The growing disconnect between players and fans, how much has it hurt the card collecting hobby?

Mike

TP9 | VC15
Transactions
112
5.00 star(s)
I was just thinking about how much more I was into baseball in particular when I was younger, but also basketball and other sports. I think the biggest reason I find it difficult to get enthusiastic about rooting for the home team now isn't so much that I'm too old, but that when you don't know if next year your favorite player is going to become a Yankee you can't invest too much into them.

Exhibit A: Johnny Damon, yea we could argue at length about the contract negotiations and how some people believe it was really Theo Epstein's fault, but the end result was one of the big heros of the Red Sox, slayer of the curse, went to the Yankees.

Given this effect, I've been wondering what the carry over is to card collecting. I think it can easily explain why I like the older cards than the new ones. I couldn't care less about having a set of cards from the current Red Sox team, but I'd love to put together team sets from any year prior to say... 1981.

I do enjoy the signature cards that come out now, but I wouldn't bother putting together a team set. I just enjoy the ones that I've lucked into getting. That's about it.

I also wonder how the younger generation is dealing with all this. Neither of my kids is much into watching sports at all, let alone collecting cards. I do see that the teachers at school are pushing it on the kids though. I just tell my kids if they don't want to wear a shirt or hat on "Red Sox Day" at school, they don't have to. I used to buy Red Sox stuff, Celtics stuff, etc, for the kids but they never wear it anyway so why waste the money?
 
That is an interesting thought. Being "just a kid" (as Doug would say)...I never really got to experience professional sports before free agency. I was born in 1985 I mean, that's what this is really about. Free agency, although far more fair to players...has somewhat hurt the sport for some fans. No longer does the hometown team have that one special player forever...they are free to jump to the Yankees because they want a bigger paycheck. This is less of a problem in other sports where there is a salary cap though.

That's sort of how I became a Carolina Panthers fan. I'm a football fan first and foremost (and then baseball). As a child in the late 1980s/early 1990s...and being on the west cost, Joe Montana and the SF 49ers were basically God on Earth. So, I was a huge 49ers fan. Thanks to a particularly devastating hit by Leonard Marshall of the NY Giants in the 1990s playoffs...Montana ended up missing the 1991 season. By the time he was healthy...the much more youthful (and durable) Steve Young had replaced him. He would back up Young in 1992 but was then traded the Kansas City prior to 1993. I swore off the 49ers (then my favorite team, along with the Bears)...and became a huge KC fan. After 2 years in KC, he retired and I had nobody left to follow.

So, I thought the new Panthers (starting in 1995) would be a good choice...no history, someone I could follow from day 1. They also had a bunch of college players I liked and seemed to pick up Oregon Ducks with some regularity. So, I have followed them ever since.

But, I feel like being a sports fan in my generation is far different than it was in the previous generation. Today...you have to make a choice as to where your allegiance lies. You either have to root for a team first, or for a player first. If you choose the player, you must accept that they may bolt to a different team...and if you choose the team, you must accept your stars may leave. In the old days, it wasn't like that.

I think this has had a negative impact for the fan on one hand..but on the other hand it might help too. With all this player movement, teams have the ability to climb from the seller to the top quite quickly. We don't see the dynasties of the old days...but at the same time, there are no more long-term losers (for the most part). Heck , even the LA Clippers and New Orleans Saints made the playoffs this year...10 years ago did anyone believe both would do it in the same year!!!

I don't necessarily think this has had a major impact on the card hobby either way. I think the problems with cards lies deeper. Once again, the market has become oversaturated...but it's different this time. There are too many "hits" and thus there is no rarity with anything. I was looking at a Panini card the other day...it was a 1/2, but at the same time also for sale by the same guy was a basically identical 1/5 for sale. When you make the same card with 50 very slightly different versions...they really aren't all SPs of 5. On top of that, there are no decent "hits" in products for kids anymore...so where is the incentive for new collectors. The good products are so expensive...I can't even justify the cost and I'm a dentist. I think that's what is killing the hobby.
 
I don't necessarily think this has had a major impact on the card hobby either way. I think the problems with cards lies deeper. Once again, the market has become oversaturated...but it's different this time. There are too many "hits" and thus there is no rarity with anything. I was looking at a Panini card the other day...it was a 1/2, but at the same time also for sale by the same guy was a basically identical 1/5 for sale. When you make the same card with 50 very slightly different versions...they really aren't all SPs of 5. On top of that, there are no decent "hits" in products for kids anymore...so where is the incentive for new collectors. The good products are so expensive...I can't even justify the cost and I'm a dentist. I think that's what is killing the hobby.
I agree 100% on that point. I'd rather have a card that is 1/100 than one that's 1/2 but there are a dozen other versions of it so you really don't know how common they are. I think that kind of obfuscation will hurt the collectibility in the long run because it makes it impossible for people to put together a set because there's no way to determine what is in the set, and things that have helped spur on collectors like competing for the best registry set aren't going to be a factor with the cards coming out now.
 
I agree 100% on that point. I'd rather have a card that is 1/100 than one that's 1/2 but there are a dozen other versions of it so you really don't know how common they are. I think that kind of obfuscation will hurt the collectibility in the long run because it makes it impossible for people to put together a set because there's no way to determine what is in the set, and things that have helped spur on collectors like competing for the best registry set aren't going to be a factor with the cards coming out now.
I agree...with all these uber-exclusive SPs (and soooo many of them)...it sort of takes the fun out of set or player collectors. It is now impossible to assemble a complete collection of one player. I think that is more damaging to the hobby.
 
I root for the Tigers as a team, not necessarily any players because you don't know who will go to the Yankees next year. (Max Scherzer) I have always followed my players of my PC however. Which is a lot seeing as I collect Rickey Henderson, even when he went to the Yankees!
 
I agree 100% on that point. I'd rather have a card that is 1/100 than one that's 1/2 but there are a dozen other versions of it so you really don't know how common they are. I think that kind of obfuscation will hurt the collectibility in the long run because it makes it impossible for people to put together a set because there's no way to determine what is in the set, and things that have helped spur on collectors like competing for the best registry set aren't going to be a factor with the cards coming out now.
The more I think about...as I sink deeper into my rediscovery of this hobby is I need to change my mindset of how I collect.

For example, as a kid my main focus was collecting Joe Montana football cards as he was my favorite player. My "goal" at that time was to own an example of EVERY Montana card. Now, today such a goal is impossible. Montana is regarded by many to be the great football player who ever lived (and surely those who disagree would at least put him top 10). Now, I quit collecting cards around 1998...and at that time with enough money and time such a goal was possible. I returned to the hobby around 2010 and it was amazing to see how things had changed. There were so many 1/1 cards and SPs of every imaginable kind. Such a collecting goal in today's world is simply impossible. Heck, even trying to own an example of every Tony Graziani football card (yes, I know...who?) is going to be nearly impossible for me.

I've had to redefine how I collect to focus on goals that are realistic. With vintage, it is possible to complete sets...with modern cards, depending on the "set" it might not be. Fortunately for me, I prefer cards that were produced (for the most part) 1997 and before...from my youth. Back when autographs were actually on the card.

That said, some of my projects (Panthers PC, Oregon Ducks PC) do contain mostly more modern cards...but instead of owning "them all" I have had to be very selective and just try and find very choice pieces. My goal today is more about small collections with very nice cards in them.
 
That's definitely true. You almost have to either be a fan of a specific player or a fan of a specific team. You can't really be both because your favorite players might be on totally different teams in a year or so. That's kind of crazy, isn't it?
 
Back
Top