Readers voice genuine concern over the direction of the hobby

Collectors and Dealers Face the Reality of Hobby Changes

by: Frank Barning

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It has been said that reality bites. Well, chew on this.

The sports card collector of the late 1990s has met reality face to face. As a result, many of us have made conscious hobby decisions that were virtually unheard of five or more years ago.

Among those decisions are to specialize in a single player, to the exclusion of most other cards. Previously, we collected complete sets, or at least tried to. Many did specialize, but not in as limited a framework as today. The reason, now there are too many sets for just about all of us.

So, we turn to that favorite player, team or whatever, and concentrate on those cards. Set collecting was fun and a challenge, especially before the era starting in the late 1980s when factory-collated sets took away the enjoyment. Factory sets, thankfully, are now a thing of the past.

It appears that real collecting has changed in terms of how hobbyists now look at their world. That is called evolution. And what has evolved is making collecting decisions based on the reality that there are so many wonderful sets being manufactured that in order to survive we must select our own niche in what has become a colossally confusing situation.

Confusion has resulted because, particularly with baseball, new issues are being released every week. If our interest is peaked in a product, by the time we learn much about it, several more have bombarded the market.

When a new issue comes along that I like, and there are many, I want to savor it. And part of the savoring is learning all I can about it, from prices of superstar and insert cards, to become acquainted with interesting cards. It takes a lot of effort, which can also be considered part of the fun and challenge, to learn about the parallels and other neat parts of a set. But, heck, there isn't time.

And a major part of the problem for me is that by the time a new product I like finally is listed in a price guide, dozens of additional sets have been issued. This may sound strange, but there is too much of a good thing. It's like stepping up to the ultimate buffet table.

For most collectors, there is something magical when prices of cards in a new set are listed. Cards without prices are pizza without cheese Something is missing. A price guide listing kind of makes a card set more real. Only a collector could understand. But this excitement is diminished because of the breath-taking avalanche of card issues.

Part of the enjoyment of football is that there is a week between games. In the days between games a fan can think about last week's game and contemplate the next contest on his favorite team's schedule. But imagine if your team played every day.

Thats what baseball cards have become, and to some extent those of other sports. There is precious little time to enjoy a product because we become anxious about not missing the next release.

My take on any hobby is that it should be fun and relaxing. Well, the card hobby of today is certainly fun, but I do not find it relaxing. It is more like a job. But have you noticed that a major value of a hobby is to get away from the pressures of your job? When a hobby becomes a job there is a problem. As 1997 winds down, we asked some astute hobbyists with varied backgrounds to add their comments in regard to the changing face of collecting. Here is what they had to say.

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Chandy Greeholt

From my perspective as a hobby-store owner (Winston-Salem, N.C.) I think perhaps that the stamp-collecting market most closely has paralleled what is going on today in card collecting.

When stamps were first issued in 1847 and through the 19th century, many collectors who had access to the mails tried to fill albums with all of the stamps issued by all of the different countries.

As more and more countries issued more and more material, however, such collecting became impossible to all, even the wealthiest. As a result, collectors found niches in the market such as German pre-war, tennis on stamps, pre-cancels and so on.

Today's stamp collecting world is populated with thousands of mini- specialties. In the process, stamp dealers have also had to specialize. Most carry one or two lines, countries, topics, etc.

The trend toward specialization in cards really began in 1981 when new companies began to proliferate, although it took almost 15 years to reach today's level of mayhem. Dealer specialization has occurred primarily in the last five years, and with cards, as in stamps, each dealer now has to find his own niche.

With this specialization, the total-service hobby store will soon become extinct. No store with less than six-figure spending capacity can carry all of the different products. Because very few regions will be able to support a niche-only baseball card store, the card business will revert once again to being manned by part timers, primarily mail, show and computer-oriented dealers.

The collector base in the market has been making the hard decisions that involve changing collecting habits, passing up really interesting items that fall out of one's specialty area, and budgeting. Many collectors who grew up in the "get one of everything" era have departed the scene.

However, there is something good in all of this. Collecting is so much fun and is so deep in the blood of most of us that even the most discouraged departees from the hobby generally get the urge back after a period of time. More cautious and wiser, they get one toe wet instead of jumping back in. But they do return.

The card hobby for me has become a business, but that is because I am in it fulltime. When I come home and have time to relax, though, what do I do? Go through cards, look at cards.

I love this stuff, not the pressures of money, but the stuff is fascinating. And keeping up with all of it is an intellectual challenge which I cherish in lieu of an academic career which I once intended to pursue.

Let the manufacturers proliferate, because as thinking human beings we have the ultimate weapon, the word NO, to anything we don't want to buy. And besides, it's certainly more interesting when everyone is collecting something different, and better than the days when everyone was buying 100 count lots of 1988 Donruss Gregg Jefferies cards.

Joe Roberts

I rarely if ever buy packs of cards anymore. As a Mike Piazza collector I find it easier to buy the cards I want once they are listed in the price guides. I choose those within my price range and then try to get them. I gave up the notion of owning every Piazza card back in 1994. There are way too many Piazza cards out there at outrageous prices.

I can't even keep up with what's being released. I am relying more and more on fellow Piazza specialist Marc Tucci for information on the type of Piazza cards I need and can afford. When I do get a list together I will either visit my local card store or put a list out on the internet and I'll tell you I get better results and better prices from those selling over the net.

My mentality on collecting now is that since I can't get or afford everything I want for my Piazza collection I will get all I can afford and enjoy that. I still enjoy hunting for those items I want or need, that's the real fun of collecting for me, the hunt.

Bill Wesslund

It is certainly no secret that collecting habits/patterns have changed, and continue to change. As a dealer, I see fewer and fewer player collectors now than I saw a couple years ago. Same old story, too much to keep up.

Interestingly, I am seeing a small influx of younger kids collecting now. They do not seem to be fazed by the quantity of choices. They also do not have the desire of the oldtimers to collect everything. They are probably used to having more choices than they need for everything else, so it does not present a problem to them.

Bill Haelig

A couple years ago I gave up the notion that I was going to find/collect every Cal Ripken Jr. item. From 1982 through 1993, I was basically able to keep this up. Now that I know I'll never have everything, its real easy to say "no."

From time to time, I'll get a call or a letter from someone offering me a card with the line "It books for $250, but I'll let you have it for $100." Now if it was the last (or one of the last) cards I needed to complete my collection, I'd jump at it. Now my attitude is "Why should I buy this card? It may be a good price, but now I only need 63 more 1997 cards of Cal instead of 64." The other thing regarding the proliferation of all the new issues is that the shelf-life of any one product is real short. Thus, for the most part, the price/value of a card is de-valued a couple months after it hits the street. By the time its even in a price guide, the information is obsolete. I think a good attitude for most collectors to have, and I know its difficult, is to have and maintain a long-term horizon, similar to investing in the stock market. From time to time I'll tell people, "In the year 2002 who the heck is going to care about the value of a 1996 Collector's Choice gold- signature parallel version of Ripken regardless of what any guide will tell you."

Gary Herron

There's no doubt my collecting habits have changed since 1993. A baseball card collector off and on since 1956, when I got a nickle allowance every Friday and spent it on a pack of cards, I have every Topps set from 1978-96.

But along the way, especially since the proliferation of cards in about 1993, I bought maybe two packs at most this year. There's no hope on the horizon. I don't want glitz, gloss and glut.

I'd be happy with a set that looked like the 1957 Topps, my favorite set. Id enjoy something with a nice photo that can be autographed and proudly displayed, not something that reflects or must be tipped sideways to be seen. Even though my discretionary income has gone up, my hobby spending has gone down. The money I spend now is for something to display on the walls of my baseball room, where there are 75 autographed Hall of Famers (8x10s), pennants, signed baseballs, baseball bats.

One of my prized acquisitions of 1997 didn't cost a penny, a cracked bat used to hit a bunch of home runs by Paul Konerko. Another '97 favorite, a signed photo (for 50-some bucks) of Famer Bill Dickey and another "freebie", a signed photo of Maury Wills touting my hobby room.

So when I read some manufacturer will be selling a three-pack of cards for $3 next year and there are 300 cards in all, my math tells me to get that complete set, best case scenario, I'd need to buy 100 packs. That's $300 and I would have to hope I didn't get any duplicates.

So I'm sure I'll be chasing the autographed Hall of Famers I still need, like Mike Schmidt, and some of the guys from the 30s and 40s who I don't have yet. In 10, 15 years, I'll still have them. They'll be on the walls for me and visitors to enjoy.

My baseball cards, 100,000 or so, will still be in monster boxes and albums, for the most part ignored and forgotten.

Bob Gajarsky

One of the real difficulties in our market today is the uniformity of demand for merchandise around the country. In the new card market everyone needs 1997s and virtually no one needs 1996s, 1995s and so on. It's very difficult to find someone who wants something other than this year's stuff. A couple years ago, people would go for everything that was out there. Now, however, people make a choice, so no one wants the pre-year material except for team trading, which is dramatically on the rise. You can sell your local team, even pre-year inserts, but that's about it.

Tim Hopkins

I am a single-player specialist who is facing tough decisions as far as the future of my collection goes. I have been collecting baseball cards in general since 1987 and became a single-player collector in 1990.

At one point I felt as if I could find every card that was issued on Matt Williams. In 1994 I started trying to find every checklist that Matt is listed on just to expand and broaden my collection.

Starting in 1995 the card companies thought they had a brillant idea to put a top player on the checklists. The idea worked as far as more people developing an interest in checklists. From the collector's point of view though checklists that used to cost a nickel have gone to insane proportions that I usually can't afford.

In 1996 the companies again got a brainstorm and came up with the One of One Masterpiece's and Pressplates. I believe these ploys by the card manufactures are back firing in their faces.

Now in today's 1998 market I believe more companies will jump on the bandwagon and come out with more One of One or maybe print just one card of each player but cut it into fourths and laugh as you scramble to find the pieces. The card company executives sit in locked board rooms trying to come up with brillant new ideas to out do their competitors. In reality they are pushing both dealers and collectors away from what used to be a hobby, but has become a money hungry business.

Just a year ago the local card shows were full of collectors having a good time searching for their favorite set, team or player. The dealers were happy making deals and could at least cover the cost of wax boxes they had purchased and make a few bucks to boot.

Do you remember when your favorite hobby shop would and could afford to open a lot of wax so they could fill their shelves with new product for their customers? How many shops open any wax packs or boxes at this point? I know several dealers who've had to quit doing card shows altogether. We have a small local show here held twice a week that used to have a dozen dealers and a room full of customers spending money. The show is now down to one dealer and a half dozen customers.

Several single-player collectors I know have quit altogether or cut back drastically on their collecting. At this point knowing I can't get all the cards or even checklists issued on my favorite player has taken most of the joy out of the search that I used to have.

Not only do collectors have serious decisions to make about their continued interest in collecting, but the card companies have to look in the mirror and make tough decisions about how to keep our love and interest in collecting. The card companies must figure out how to turn it back into the hobby it once was.

Jody Wong

My card collecting habits have changed drastically in the past 10 years or so.

In the past, collecting was easier because there weren't nearly as many brands to choose from. Since 1990, numerous card companies have jumped on the card-collecting bandwagon.

I used to collect entire sets, but as new ones have emerged year after year, I found myself a little overwhelmed. Financially, it was a struggle to keep up. The quality of the cardboard that cards are made from is of much higher quality than of those 10-years past. Naturally, the price per pack of cards jumped.

Card companies further tried to boost interest by offering a variety of limited-edition insert cards. For recreational collectors who collect for fun, this was the beginning of the end.

At the height of my collecting, I was trying to make two or three sets at the same time, be it hockey or baseball. I had no time to enjoy what I was collecting. I was simply trying to finish my sets before new ones came out. Spending more than $100 to create a set that is often worth much less a year later added to my anger at the hobby. It's bearable when it's only one set. However, when a collector creates four or five, it adds up.

Something new came out, I had to buy it. When I found myself with no money in the bank and a pack of soccer cards in my pocket, I knew I was overwhelmed to the point where I should forget about everything else and go back to the basics.

I am now back to where I began my journey, collecting the baseball cards of my favorite player, Andres Galarraga.

Mike Rawlings

Card collecting today has taken on a completely different look than before. The idea of waiting until March to see the first baseball cards of the season and start working on your set is over.

This is something that I will miss doing with my children. The fact that the card companies now produce issues for each sport year round has spoiled one of my favorite beginnings to each season.

Also, the inclusion of only stars and rookies in sets small in number, takes away from what a baseball card set is supposed to be. This has also changed the look of card shows from going to look for that missing Hector Cruz to complete your Topps set, to only seeing people looking for superstars and inserts.

Yes I have changed the way I collect, not by choice but because of finacial need. I remember 25-cent packs and trading with friends (without a price guide) and wish my daughter could have the chance to experience that with her friends.

Collecting Survives

As you can see, there are a variety of opinions about the state of the sports- card market. The hobby/industry continues to be in a state of discomfort, agitation and evolution.

Part of the evolution is the flight of the investor, especially the little guy who made the hobby boom. Those who remain buy sports cards because they love them. Its in their blood, and even though they often feel bloodied by the manufacturers, they take a deep breath and continue to fill holes in their now computerized want lists.

But before they open their wallets, card buyers are making conscious decisions about the niche in which they can afford to collect. The overwhelming buffet of interesting and graphically exciting card issues has driven the collector to be a more aware consumer.

To survive, dealers and card producers have to be cognizent of the changes in collecting habits. There is a lot of reality upon which to chew.

Source: Sports Collector Digest - December 19, 1997 Issue; BARNSTORMING, Page 60-61