Organizing a Million Cards #18 - The Slow Death of the Set Collector
I've been in this hobby since 1984. April 8th, 2024 will mark 40 years. I have always been and will always be a set collector. This has never been about value or money.
In recent years, Fanatics has put a chokehold on the card market and changed the industry into a money making machine that curbs itself to the BIG HIT collectors. The set itself is apparently meaningless--just ask all of the breakers and hit chasers who throw away base cards...
(If you are one of those people, please consider donating the cards to a children's hospital or something to that effect. Somebody wants or needs those cards.)
The three biggest examples I can show of how the hobby has turned its back on the set collector are out most recent purchases.
-2023 Topps Update Hobby box -
In the past, I single Hobby Box would knock out the set. With a larger set size, I get that a Jumbo might be required. However, Topps has a notoriously bad sort order. Two--let me say that again--Two Hobby Boxes and a Blaster later and I'm still 37 cards short of the Base Set. Topps flagship sets (S1, S2 and Update.) used to be the easy part of my collecting. By the way, I still need 14 cards for S2.
-2023 Topps Holiday -
Normally, 2 boxes would put me at 90% of the base set. This year, for fun, we bought 4. It's the first time in years we have been able to find this many. 4 BOXES LATER - 78%. thats's it. I have enough doubles to start a 2nd set...
-2023-24 Upper Deck Hockey S1 -
This one hurts. Upper Deck has always been above the hit chasing... Well, this year's Hobby seemed lighter. It also boasted 3 inserts per pack--which is cool as they have always been light on inserts. However, normally a single Hobby would net 85-95% of the base set. (Not including Young Guns. 6 per box is standard.) This year, and the number that prompted this post, 107 of 200... 53.5%. That is just sad.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised as Topps has started posting breaker odds... The set collector is being squeezed out of the hobby. Thank the card gods for places like TCDB and the good people on Twitter. Trading is still alive and those of us who grab a hobby to get our set started but need help to finish the set still have lifeline...
I guess the reason for this rant is remind Topps, Fanatics, Panini and Upper Deck that the set collector still exists. We have been here since the beginning--don't forget us.
TOTALS:
- Main Collection: 3,922
- For Trade/Doubles - 516
- 1991 Topps Glow Backs - 0
- Mattingly Doubles - 0
- Total Cards Logged - 4,438
Joe
(Vonnegut37 on TCDB)
We're just a dying breed of a collector in the card business. We try to avoid the hoopla on the new shiny stuff & when we acquire older stuff no one has anything anymore for us to find & when we reach out to others to help us they either want the shiny stuff or they themselves can't locate anything either or even just aren't interested in going through their inventory to help. I hang onto a lot of singles for others who might be looking for it should the case arise. Heck I recall going through my 2011 Topps Traded singles box finding 5 Trout RCs & trading 1 to a person who later sent me a 1982 Topps Cal Ripken Jr RC for it. If you still need 2023s lmk & I'll check my dupes for ya
ReplyDeleteYou are very correct! There are more people out there willing to help though. I found quite a few guys (and girls) on Twitter and especially on TCDB who will help--sometimes for nothing. I have 900k plus cards and as I get them logged, I will be giving cards to fellow set collectors for this reason.
DeleteAlso, will definitely let you know about the 23's. Update and Series 2 used to be a done deal but now I'm 14 from S2 and 37 from Update.
That is, in essence, why i stopped buying boxes a few years ago. As a set collector, just wasn't worth it. Much easier to just get the factory set and be done with it. Or buy a set someone else built. Disappointing, yes, but better for my wallet.
DeleteI still await for you to take a look at my lists
ReplyDelete👍
ReplyDeleteI still collect sets, but I had to stop assembling current releases this year. 2023 Topps will be my last flagship Topps set, and Upper Deck had finally forced me to throw in the towel on new hockey products. From 1990-91 to 1999-00 I have every Upper Deck base set. Then the SP'd Young Guns came, (which I did a series on at my blog The Collector) so I only built the base set without YG's. Then they added extended series. Now they changed the configuration. Ugh... forget it!
ReplyDelete