Great Article About Topps Gimmicks

[Braves95]

One of the Braves sites I frequent has a regular Sunday Card Collector article. I think this week's was spot on and I'm not a set collector:

http://www.talkingchop.com/2012/11/18/3661292/the-death-of-the-baseball-card-collector

 

[jflan702]

Thanks for the article. I tend to agree with almost everything he wrote, as I am mainly a set collector.

Thanks,

 

[David K.]

Link is not working for me. Best regards, David

 

[RHauch]

Thanks for sharing this article.

 

[David K.]

Every year......someone writes an article about the death of baseball set collectors. Print like short prints....but most collect the base cards and then wait for the cost of the sp to come down before trading for them or buying them. Best regards, David

 

[JJLevitsky]

Great article. I tend to agree with everything that was said.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Gnep31]

Set collector here myself and tend to agree with this article. This yr has been the fewest amount of new product I have purchased since getting back into the hobby 7 yrs ago. This is one of the main reasons I have shifted my collecting focus to vintage Topps sets. I did like the promotion that Topps ran last yr. I picked up a lot of vintage cards and I think it also promoted trading. I wish they would bring that back and I would go back to buying the newer stuff just to get a chance at the older...

 

[Dilferules]

I consider my Topps base set complete at 1-660 with no SP variations or "extra" 661+ cards. Many collectors feel the same. Some don't, which is what adds to the value of the SP's because some set collectors are going after them. Works for me, it gives me extra value when I open box and pull one, which is always nice.

But yeah I do agree with the point of the article that Topps needs some competition.

Richard

 

[markmulder20]

I miss Donruss and Fleer and Pacific and Upper Deck. Topps needs some competition, if only to push the creative envelope.

 

[GreatAlbert]

Being a set collector myself, and going for Heritage/Ginter/Gypsy Queen each year, I feel that Topps is doing quite well. Sure, the Heritage SPs go crazy at first, but now they can be picked up for $2-3. I love to collect these sets each year and the SPs give me something to chase, rather than a few simple base cards. On the other hand, I never believe a monopoly on any industry is a good thing. It allows Topps to take advantage of collectors by setting their own prices and not allow to worry about creativity. I am not a real fan of regular Topps and have never collected the base set, as it is much too plain for me. With all this being said, it pains me to know that I was the only one I knew from a graduating class of 444 that collected sports cards. Maybe this is because it was a passion I shared with my dad and still do to this day, but I believe collecting is somewhat inherited by the people around us.

 

[valediction]

Being a set collector myself, and going for Heritage/Ginter/Gypsy Queen each year, I feel that Topps is doing quite well. Sure, the Heritage SPs go crazy at first, but now they can be picked up for $2-3. I love to collect these sets each year and the SPs give me something to chase, rather than a few simple base cards. On the other hand, I never believe a monopoly on any industry is a good thing. It allows Topps to take advantage of collectors by setting their own prices and not allow to worry about creativity. I am not a real fan of regular Topps and have never collected the base set, as it is much too plain for me. With all this being said, it pains me to know that I was the only one I knew from a graduating class of 444 that collected sports cards. Maybe this is because it was a passion I shared with my dad and still do to this day, but I believe collecting is somewhat inherited by the people around us.

I agree. The creativity could use a boost, but that's about my biggest complaint. After about 1985 when I got a full time summer job, I still enjoyed sports cards, but it wasn't nearly as fun when I could just go to a show, buy a couple boxes and I was done. I noticed the same thing recently when I've been buying 'older' boxes here and there. I bought a box of Action Packed, was one card short of the set, finished it the next weekend. Bought a box of UD3, finished the set. Picked up some Leaf and Score boxes, base sets were done after about 30-60 minutes of opening and sorting. No real challenge to speak of, I might as well have just bought the set instead and went through it to make sure they were all there.

 

[Beachbum]

I don't believe the problem is in the Topps myriad of products, they are high quality and beautiful cards (creativity is debatable). I think the problem resides in their poor customer service and the fact that they get away with it because they are the only ones producing licensed MLB cards.

How good would televisions be right now if there was only one company making all of them???