Revival Brainstorming

[abothebear]

Sometimes I think about how can the things that are appealing about pre-war cards, and in particular the things that are appealing about the most popular pre-war cards, be brought to the present era of collecting. The reasons for the demise of the hobby has often been discussed here. And there seems to be a regular discussion around here of how folks were lured into the vintage and pre-war part of the house. With the experience and passion here we, as a community, have an advantage for understanding the products and markets and thereby an advantage in coming up with ideas for a profitable venture based on reviving the modern hobby with the values of the pre-war hobby. How would it look to successfully and profitably revive the hobby in the image of pre-war collecting? What ideas can you add? or where am I off-base?

The Product
In general, I think it is a safe assumption to claim that a big part of the appeal of the most popular pre-war sets is their graphic integrity. If we consider the big two (T206 and R319) we see a nice balance of technical detail and graphic simplicity as well as a broad yet not unlimited range of colors. The real layers of ink also provide a visual and tactile depth that is missing in modern printing (not to say modern printing doesn't have its graphic advantages).

Many of the most popular pre-war issues are smaller in size than modern cards. Why does size matter? I have a guess that it has to do with the graphic style and proportion. And the standard tobacco card is slightly narrower than the golden rectangle. Is that a factor in their appeal?

Another interesting element to these cards is their lack of information. I think this is an underestimated element of attraction for the sets. Again taking the big two as examples, the T206s have an appalling lack of info - giving only the player's last name and city name of their team. The Goudeys do a lot more but mostly just include biographical info and previous season info in narrative form. I think the take-away is that these cards do not allow for instant judgement and relativization of the players. They require an personal investment by collectors to appreciate their place in history and within the sets themselves. You may find out that Red Ames was no big deal, but you'll also find out that he was so wild he lost a no-hitter. The lack of info does two things, it encourages the collector to gain expertise, and it gives common cards value by virtue of the personal investment needed to pass judgement on it. Cards packed with information are great, but they are doing all the work of the relationship. Cards without info require relational investment from their collectors.

A final note on the product. I think the backs of T206s, the Red Crosses, some of the Obaks, and others have to be considered a plus for their product. It is the right kind of branding, visually engaging, immediately recognizable. And within the T206 set the variety and layers of subsets within the master set is also a compelling aspect of the issue.

Without directly copying the issues of the past, how do we determine and capture the essential elements of the best of the past and reintroduce them in the modern context?

The Distribution
This is harder for me to think through. And may be the biggest key in achieving success. In some ways it is difficult for us to judge the success of pre-war card distribution methods because the cards really were secondary to the product they were sold with back then. The success of it for us was a long term effect of their methods. And nowadays the accompanying product no longer accompanies it (unless you consider the chance for inserts to be the product people are buying... hmmm that is something to consider). But I'd think, if we were aiming for a desirable set of cards that was cheaply gained and increased in value over time we'd want the cards to be distributed with something that was sold on a national level. Something that children could buy and would buy, or that their parents would buy enough to regularly supply the kids. Whatever they are sold with ought to have market demand on its own without the cards and be cheap. I also think the including 2 or 3 max with the product would be best. What product is out there that fits this description? Something that can safely carry with it a small rectangular shaped piece of cardboard hidden until the product is opened?

A box of raisins comes to mind. But that doesn't seem like enough. There would have to be a collective of healthier snack boxes, preferably with a few regional types products mixed in. Perhaps a whole new product line would have to be simultaneously introduced. I imagine there could be a huge demand for this kind of thing - healthier snack boxes that come with a "new" kind of baseball card. Any other ideas?

Conclusion
So, in short, do you see a market for this kind of full scale re-doing of baseball cards or a market that can be successfully coupled with it? How prohibitive is it to artistically render 8ish color-layer versions of photographs? What is the reasonability of reintroducing large scale lithographic production? Is there other ways of achieving the same end results (there was a topps masterpieces set a while back that had some good visual aspects to it, the effort as a whole was flawed, but parts of it were nice)? In what ways will the modern hobby market forces distort these kinds of efforts when put in action, and are there ways we can foresee them and adjust the product and distribution ahead of time to hedge against it?

I suppose, since this is publicly viewable, if folks did have business ideas along these lines they might not want to share them here. But maybe some of us amateur speculators and marketing hacks can do some valuable brainstorming here and help some folks along with their ventures.