Will 90s cards ever be considered vintage?

[theseeker]

The early '90's was the frenzied period just before the bubble burst. Despite the fact that the period ushered in the era of precedence setting, premium quality cards, aimed at adults (and investors,) manufacturer, dealer, and collector greed led it into the hobbies decline. Gone for ever are the HSN guest HOF'er signing shows, the weekly card conventions, and local card shops at every corner. The hobby has contracted greatly since the three decade build up to the early '90's.

Their was simply too much production, by too many companies, of products that were carefully stored by too many buyers for it to ever be of much value. Still can't understand how so many investors didn't see it that way from the start.

Perhaps a more important question is the future of the hobby. The vital hobby element of human interaction has largely been removed. The demographics point to further fading in the future. The average age of subscribers to Becketts magazine is 38. Young peoples interest in the hobby has been trending ever lower since the strike of '94. How many of the next generation's descretionary income will be spent on a hobby void of any childhood attachments?

[steve B]

I see the demographic as a maturing. Or sometimes as a washing out of the maturity when I'm in a bad mood.

I've been hearing about the demise of the hobby since at least 1981. The ups and downs have followed the economy, and world and hobby events.

I also collect stamps, and I have articles from the 1800's declaring the demise of that hobby for the exact same reason - no young people getting involved. I can say that that hobby is also experiencing a decline related to lack of youth. I'd bet that the average subscriber age to most publications about stamps is way over 38. Probably closer to 58.

But there is some youth involvement. The local large show has a well attended youth area, with some good displays. And our local clubs newest member is under 20.

Another element is the tendency for youth to desire modernness in whatever form is current. In high school I wanted a car with a turbo, and a nice stereo set, a videogame that used cartridges, and just a bit later a laserdisc player. All of these are terribly old fashioned now. Eventually a portion of the young population will abandon the flashy throwaway "now" culture and start looking for stuff with a bit of permanence. LPs are already making a comeback, although not competing with MP3 downloads. My wifes 20 something coworkers don't even buy CDs, and don't really understand why anyone would.

The future of the hobby and products will look very different from what we have now.

Crazy prediction? I see digital interactive cards becoming much better than the current ones. Maybe with customisable messages from the player, or a secured link to collections of HD video that's limited to a certain number of users. DRM Software is already capable of this. It's usually gotten around, and also usually not well liked by consumers, and prone to problems. One retailer of E books withdrew 1984 over a rights issue. They didn't have digital rights- pretty ironic that was the main book withdrawn, done instantly, so you were reading it one day and the next it was just gone...

I'll have to try some of my toppstown cards to see what's deing done now.

And maybe it;s not so crazy. A few years ago around 1994-5 I had an idea for a scheme where a subscriber would get a new digital card each month, with only a certain number allowed to be printed. I envisioned a special printer and card blanks to go with it. Of course I had neither the technical skills nor the follow through to attempt it - Licensing would have been tough too. The couple people I mentioned it to thought it was totally nuts. Of course now we have ETopps, a similar idea, and likely a failure for anyone except Topps.

There will be change, and we won't always like it. There will also always be a hobby and an industry to support it. We might not recognize it, but it will be there.

Steve B

[Gary Dunaier]

How does one define "vintage?" If it's defined as 'coming from a particular era in time,' then at some point everything will be vintage. Even cards that have not yet been printed, of players you've never heard of.

The question is, of course, does "vintage" automatically mean "valuable?" You can buy some "vintage" cards for a few dollars, and you can buy other "vintage" cards from the same set for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

[mintacular]

my def of vintage is old and somewhat rare b/c they were discarded but once said collectibles are perceived as having "investment" $ then the hoarding begins and the "vintage" characteristic ends

[alanu]

It seems to me that the cards will always be collectible, but to a large part there aren't the iconic players today as there were in the 50's and 60's due in part to some of these reasons:

-the popularity of other sports such as football, basketball, x-games etc
-players tend to change teams more often now
-the overexposure of sports & players in particular on tv and the internet, back in the day, baseball cards were a big part of a players exposure

with that said, I think the cards will become "vintage" but the interest won't be there like the 50's & 60's cards.

[northsidebaseball]

I don't think cards from the 90's will ever have much value or be widely collected. There were simply far too many produced and far too many people collecting them. I am new on the site and I seem to be kinda youngish compared to many members here as I grew up primarily in the 80s with my biggest years buying cards as a kid being about 1987-1991 which is probably the absolute worst era to have been collecting cards. I lost interest because of price, being a kid unable to compete financially with other collectors and also lost interest due to other common distractions that come up moving into your teens. Anyway I kinda started to pick up the hobby again about a year ago, but still have no interest in the cards I grew up opening in packs. I really like the design, nostalgic look and feel of Topps cards from the 1950s, 1960s, t206s and the 1933 goudeys etc. 50s/60s cards and collectors have a story: many cards were mangled badly or thrown out by someones mother, whereas the newer ones went straight from foil pack to stiff plastic holder. Cards from the late 1980s and 1990s just feel kinda sterile to me.....just my 2 cents

[dstraate]

People don't collect pebbles. They collect rare rocks that have some sort of value based on their scarcity. 90's cards will never have scarcity.