General Forum

I was talking about this topic the other day with my brother.  When I was young the hobby hadn't hit it's big boom yet.  Upper Deck was on the horizon which of course changed the way cards looked and how we collected.  Since getting back into it it just seems things are pretty streamlined.  Topps and Panini are the main manufacturers.  Base cards have diminished.  Rookie cards are important and plentiful. Parallels have increased in types which to me make it more confusing.  Memorabilia cards have increased in style and scarcity. 

My question is where does it go from here to keep everyone involved and somewhat excited?  What else can be done that hasn't been done yet? 

Here are some things that should be brought back: 

• Stats on card backs.  Too many cards have just the previous year or nothing at all.
• I know its contractual but Upper Deck needs to come back to Basketball, Baseball, and Football.  I miss the hologram cards.  Upper Deck always took chances to do something different.  Panini puts out nice products but they miss in evolving those products.

I would appreciate any replies.  

I don't know what might be new on the horizon but I suspect what one thing that will continue is that card values for cards today will continue the trend of going down in value. With all the brands thay are coming out with and the high amount of paralells and inserts I'm not sure if there are any or much less cards being produced now than what there was in the junk era. It seems collectors and investors want to keep buying what is new and they then dump what is older to be able to afford the newer stuff and that will most likely continue. 

I will also be interested to see if the market for a graded card stays as strong. Graded cards aren't for me and I have a hard time understanding the premium paid for PSA cards. Now there is talk of how people are circumventing the PSA system. They will need to either tighten that up or graded cards may face a crash too.

It seems there are always enough people with enough cash jumping into the hobby to keep the new stuff coming out and I am sure they will come up with some fresh ideas to attract those buyers.

I could see the card companies embedding RFID chips into cards with audio or video recordings that collectors could only access if they bought special readers from Topps/UD/Panini, etc.  They could be audio greetings of players made at the time they autographed cards or video highlights of plays during games.  Another option would be QR codes on cards that when you scan them with your phone take you to websites with the above mentioned audio/video recordings.

This come up Saturday with 3 dealers and 2 investers that I talked to.   2 of the dealers had just purchased large collections (million or more cards)  very cheap.   The other dealer has turned down several collections. They all told me that there are a lot of people wanting to sell their large collections.   3 of the 5 think is going into a nose drive in a year or so.   The other 2 see a slow down in most areas.   One of the investers is thinking about move some of his stuff now.  They all agree that the hobby will get going but  prices on new stuff will be higher and the cards a few years old will be down.  They told me just buy cards that are a few years old do not buy them when they come out.  I normaly do that.

As far as new ideals who know what they will come up with.   Maybe a piece of hair,  finger nail or a blood drop now that a autograph is not enough.  

Some years back Topps I think tried a 3-D card of somesort that interacted with your PC to make the image come alive. or to play a video game or some such nonsense. Didn't go over too well. Probably too expensive for the time, too confusing and too far ahead of the times.

https://techcrunch.com/2009/03/09/topps-releases-mind-bending-webcam-hologram-baseball-cards/

I dont know what 2024 cards will be like, but I'm sure I'll be complaining about them. 

Dave hits the nail on the head. No matter what they do, as long as they don't do it right, we will be unhappy.

Unfortunately, the card companies don't care about actual collectors, just flippers. 

Panini supposedly had a card with a video chip in it in 2012-13 Totally Certified. They are so rare I've never even seen a picture of one. They called it HRX. They used the same name in an insert in 2013-14 prizm but it was just a qr code. By time I got a smartphone in 2016 they were no longer active. 

Bold prediction: panini will try to buy out Topps and Upper Deck. Even bolder prediction: somebody finally realizes that the exclusive licenses violate the monopoly laws and brings it up in court. 

Personally speaking, I plan to still be collecting. I might have finished scanning my entire collection at that point, lol. I hope that I can get my missing NBA players under 200 and my missing NASCAR under 15. I might have created the NHL chart by then although I'm hoping to wait until I already have a ton before I do that. I didn't create the NBA chart until I crossed 80 thousand cards, and the NHL has a lot more cards than the NBA does so it's going to be a massive amount of work for me. 

I'll still be posting on here, I'll still be writing on Cardboard History, and I'll still be updating Cardboard History Gallery. At my current rate of uploading I still have about a year before it's done but in 5 years it should be there.

I expect that I will get to a National before 5 years are up. Targeting Atlantic City, but Cleveland is more realistic due to money and lack thereof. 

That's if I'm still alive in 5 years. My health problems have almost killed me once already. I know nobody is guaranteed anything, but most people can go to sleep at night and not wonder if they will wake up the next morning. I don't have that luxury. 

A couple of wild guesses:

* The Junk Wax Era cards become increasingly more attractive.

* More and more collectors become ERR/VAR/COr card chasers and collectors.

* Collectors get slowly disenchanted with 1]huge unattainable sets 2]planned SPs p--soff collectors more and more. and 3]some glitz will be cutback

* Older collectors will be totally turned off by tech-type cards.

*TCDB remains the card collector mecca, bringing in many new members.

Great quetions and i've been wondering myself recently.  Not a whole lot of different thoughts but I'll post anyway in no particular order of improtance:

1. Graded cards continue to be main choice for investors and high end buyers (PSA10 for modern)

2. 50s and 60s cards will go down in value even more as those born/grew up in that era stop collecting

3. 80s and 90s cards will continue to regain interest but not so much in value

4. Digital cards become more popular and gain value, especially the first few years

5. stuff coming out now and in the past couple of years probably sees a big drop expcept for a few releases (the chromes seem to be going strong, more base sets not so well)