Comments on: My Take On How To Turn Around the Card Industry http://badwax.net/2009/10/03/my-take-on-how-to-turn-around-the-card-industry/ Musings of a Card Collector Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:39:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Jason http://badwax.net/2009/10/03/my-take-on-how-to-turn-around-the-card-industry/#comment-7097 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:56:24 +0000 http://badwax.net/?p=6252#comment-7097 It’s been mentioned here lots and I’m in complete agreement – how can the companies get kids back into the hobby? How can they get the product in front of the people who are the future of the hobby, and not 50+ year old guys who are already fans?

One small idea is giveaways – Topps should print up packs/boxes for MLB teams/stadiums to give to each/every kid who passes through a gate next season. It’s not about how they’ll be worth (this might be the mindset that’s killed the hobby BTW), but to put the product in front of young eyes, to tie the product back to the players on the field and away from collectors, to show kids reading the back of card with the stats can be exciting, and mostly, to show them collecting cards can be a fun (cheap) alternative to other liesure activities.

I spent HOURS pouring over my thousands of mid-1980s cards memorizing stat after stat. I wasn’t concerned about autographs, refractors, patches, etc, but the fun I had as a kid made me a fan as an adult, and I still get a tad bit excited when I see a box of cards at Wal-Mart. I know the packs have probably been picked over, but I always buy two (I pick one while my wife picks one) just to open it up, glaze over the design and look up an obscure stat I forgot about.

Maybe I’m just a nerd though……..

]]> By: Shaun http://badwax.net/2009/10/03/my-take-on-how-to-turn-around-the-card-industry/#comment-7068 Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:50:04 +0000 http://badwax.net/?p=6252#comment-7068 The internet is to card shops as Wal-Mart is to mom and pop stores. Without bargain priced boxes being sold on the internet and inserts being sold for a song, the card shops would be fine. Thanks to the internet, my local shop owner can only expect to make a few dollars profit on a box of cards. If he charges anymore, he simply wouldn’t be able to sell anything. Even if you have customers lining out the door, you need to sell a ton of product to stay in business. This even goes for the lower end stuff too. The internet will eventually kill of all of the shops and then trading cards will be even less visible and popular in society.

]]> By: Christopher Michael http://badwax.net/2009/10/03/my-take-on-how-to-turn-around-the-card-industry/#comment-7064 Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:29:04 +0000 http://badwax.net/?p=6252#comment-7064 If it was just about popularity of the sport then football would be taking over and the hobby would be fine.

As a team collector the prices don’t bother me, because days after a new release team sets are sold for practically nothing. Hits aren’t that hard to purchase for a lot less than buying a box.

Where the price of the boxes hurts is the set collector. In a lot of ways I think that is where the hobby lost a lot of people.

As for how to fix it? Probably lots of ideas coming from inside the card companies for how to fix it. For starters some of my favorite sets to collect were the Mother’s Cookies/Keebler sets. Go to a baseball game and get an almost complete set of no corner baseball cards. Then trade with others at the game until you have a complete set.

Fun and the cards don’t get ruined, with bent corners, in the process. Topps should do that at every baseball park next season.

They should also get regional deals to put promotional cards in happy meals and other fast food places. Regional deals to put cards in cereal.

Pretty much blanket kids with cards from their local teams. Might even remind some of those kids’ parents of how much they loved to collect in the 90′s.

As I said, there are probably lots of ideas from inside the card companies. At this point they might as well try everything, well other than a no plot movie deal or having a sports card rap.

]]> By: ny_hitman_23 http://badwax.net/2009/10/03/my-take-on-how-to-turn-around-the-card-industry/#comment-7063 Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:12:34 +0000 http://badwax.net/?p=6252#comment-7063 Back in the heyday, when cards were over-produced, you could find packs of cards in just about every convenience store, gas station or supermarket and the typical kid (myself) could starve himself at school and save his lunch money and buy 5 of 6 packs every day. Today, production numbers are down, or so they say, and you can’t find cards in every retail outlet so that, in my opinion, drives the price up, along with the technological advancement (GU’d cards, autos, chrome, foil, etc…) of cards.

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