Baseball Cards Top Five Darkest and Brightest Moments

[vintagecpa]

Darkest:

1. High-Quality Printers (Counterfeits).
2. Too many cards and companies after about 1980.
3. Beckett Price Guides. It turned every casual collector into a dealer.
4. All card shops going online. I miss the block and mortar card shops.
5. Refractors and inserts. It turned collecting into a Magic side show.

Brightest
1. eBay
2. Grading Companies. I can't imagine spending big money on a card I don't know is real.
3. Finding out how many vintage cards still exist.
4. Obviously Network54
5. Selling my 1985 Topps McGuire Olympic card for $100 in the late 90's.

[jeffmohler]

I am too new of a collector to come up with a list of 5 for best/worst, but I will vote for Net54 as one of the top 5. My best memory was seeing the Skydash find play out in real time right here on Net 54.

I suspect that Net54 has been instrumental in helping Ted and some of the others put together their studies of T206. I am sure that the T206 scholars could have done it the old fashioned way (snail mail/email), but many of their theories were confirmed by putting their questions out to a broad audience.

Jeff

[abothebear]

How about for darkest, the introduction of the factory set. I believe Topps started in '86, maybe Dunruss a few years earlier.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by abothebear

How about for darkest, the introduction of the factory set. I believe Topps started in '86, maybe Dunruss a few years earlier.

I believe Topps did a factory set in '74.

[perezfan]

Seems funny to see "the demise of Card Shops" on the Darkest list, and "Ebay" on the Brightest list. The "former" likely would not have happened if not for the "latter". So there's a bit of irony there...

But I understand the sentiment, as I miss the old Card Shops too.

I would say that the over-abundance and mass-production of card issues from the 1980s - 2000s was the most damaging aspect. It not only drove masses of collectors into apathy mode... it also "cheapened" the hobby. Or at least that's the perception it conveyed.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Seems funny to see "the demise of Card Shops" on the Darkest list, and "Ebay" on the Brightest list. The "former" likely would not have happened if not for the "latter". So there's a bit of irony there...

But I understand the sentiment, as I miss the old Card Shops too.

I would say that the over-abundance and mass-production of card issues from the 1980s - 2000s was the most damaging aspect. It not only drove masses of collectors into apathy mode... it also "cheapened" the hobby. Or at least that's the perception it conveyed.

Everything on my "bright" list also happens to have led to it's corresponding number on my "dark" list. ***I feel no.2 on my bright list is mainly necessary because of no.1 on my dark list..

Ebay technically belongs on both lists, as it has also, to some extent, contributed to the falling prices.. Depending on your perspective, as a person who was somewhat out of the hobby, the deals that could be found on ebay were a big factor towards bringing me back. I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. BUT I can imagine someone who was still active in the hobby as a dealer, or for investment purposes, lost a good chunk of money thanks to the deals that can be found on ebay..

[Jcfowler6]

Worst
1. 1980's and overproduction overbloated market
2. Billy Ripken's "F-face card"
3. Searched wax packs
4. When packs of cards went over .25c per
5. The day that dealer ripped me off when I was a kid

Best
1. Like it or not the Gretsky Wagner card
2. Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle and their marketing machine
3. The creation of the American Card Catalog
4. First time a kid put a card in tire spokes
5. EBAY and Grading tie here but these both could be on the dark side depending on your perspective.

[U240robert]

Originally Posted by novakjr

I believe Topps did a factory set in '74.

Yeah they did !
They also had 'presentation' sets from as far back as the early 60's.
Although not sold to the public they were given out by Topps.

[novakjr]

Darkest

1)counterfeits
2)scammerish grading companies and authenticators
3)Too many brands. And then those brands each having 5-10+ sub-brands, including inserts(I have no problem with the idea of inserts as they were done pre-'91)
a)Parallels
b)Any insert that requires something to be cut up(jerseys, bats, auto's cut from other cards, so on and so on..)
c)Autographs of every person ever associated with the game in packs.
4)Card shops going "solely" online, and high shipping prices.
5)Publications and price guides dictating the hobby, rather than simply reporting it...

Brightest

1)the creation of cards in general.
2)Grading Companies and authenticators
3)Competitive brands and inserts/autographs as originally concieved.
4)ebay and online shops as they basically made regional material available to everyone.
5)Anything Hobby related(publications, conventions, Net54, blogs, the Standard Catalog, so on and so on)

With this hobby, every bright thing usually gets abused and leads to or turns into a dark thing, and then those dark things eventually lead to the creation of new bright things, which in turn get abused and creates a dark thing... It's an endless cycle of innovation and corruption.. Basically, Abuse and overabundance.