Anyone changing their collecting plans when Topps is gone?

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by packs

If Topps is acquired by Fanatics I hope distribution is improved. The Topps site is horrible and they almost never have any products for sale on it. It seems like if hobby boxes do manage to make it to the site, they're up for an hour or two and then gone. Even when I've managed to win raffles to be included in the chance to purchase products in advance, the site is often buggy and I have a ton of problems trying to check out.

I suppose any hope for increased retail distribution is a thing of the past? In 1991 you could find cards for sale at a hell of a lot more places than you can in 2021. I get it, I'm just saying - I understand that most of the praise Fanatics gets for "distribution" is via online methods. That's kind of hard to get excited about, especially if they decide to basically shaft the LCS model.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

I suppose any hope for increased retail distribution is a thing of the past? In 1991 you could find cards for sale at a hell of a lot more places than you can in 2021. I get it, I'm just saying - I understand that most of the praise Fanatics gets for "distribution" is via online methods. That's kind of hard to get excited about, especially if they decide to basically shaft the LCS model.

The thing is, if you can get cards anywhere, no one will want them anymore.

[packs]

It seems like virtually every product launch is spoken for before it even comes out. The wholesale focus of Topps sucks and it's even worse now that Topps factors secondhand market value into their initial launch. The last Sapphire boxes retailed for over $300 I think.

[jgannon]

I'm so glad I grew up in the era of buying wax packs and cello packs, and didn't have to compete with adults fighting in parking lots over "product"!

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by ASF123

The thing is, if you can get cards anywhere, no one will want them anymore.

Well, not exactly IMHO.

Plenty of people will want them, and I suspect they'd sell rather well IF the set were done right. You'd probably even see more growth in the hobby by drawing in more kids, who'd actually be able to find packs here and there.
This would assure more long term, generational interest in the hobby in the future.

What you wouldn't see is the clamoring, in-store childishness and all the "hot breaks" videos and buy-ins, along with almost instantaneous and ridiculous mark-ups for new product on the secondary market along with it's attendant impact on vintage pricing.

To me, that'd be win-win.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by ASF123

The thing is, if you can get cards anywhere, no one will want them anymore.

I would disagree with that as a blanket statement. The most popular time in hobby history was the late 80's and early 90's - when new packs of current product were available everywhere.

If you are one who buys into the hobby-only, super limited contrived scarcity thing - well then yeah. You might not want those cards.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

I would disagree with that as a blanket statement. The most popular time in hobby history was the late 80's and early 90's - when new packs of current product were available everywhere.

If you are one who buys into the hobby-only, super limited contrived scarcity thing - well then yeah. You might not want those cards.

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?

[jchcollins]

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?

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.

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

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.

Me too and, sadly, I agree. Had our generation (boomers and those immediately after) been presented with the options kids have today, traditional cards would have died out before Donruss and Fleer came to market. We were lucky we managed come of age in a different era. For many reasons, some not having anything to do with cards.

[packs]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Me too and, sadly, I agree. Had our generation (boomers and those immediately after) been presented with the options kids have today, traditional cards would have died out before Donruss and Fleer came to market. We were lucky we managed come of age in a different era. For many reasons, some not having anything to do with cards.

Lucky for you, maybe. But aren't those people who grew up with wax packs the same people who now run these companies and have decided to shift the market to adult-only consumers?