The death of the baseball card

[ThatDude]

I've got two complete sets of the 87 Topps cards in binders sitting in a box somewhere in my parents attic. Since I put those sets together the old fashioned way, I can't even begin to figure how much I spent to get them, or the thousands of other cards sitting with them.

I've never had the sets graded and I have no idea what they would sell for, but I wouldn't sell them anyway.

[Sticky Spice]

First of all I think we're confusing a couple issues. There has always been "overproduction." I remember saving up to buy a box of 1985 Topps and picking it up at Costco off a pallette with tens of other boxes. One store, one city, in the world. And when there were only three brands to buy, collectors all over were just getting the same cards. That kept the kids in it and the speculators mostly out of it. What killed the popularity was the glut of brands, series, sets, subsets, parallels, inserts, etc. If you wanted to collect one of every card of a somewhat well-known player there would be over a 100 cards for you to get every year (thanks Pacific ). Good to some....but mostly bad.

As far as those thinking that the market is good because a Mauer or whatever has a nice price, it's because it's semi-new. The only thing worth anything in the hobby is whatever's new. Once it's old, the price plummets. Even pre-80 cards are as cheap as ever on ebay.

I think the hobby was already headed downward before the internet (or more specifically ebay). It doesn't even make sense to buy packs or boxes anymore. If there's something you want - just bid on that card. It ends up being so much cheaper. As soon as I discovered ebay my pack-shredding addiction ceased instantly.

I admit, some serial-numbered cards still excite me because no matter how bad of glut of serial-numbered sets there are out there, you still have one of the only existing cards like it.

One thing is for sure, if you have a bunch of cards from the mid-90's with all the vivid colors and crazy insert sets you've got quite the pop art collection. Gotta be some way to take those near-worthless cards and make some really cool art out of it.

I had fun the other day explaining to my wife why Billy Ripken is not most famous for being Cal Jr's bro....

[Dr. Duran Duran]

I had fun the other day explaining to my wife why Billy Ripken is not most famous for being Cal Jr's bro....

Gotta love the 89 Fleer Bill Ripken. I swear I had a ton of the black box variant. Almost as fun as the 89 Upper Deck Dale Murphy Reversed Negative.

[rentz]

I think the hobby was already headed downward before the internet (or more specifically ebay). It doesn't even make sense to buy packs or boxes anymore. If there's something you want - just bid on that card. It ends up being so much cheaper. As soon as I discovered ebay my pack-shredding addiction ceased instantly.

I'll admit though, I've started buying packs again and its almost as much fun as I remember, ripping through them to see what you will get....only now I have no freaking clue what insert is what,etc.

[Sticky Spice]

I think the hobby was already headed downward before the internet (or more specifically ebay). It doesn't even make sense to buy packs or boxes anymore. If there's something you want - just bid on that card. It ends up being so much cheaper. As soon as I discovered ebay my pack-shredding addiction ceased instantly.

I'll admit though, I've started buying packs again and its almost as much fun as I remember, ripping through them to see what you will get....only now I have no freaking clue what insert is what,etc.

Yeah, but possibly that's because you're just enjoying the gamble? It reminds me of this time I was in a bowling alley and I saw this old lady buying and shredding these things called pull-tabs one after another after another. They're like little lottery tickets. Pay a buck and try to win $50. That was what shredding was like for me - I'd open a pack scan for an insert, and move on. I would have no idea what cards I got inside.

At least with pull-tabs you win real cash. With shredding you're lucky to get a $50 card that sells for $20.

[bigh0rt]

I had fun the other day explaining to my wife why Billy Ripken is not most famous for being Cal Jr's bro....

Gotta love the 89 Fleer Bill Ripken. I swear I had a ton of the black box variant. Almost as fun as the 89 Upper Deck Dale Murphy Reversed Negative.

Not sure if it's been explained yet, but here's the black box version of the card being referred to...



In the original release, the black box on the end of the bat had an obscenity written on it.

[tol1l1yboy]

I have bought about 10 packs of baseball and football cards in the last week for my son. He is 2 but he likes the pictures and watches baseball all the time and after reading this post and the espn articles I thought it would be great to go out and get him some.

You want to know why the card market is dead? I have spent about $3 a pack and every one of the packs I bought had 10 cards or less. The chrome series of cards have what 4 cards per pack!?! What kind of crap is that? $3 for 4 cards?

It is all well and good to include a bunch of stuff that makes it collectible but when you are paying $3 to $10 for a pack of cards you are only buying them as an investment and for the money you get a lot better return if you invest that elsewhere.

So basically the only people that can afford to collect are the very ones that wouldnt consider throwing their money away on such a volitle and unpredictible market.

Come on now. Get with the program and make cards collectable for kids. You dont have to flood the market with crap like manufacturers did when I was collecting back in the late 80s but what average kid has $3 for a pack of cards when they know they are only going to get 4 to 10 cards. It is stupid and shortsighted and that is the real reason why the hobby is dead.

[Dr. Duran Duran]

I had fun the other day explaining to my wife why Billy Ripken is not most famous for being Cal Jr's bro....

Gotta love the 89 Fleer Bill Ripken. I swear I had a ton of the black box variant. Almost as fun as the 89 Upper Deck Dale Murphy Reversed Negative.

Not sure if it's been explained yet, but here's the black box version of the card being referred to...



In the original release, the black box on the end of the bat had an obscenity written on it.

If I recall correctly, there's also a white out and scribbled out version of the card.

[Belle4Hall88]

yup, and there is also one that says Face in sharpie. Baught that one on ebay awhile back for a couple bucks