Re: Baseball Cards In A Slump: Sales down 80 percent since 1991 (Fleer out of business)
Interesting thread...
I'm like RedsBaron and collected cards from about 1964 through 1970 buying one pack at a time from Dooley's in Kettering with my hard-earned grass-cutting money. Used to ride my bike there, buy a pack of cards, a box of Atomic Fireballs, and a Justice League of America comic book. All for about 50 cents. Life didn't get any finer.
When my son was born in 1988, I started buying the complete Topps sets so he'd have something to look at through about '98. He never caught the bug though and the boxes are in the basement collecting dust.
My cards from '64-'70 are pretty beat to crap and depleted. When I was off to college in the early '70's, my little brother ran into some poker games he couldn't afford and sold off the good baseball cards (and coin sets) that I had. I'm left with the Choo Choo Coleman, Floyd Robinson, Ed Roebuck, and George Altman cards.
GAC, I still have a few of those coins you mentioned.
The downfall of baseball cards started when they dicontinued putting bubble gum in the pack. It was the world's lousiest gum that was unbelievably stale and would break into shards when you chewed it. I used to like the bubblegum dust that got left on cards (which I understand was why they discontinued it). But I liked it.
Re: Baseball Cards In A Slump: Sales down 80 percent since 1991 (Fleer out of busine
Count me as another one a bit disillusioned with the current state of things. I started collecting as a kid in the mid-80s. For a few years I tried to put together all of the major sets (Topps, Donruss and Fleer). Pretty soon though the number of sets started growing out of hand and I realized I was never going to be able to put them all together, so I just stopped set collecting and focused solely on my teams. I've found that to be more fun anyways. My Reds collection is the biggest, but I've got a decent amount of Bengals, Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia Flyers cards as well. There's two things that manufacturers are driving me nuts with today:
1. All of these tiny sets: Why is it that every manufacturer has to come out with 376 product lines, and 375 of them are sets that only have about 100 players? And it's the same players over and over and over and over. There's 100 cards of Adam Dunn out there, but try finding one of Javier Valentin for instance. Note to manufacturers - there are people who enjoy collecting cards of players who aren't superstars or rookies. They're making every effort possible to eliminate the common player card.
(On a side note, this is why the Kahn's sets the Reds give out every year are so great. There's all sorts of players included that you can't find elsewhere.)
2. Laziness: I'm looking at you Topps. Why are photos from 2003 being recycled in your 2005 set? You may not think I notice that GABP Grand Opening patch on the sleeve, but I do. They'll use the same picture for the Bowman set as the regular Topps one, just cropped slightly different. Zooming in slightly on a picture is not the same as creating a new card. And vary up the rookies a bit please. They have this annoying habit of hopping on one player's bandwagon and riding it throughout all of their product lines. They seem to have done alright this year, Chris Denorfia is their 2005 poster boy. But when you screw up you get ugly things like 5 different cards of Travis Wong. Oops.
OK, I'm done venting now. I really do enjoy collecting, there's just a few things about it that get under my skin.
Re: Baseball Cards In A Slump: Sales down 80 percent since 1991 (Fleer out of busine
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Serafini
1. All of these tiny sets: Why is it that every manufacturer has to come out with 376 product lines, and 375 of them are sets that only have about 100 players? And it's the same players over and over and over and over. There's 100 cards of Adam Dunn out there, but try finding one of Javier Valentin for instance. Note to manufacturers - there are people who enjoy collecting cards of players who aren't superstars or rookies. They're making every effort possible to eliminate the common player card.
I'm with you on this, it all went down hill when they starter coming out with stuff like "Topps Traded...Super rookies..super duper glossy cards..super kings"
How bout just One big set of cards like the old days?
Re: Baseball Cards In A Slump: Sales down 80 percent since 1991 (Fleer out of busine
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Serafini
Count me as another one a bit disillusioned with the current state of things. I started collecting as a kid in the mid-80s. For a few years I tried to put together all of the major sets (Topps, Donruss and Fleer). Pretty soon though the number of sets started growing out of hand and I realized I was never going to be able to put them all together, so I just stopped set collecting and focused solely on my teams. I've found that to be more fun anyways. My Reds collection is the biggest, but I've got a decent amount of Bengals, Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia Flyers cards as well. There's two things that manufacturers are driving me nuts with today:
1. All of these tiny sets: Why is it that every manufacturer has to come out with 376 product lines, and 375 of them are sets that only have about 100 players? And it's the same players over and over and over and over. There's 100 cards of Adam Dunn out there, but try finding one of Javier Valentin for instance. Note to manufacturers - there are people who enjoy collecting cards of players who aren't superstars or rookies. They're making every effort possible to eliminate the common player card.
(On a side note, this is why the Kahn's sets the Reds give out every year are so great. There's all sorts of players included that you can't find elsewhere.)
2. Laziness: I'm looking at you Topps. Why are photos from 2003 being recycled in your 2005 set? You may not think I notice that GABP Grand Opening patch on the sleeve, but I do. They'll use the same picture for the Bowman set as the regular Topps one, just cropped slightly different. Zooming in slightly on a picture is not the same as creating a new card. And vary up the rookies a bit please. They have this annoying habit of hopping on one player's bandwagon and riding it throughout all of their product lines. They seem to have done alright this year, Chris Denorfia is their 2005 poster boy. But when you screw up you get ugly things like 5 different cards of Travis Wong. Oops.
OK, I'm done venting now. I really do enjoy collecting, there's just a few things about it that get under my skin.
I could be wrong but I have noticed on the older cards(60's and 70's) that some players had the same pose year after year. I believe Topps has been using the same picture,at least for some players,year after year for some time. It was normally the "common" player that this is/was done not the stars.
I agree with KronoRed just give me one big set and forget the inserts,traded and whatever else they come up with.
