Really good documentary on Baseball Card Collecting today

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by travrosty

It just switched from average joe who collected players and sets, to the people with money, they said that in the documentary. The rea buyers are the guys with the cash because the rare, high condition cards are in the big auctions. They went over that. the average guy collecting and kids collecting CURRENT cards from 50 cents packs and putting together sets is dead. They are looking for chase cards and THROWING away the rest of the cards. that's true.

Yes, guys with cash are mentioned. In the same light (IMO) as eBay is mentioned...as a negative, instead of a positive. It is the slant everyone seems to want to convey.

No sign of an interview with a eBay dealer, who could attest that eBay has revolutionized the way cards are sold...how a kid in a tiny town now can get any card on earth delivered to his door...how all collectors can now assemble collections they never could through local shows/dealers...how the price gouging decreased by a huge degree...how fallacies of "scarcity/rarity" were very quickly destroyed once the marketplace became truly national and even international.

No interview with a collector - even a kid - to say how modern collecting has evolved through using the internet.

Anyways, it seems nobody is interesting in anything but the party line the lazy "media" has taken with this hobby.

One other note - the "positive" part of this documentary was how store owners are trying to connect with kids. I liked the cub scouts thing, but I have my own reservations about how certain card stores are essentially getting kids excited about what I view as gambling, rather than collecting.

Cheers,
Blair

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

I liked the cub scouts thing, but I have my own reservations about how certain card stores are essentially getting kids excited about what I view as gambling, rather than collecting.

Cheers,
Blair

Yeah, I was pretty put off by the whole "make it so that a kid can get a $200 card every once in a while" comment. Um...yeah....you mean like a scratch ticket? Sending this messege to kids is absurd. I suppose it's telling of a larger societal problem teaching kids that something's not worth doing unless there's a (potential) payoff.

We live in a "if i do [blank], then I get [blank] society".

[mattsey9]

Originally Posted by conor912

Yeah, I was pretty put off by the whole "make it so that a kid can get a $200 card every once in a while" comment. Um...yeah....you mean like a scratch ticket? Sending this messege to kids is absurd. I suppose it's telling of a larger societal problem teaching kids that something's not worth doing unless there's a (potential) payoff.

We live in a "if i do [blank], then I get [blank] society".

But that's not a new phenomenon. In my (our?) day, we were looking for the Gooden RC out of our Topps packs just like kids today are looking for Machado/Harper/Trout.

The big difference is that in the 70's-80's when I started, there was one and later three sets that everyone had access to. They were the best cards available, and the cost kept everyone priced in. Now the best cards aren't available on store shelves and you have the be somewhat of an insider to know what's valuable and what isn't.

[ReefBlue]

Should Alan Rosen really be lamenting about how this has become a business all about money?

[conor912]

Originally Posted by mattsey9

But that's not a new phenomenon. In my (our?) day, we were looking for the Gooden RC out of our Topps packs just like kids today are looking for Machado/Harper/Trout.

The big difference is that in the 70's-80's when I started, there was one and later three sets that everyone had access to. They were the best cards available, and the cost kept everyone priced in. Now the best cards aren't available on store shelves and you have the be somewhat of an insider to know what's valuable and what isn't.

I agree to a point. Kids in 1933 were all looking for Ruth cards in their Goudey packs, too. Looking for the stars is certainly nothing new. But now it's all about the value, regardless of who the player is, so that they can presumably sell it. Selling my cards never even once crossed my mind when I collecting as a kid and I'm sure I'm not alone on this one.

[Bosox Blair]

I agree with some of Conor's thoughts, but I was more referring to what I thought was stores conducting raffles or lottery draws to get kids interested. I guess I don't know exactly how this works, but if you have to pay for a ticket for a chance to win a big card, I don't like that idea for kids.

I am a bit isolated from this aspect of the hobby, but I think this kind of thing is going on. Plus so-called "box breaks" where kids pitch in part of the money, but may walk away with pretty much nothing to show?

I might be misunderstanding how some of this works, but my point is that I think kids should be drawn in for collecting (accumulating things with some value), rather than true gambling (more often than not losing your money).

If, on the other hand, it was more like a customer appreciation draw (ie. spend $10 or more here today on whatever you want, and get a free ticket for a draw on an autograph card at 4PM), then I'm OK with that.

Cheers,
Blair

[Vol]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

No sign of an interview with a eBay dealer, who could attest that eBay has revolutionized the way cards are sold...how a kid in a tiny town now can get any card on earth delivered to his door...how all collectors can now assemble collections they never could through local shows/dealers...how the price gouging decreased by a huge degree...how fallacies of "scarcity/rarity" were very quickly destroyed once the marketplace became truly national and even international.


Cheers,
Blair

Amen! Could not have said it better.

[johnmh71]

Nice video Leon. Thanks for sharing.

I do agree with many of the comments left so far. Many of the old time shop owners were shady to a certain degree and now are paying the price, if they are still around to do so. To not include ebay on this video is crazy. There are many ebay only dealers that they could have contacted to get there side of this. I doubt any members on this site would have anything near the collections they have without it.

[insidethewrapper]

It was a joke seeing Mr.Mint on here ( the film). He never helped the hobby. I saw him be rude to young and old collectors alike and turned off many to the hobby. Talk about the money and investment vs just enjoying collecting. At shows with him it was all about the money . He always tried to intimidate others . He usually never had time for young collectors.

[bbcard1]

Kids have more money than they ever have before. They choose to spend their time and money on video games, phones and electronics and the business/hobby has no one to blame but themselves.