Posted By:
MikeU"I've known T.S. for about 20 years and worked side by side with him for many of those years. He is a life-long, true collector with little or no interest in the dollars and cents aspects of the cards he collects. He also has a real passion for keeping the hobby alive for future generations. In my opinion, no blame attaches to him for the state in which SCD finds itself. He is given precious little to work with in terms of personnel and editorial budget resources and is under constant pressure to keep "the bottom line" attractive for the next new owner. I see that he and other staff members have started blogs on sportscollectorsdigest.com; read it and you'll get a better feel for the man on whom uneasy rests the crown of SCD editorship."
I do not doubt that T.S. is a true collector, has a passion for the hobby and cares about the future generation of collectors. Unfortunately, those qualities may make you a good person or even a good contributor to a publication. It does not necessarily make you a strong editor. The limited resources and bottom line focus are common in any industry.
Giving 5 minutes of thought to the matter:
1. Old Cardboard covers a niche. SCD could have done this and still could with regularly scheduled features.
2. There is a Post-War vintage gap currently. SCD could take advantage of this.
3. There is a gap for an independent print version of an accurately graded card/pack price guide. SCD could fill this gap. They could partner with VCP or CT on this.
4. No independent publication, excluding Old Cardboard, has any decent articles for the most part. SCD could really help in this area.
5. No publication has ever developed a knowledge database of all articles published on particular sets or articles published on particular dealers, particular collectors etc. SCD could do this with 30+ years of information. Who would not pay to click a link to read every single article ever written in SCD on the T206 set or anything else? Or click on every article ever written on Nagy etc.
6. There are a significant number of colleges in the area of SCD. I would bet money that many kids would love to intern at Krause Publications for next to nothing.