to collect for practically any budget. There are so many varieties, eras, etc of cards out there, you can just make up you own way to collect. You don't have to be limited by what stamps are in an album. If you want to collect a super rare card for which less than 10 are currently known, you can probably get one for less than $50. (e.g., a common from a set not widely collected) If you want a modern card of your favorite player with his auto, you can probably buy that also. I'd be more concerned about collecting sets like "Magic the Gathering" as who knows how long that game will be popular in the future.

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by chaddurbin

modern card buyers are not collectors, they are amateur day-traders. everything they have is for sale at a moment's notice, they don't focus on anything besides the hottest prospect of the week or base their whole buying/selling around the release of the top 100 list, awards ceremony...and which teams are still in it.

baseball is an old man's audience...i'm tired of all the heart pain, acid reflux, and penis problem ads aimed at middle-aged white men. baseball is doing nothing to bring in the younger viewers. with the slow death of football i'm hoping that'd bring more athletes to start playing baseball again.

the "card hobby is dying" cry has been around forever true, but let's see in 20-30 years when today's teens grow older if they even know what "baseball" and "card collecting" is...

I have to disagree with you on this. I'll agree that there are many modern collectors only in it for the flip, but there wouldn't be a point to investing in Bowman draft if there aren't collectors one the other end to pay the inflated prices when the kids get the call-up.

Baseball is still popular. Football has supplanted it as most popular sport in America, but the sport still carries weight across the nation especially in the local markets. On top of that the sport has had the greatest influx of young and marketable talent since the early 1950's. Trout, Harper, Bryant, Stanton, Posey, Kershaw, Bumgarner, DeGrom, the list goes on and on. Yankees/Red Sox still gets the Duke/UNC treatment on ESPN. The Cubs will be relevant for the next decade. Talented foreign stars enter the league on a yearly basis. The sport is fine IMO.