About two times a year I like to drone on about the state of the industry. I haven’t really sat and thought about it for a long time, but over the past few days I really started to think about it. In one word the industry is stale. With the merging of Donruss with Panini and the downsizing with Upper Deck. The creativity of the card companies have grown stale. About the only products that was released in the past year with any creativity are Upper Deck’s Champs Hockey and Topps Football Magic set.
The card companies need to focus on what drove the industry in the past. As a young collector, I loved the anticipation of the next Fleer / Topps / Donruss designs. However by 1990, that anticipation had diminished to the point of not caring. Working on custom card designs, I know it’s tough to come up with new designs of cards. For me, I like taking an old design and tweaking it, or making a new design from an old design, only adding a modern feel to it.
From a collector’s point of view, I like designs that break the mold. A&G when it was first released, blew me away, the design was artistic, I loved the modern take on a classic design. Then the inevitable happened, they didn’t try and grow the brand with a new design, instead they just tweaked it a little and released the next year of it. I think A&G could pop again and even bring in more collectors if they did major redesigns every year so that you can immediately see differences between the years.
This same complaint can be said for many of the current releases. The question is how do you come up with a new design year after year? The only answer I can think of is bringing in more graphics design people. The card companies just need more creativity. Below I have come up with a list of ideas and reasons for them that might make the hobby more fun.
- Get rid of the jersey cards and autographs – For too long the card companies have used the idea of a Golden Ticket to sell boxes and boxes of cards. At this point, autographs are tired and who wants yet another white or grey jersey swatch in a card anymore? It’s just tired, try using a concept or design to sell cards.
- No more short prints – This is yet another golden ticket idea. It’s just not fun collecting base sets if you know there are going to be short printed cards in the base sets. The industry argument is that they are trying to generate value in the cards. The simple truth is that they are doing it so you have to buy way more boxes to complete sets. The jokes on them though since most of us use eBay to finish the SP part of sets. If you want to short print cards, turn them into insert sets. Also there is no value in SP base cards, since set building is becoming a dying art.
- Enough with the color coded parallels – If I see another color infused parallel, I am going to vomit. Perfect example is TRISTAR PROjections. They have their parallels based on colors (exact same card except for a metallic color stripe) and lower serial numbers. Instead come up with recognizable designs that make them a more desirable card. For example Topp Rookies ’52 used a chrome parallel and a refractor parallel, I loved that idea.
- Make your entry level set a basic set – Topps has been doing this for years, make it a no frills, dollar a pack set. box of 24 packs is 24 bucks. No autogamers and a bunch of insert sets. You’ll sell TONS of boxes that way. People just don’t have the money to drop on $70 – $100 dollar boxes anymore. If I want those sets, I hit up ebay for them. Let someone else pay to put the set together.
- More Chrome! – Let’s face it cards are cool, but chrome cards pop visually. Put them in as inserts, parallels, whatever, but put them in. How coool would OPC baseball had been if there was a chrome release of it. I would rather have chrome cards than autographs and jerseys.
From a corporate standpoint it’s tough to change the philosophy of the releases, but if they were more interested in the the big picture, bringing in the younger generation, they would add some pizazz to their cards. Kids aren’t buying cards, instead it’s adults who are the staple. What happens when we start dying out? Or when we don’t have the disposable income anymore. The hobby should always be about bringing in a young audience. Otherwise it’s going to end at some point.
What is your take on the current hobby? Where would you like to see it go? Is there anything that makes you want to vomit when it comes to cards? Do you think the card companies can be saved? Will there be card sets in 20 years? This topic always brings out some great comments. Let us know what you think.
By doing all of the things you just described, a company would not be able to sell the product.
Plus, Magic was boring and blaaaahhh. Its a retro set for the sake of doing a retro set. There was nothing interesting about it, especially with those gross foil stickers built into the design. Topps needs to get on board with clear stickers.
Gellman, there would still be a high end section of cards where autographs and memorabilia can be had, but I hate plunking down $70 – $100 for a hobby box with 2 hits and both of them ending up being a rookie with no shot at becoming a star. Besides I don’t buy the low end stuff for the hits, so the $20 per hit premium the companies put on the boxes is just like throwing money away.
I dont disagree with you about the box content, but thats why I pretty much stopped buying wax. Yet, if I had the disposable income, I would definitely go nuts like my friend. However, if every product lacked everything but a base set, I would be done for good. Boring for me.
I got crap for autographs in my box of Magic, but the base set was beautiful. Not caring much for keeping cards in mint condition, I also used a coin to scratch on the backs for the trivia questions. People might freak out about this, but it was fun! Too bad more card sets aren’t as fun anymore.
Well, you are mostly right about everything, but I don’t think the jersey cards and autographs are ready to R.I.P. Maybe fit in an occasional white or gray swatch, and use other pieces of jersey like batting gloves, helmets, hats, and bats. If they do a good mix like this year’s Allen & Ginter, I would definitely buy it.
I pretty much agree with everything you said, though I realize it’ll never happen. Yeah, Topps and UD make entry level, $1 a pack sets, but they’re BORING. I can’t stand First Edition.
I don’t like parallels, but I kinda like the idea of SPs, as long as they’re truly short printed (think 2009 Topps), and not easy to be had (think Timeline, with 6 SPs in a pack… WTF?!)
I DO still like jerseys and relics, though. Do what I do – wait a few years and buy the product on the cheap. You still get the hits but you’re no longer paying the premium for them.
I think the reason why sets like First Edition and Opening Day don’t sell well is because they are exactly same as the regular base set, but made so much more cheaply. Upper Deck should do like they did when they originally had the Collector’s Choice sets out and make them with completely original designs, subsets, inserts, and even contests. I liked the You Crash the Game concept as it drew you more into the game as the player’s performances determined if you got a reward.
I’ve said elsewhere that companies need to really look at what they are doing to the industry. They’ve flooded the market with jersey relics, event-worns, and autographs of players many people don’t know or don’t care about – worse yet, the autos are often on stickers. They don’t really try very hard with design, making things look retro because they have might a hit (Heritage and A&G are hits, honestly). Thus we get flops like Murad, Champs, Magic, C55, T205/6, Cracker Jack, and Mayo.
In my opinion, the card companies need to scale down production to 5 products per sport. 1 entry level $1 a pack good looking huge set, 1 lower end A&G/Heritage set, 1 mid-level LCM/Finest-like set, 1 high end Ultimate/Absolute/Premiere set, 1 super high end Exquisite/National Treasures set.
It’ll never happen, but, it’d be nice.
Reducing the number of sets made would greatly help to raise eBay prices of cards in my opinion. There’s simply too many different products to keep demand for a certain card from a certain set high.
Unfortunately, entry level sets DO NOT SELL! Check your local Wal-Mart, KMart, Target, etc. The regular Topps, UD, Fleer, etc are the ones they discount at the end of the year because they have so much of the product that nobody wants….and this is on the $1.99 packs with decent hits.
I’m ready to see relic cards of legends to go and the sooner the better. ITG cutting up the last remaining Georges Vezina pads is sacrilegious to me. I’d rather see a jersey in a museum than cut into half inch pieces stuck between cardboard. At this point, I only buy cards to build sets to give to my nephew who was born this year when he’s older.
How about combining the SP and parallels into one card. Have the regular issued card and then short print a parallel featuring a different photo than the regular card. Maybe do this for the star players and use a photo of memorable play or game so the card will have some meaning. Kind of like what they did in the ’09 Topps with their SP’s except use the same player. I love the chrome idea as parallels.
They really need to start limiting the retro sets too. Everything new that comes out is based on something old. You end up spending the same amount of money for the new stuff as it would to collect the old sets.
Game used relics should go unless they start to up the bar with them. Again they should refer back to a specific game or event, maybe get a batting glove from a 500th HR or a jersey worn in a no hitter. Make them relevant again. As far as autos go, as long as they aren’t the reason for jacking up the prices, I say keep them. If they are the reason why boxes cost $75, then at least limit them to players people care about or scrap them in the lower end sets.
I am 14 and have given up on boxes and packs, I don’t have enough $ and can get the cards i want online cheaper. i only collect JR Towles cards
See they aren’t hooking the younger generation! Would you buy boxes of 36 packs if they were $36 a pop and it was a nicely designed big set?
This sampling of comments is why things will never change.
You have people that love SP’s, hate $1 per pack, understand the need for $1 pack, wouldn’t bu cards without autos and relics. Yadda yadda.
As far as reducing the number of products releases, not going to happen the companies could care less what cards sell for on eBay. While true, it doesn’t make them money.
No legend relics are you kidding. They are one of the best part of the hobby.
I think collectors would settle for less “hits” in product if they knew the ones they were going to pull are pateches or multi-colored.
George Vezina didn’t have just one pair of pads or Ruth just one jersey. The HOF has samples for people to see that will be preserved forever. Why let some high end collector hoarde the memorabilia in a private collection. Legend relics connect us with our heroes and I’d rather have a piece in my collection that having Ruth Jerseys stuck in a private collection never to be seen by the public.
5 products isn’t enough and the current is still too many. However the companies aren’t in control of the number of products they produce. Those terms are dicated by the leagues PA.
The real crime is no longer due the league PA’s allow retired only product because it doesn’t put money in the pockets of the current players (like they really need it) compared to the likes f Yogi, Whitey, Feller, etc who could use the money.
I completely agree with what you said about the color coded parallels. I honestly don’t understand what makes a blue parallel more valuable than a red, or the other way around, but I think it is a great idea to replace them with chrome cards. However, I don’t think that the jersey or autographed cards should go, because as a kid, I loved opening a pack of cards and finding a jersey or autograph in there. Great ideas, you really made me think.
I agree that the market has way too many products…I remember when I started collecting in 1981 that you could tell when one season (of card production) ended and one began. Now they put out so much product that all the sports blend together and it makes it impossible for many to buy different products. I don’t even mind the different colored parallels if they would at least not be lazy and use different photos on the cards. Just changing a color and adding 1/99 or 1/199 etc, doesn’t do anything for me. I may go after the parallels of a player I collect, but it won’t be through pack busting, it will be through trades or Ebay. A problem with relic/auto cards (which I still like to pull) is that with so many products from so many companies needing X number of hits, you end up with so much garbage that it it really hurts to put down that 75-100 bucks and pull two relics and an auto of someone you have to Google because you don’t know who they are. I DEFINITELY am with you on the need for better designs.