New and Shiny - Market Manipulation

[packs]

A rookie numbered to 10 of the premier player in the NFL at the time is not an anonymous card. That would be the equivalent to a Bowman 1st Red Auto now. Forums track these kinds of cards obsessively and they often account for all of them.

It would go noticed today. That's why I don't really see it as being a plague to the hobby. If you pulled the Red First Bowman Auto of Jasson Dominguez there is a chance you might just keep it to yourself and hold onto it for later. But there's a better chance you'll talk about it on a message board somewhere or offer it for sale in a large market, adding it to the known population of cards.

[Section103]

Oh I have no doubt that someone if not several people now own those cards because they were privately and slowly offered up for sale. But they were never pulled from a pack and there's no easy way to distinguish between what was pulled from a pack by a random collector and what was not.

Ultimately, I dont disagree with you. There are plenty enough "pull cards" out in distribution to keep the general public happy. But the process is not or at least, "was not" 100% clean. There are way too many ways to skirt the system subtly and individuals will profit from it. Not "retire on a private island" levels of profit, but a nice chunk of change for not a lot of work.