Sports Card Addiction Is Slowly Coming Out of the Shadows Article

[parkplace33]

Very interesting article from Sports Collectors Daily about Card Addiction:

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...f-the-shadows/

I thought the article (and videos) were well done. While most of the article was about modern cards, I have (sadly) seen this in the vintage area as well. Examples over the last few years are collectors who hide purchases/cards from family members, not knowing what they own, and racking up debt to buy cards.

I love cards, don't get me wrong, but I can definitely see how this can be a slippery slope for some collectors. And I do worry that with sports gambling, this "gambling" mentality will be more prevalent in the card community.

[packs]

I don't feel like this happens to "collectors". I feel like this is only a problem for "gamblers" who find their attention momentarily on sports cards. I'd be willing to "bet" the same people who are "addicted" to sports cards have had other fads they were similarly addicted to in the past.

[toledo_mudhen]

On a different note - I'm pretty sure that my need for "vintage" sports cards has driven my career over the last 30 years or so.

Whenever, I found that I needed more "cash" for cards - I simply got a better job.

[ALBB]

interesting article..

I think many collectors are " somewhat addicted" to hobby,,,but can get their " fix or relief" ..just by going to this here Net 54 site, or ebay, or local card show... just to satisfy that " collecting urge "

Probably worse if your a guy whos got the " bug"..and has big money avail. for purchases .... I could see lots of unwise purchases, over spending , etc..

[packs]

I feel like a lot of people on this board: I love baseball cards more than anyone in the world.

I would never go into debt for them. I think the only people who would are people who would go into debt for a million other things too. They aren't collectors.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by packs

I don't feel like this happens to "collectors". I feel like this is only a problem for "gamblers" who find their attention momentarily on sports cards. I'd be willing to "bet" the same people who are "addicted" to sports cards have had other fads they were similarly addicted to in the past.

I disagree. I am sure they are guys who have been checking ebay while their wife is in labor or during their daughter's dance recital to see if that rare Polar Bear back they have been chasing has been listed by any chance. Or even at a funeral home.

You can be obesssed chasing money and you can be obsessed just chasing things.

[packs]

I don't think browsing is a sign of addiction. People who like to watch Texas Hold Em aren't gambling because they're watching.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by packs

I don't think browsing is a sign of addiction. People who like to watch Texas Hold Em aren't gambling because they're watching.

Allow me to suggest that if your mere browsing is interfering with your ability to enjoy and be present for every other aspect of your life, then it's probably gone too far.

[G1911]

Racking up debt to buy cards is a bad thing? The boards advice was to go take out loans from the bank and to empty my 401K to buy more cards!

[packs]

Originally Posted by raulus

Allow me to suggest that if your mere browsing is interfering with your ability to enjoy and be present for every other aspect of your life, then it's probably gone too far.

No disrespect but I think you're talking about having a phone at all and not baseball cards.

[Snapolit1]

People can spend their hours/days/months/years doing whatever they want. Always worth keeping in mind that that obscure card you've been chasing for 11 years probably will mean very little if anything to folks 2 minutes after you die. Will be sold by someone who likely will have a small fraction, if any, of the feelings you have for said piece of cardboard. So if you are buy now to flip, or buying now to hoard until someone else eventually sells, I don't see the big difference. Fulfilling some kind of psychological need. I don't see one as being better or more impressive than the other. I hope my kids are impressed someday with the goodies I leave them. And I hope they turn around and sell it all and use it to travel and do cool stuff.

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I disagree. I am sure they are guys who have been checking ebay while their wife is in labor or during their daughter's dance recital to see if that rare Polar Bear back they have been chasing has been listed by any chance. Or even at a funeral home.

You can be obesssed chasing money and you can be obsessed just chasing things.

100% agree with this. Addiction comes in many different forms. Addiction doesn't mean just ripping packs looking for the big hit. It also doesn't need to be expensive or financially draining. It could be a shopping addition by winning cards, browsing auctions/ebay, or even this site. It is just a need to be doing something with an adverse effect.

[hcv123]

It seemed like it was largely pointed at the ultra modern chase card gambling - buying and ripping packs looking for the big win similar to playing the state lottery or other game of chance. I can see the addiction overlay there. While I will not say "never", I see the probability as a lot lower for vintage collecting.

[packs]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

100% agree with this. Addiction comes in many different forms. Addiction doesn't mean just ripping packs looking for the big hit. It also doesn't need to be expensive or financially draining. It could be a shopping addition by winning cards, browsing auctions/ebay, or even this site. It is just a need to be doing something with an adverse effect.

I would call that obsession and not addiction. And I think as collectors we can all relate to obsession. When I buy a Ruth I've been eying for a long time I feel a sense of relief for my obsession. But I don't feel an immediate need to buy another one. I have been satisfied, which I think is the difference.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by packs

No disrespect but I think you're talking about having a phone at all and not baseball cards.

You're definitely right that smartphones are a big part of the problem.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by packs

I don't think browsing is a sign of addiction. People who like to watch Texas Hold Em aren't gambling because they're watching.

Though I imagine people have figured out a way to gamble on the outcome of Texas Hold Em tournament broadcasts.

Brian

[darwinbulldog]

Free markets are going to produce addictive products. That is, unfortunately, a reliable path to profits, and the addictiveness of the products on offer "improves" more with each successive year than the human brain's ability to resist them improves with each successive millennium. Baseball cards are one such product for a very small segment of the population, but there are thousands of others that have the same effect on the dopamine channels of much larger numbers of people.

[Orioles1954]

I remember getting a consignment from the family of a man who had accumulated over a million cards in his house. After his death, his children loaded up a couple of U-Hauls and brought his collection our way. One of them told me, "he didn't give a damn about his kids or family...he put every part of his life into these cards. I'm glad they're gone." Unfortunately, I have seen this happen multiple times.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by hcv123

It seemed like it was largely pointed at the ultra modern chase card gambling - buying and ripping packs looking for the big win similar to playing the state lottery or other game of chance. I can see the addiction overlay there. While I will not say "never", I see the probability as a lot lower for vintage collecting.

I agree. Dealers sell unopened and do breaks because the odds favor the dealers; it is far more profitable to a dealer to sell boxes or break slots than to actually shuck the cards out of the packs themselves and sell the good ones at retail. If the opposite was true, the dealers would just do the latter. Yet people still spend a ton on breaks, despite empirically bad outcomes. Another example of magical thinking in the hobby.

[luciobar1980]

NEWS FLASH:

A person can be addicted to almost ANYTHING.

[todeen]

I think we are really cutting hairs by trying to define obsession and addiction. My wife would say they are synonymous and I still have a stupid hobby regardless of semantics.

I am a Latter-day Saint, or Mormon, and we talk about pornography addiction in our church a lot. One thing that they have published in the past is that members need to recognize there are occasional users, casual users, and everyday users. Everyday users would be those that fit the societal stereotypical definition of addicted. Occasional users would be viewing porn maybe once a month; and casual users might be once a week. I think this type of thinking would be similar to people who only smoke at bars. For some reason, when they are in that setting they choose to have a cigarette. But someone addicted to cigarettes will need one at a certain time each day. I knew a man who got down to one cigarette a day but couldn't stop because he needed it to go poop. If he didn't smoke on the toilet he got constipated.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by luciobar1980

NEWS FLASH:

A person can be addicted to almost ANYTHING.

I am not addicted to posting on Net54.

Brian (says the man of 6387 posts)

[ValKehl]

Brian, while you may not be addicted to posting on Net54, I sense it is your real hobby, with card collecting merely being a disguise.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

I am not addicted to posting on Net54.

Brian (says the man of 6387 posts)

Me either says the guy who has averaged 2.46 posts a day for 10 years.

I have openly admitted to having a problem back when serial #ed cards came out. As mainly a Wade Boggs player collector I had to have every 1/1 along with the not as rare versions. I never spent more than I could afford but spent as much as I could afford.

I got lucky and decided one day it was stupid and sold all the super rare stuff. I feel the same about graded cards. A few years ago I went all in on graded. So happy that silly to me habit didn't last. Still can't figure out why I paid hundreds/thousands of dollars for cards I could buy for less than 1/10 the price.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by todeen

I knew a man who got down to one cigarette a day but couldn't stop because he needed it to go poop. If he didn't smoke on the toilet he got constipated.

Sounds like it's for medicinal purposes, which I'm pretty sure is permitted.

[ClementeFanOh]

I read the article and every post afterward. The article itself states that
sports card purchasing doesn't meet the parameters/definition of "addiction",
which was my initial feeling upon reading the first post. Lots of people do
unwise/unproductive/counterproductive things repeatedly- but does that
make the behavior "addictive"? No. My wife likes to unwind after work by
watching an hour of game shows. She does that almost every weeknight,
but I've not been tempted to call it an addiction. There's no financial cost
there, so how about folks who burn money on "toys" and underuse them?
RVs, boats, premium watches/jewelry, the list goes on, and they eventually
realize it's wasted money. But is it an addiction?

There seems to be a societal trend to try to classify/quantify almost every
behavior with some sort of clinical nomenclature. Bad choices don't always,
or even often, equate to addiction. My 2 pennies... Trent King

[rjackson44]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

I am not addicted to posting on Net54.

Brian (says the man of 6387 posts)

Lol

[rjackson44]

The only thing that ever got me addicted were women 😳😳

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Brian, while you may not be addicted to posting on Net54, I sense it is your real hobby, with card collecting merely being a disguise.

Val, you may be onto something. I have always thought my card collecting really just served my compulsion to organize things, and an excuse to create lists, another favorite pastime. I guess posting on here has also been a partial replacement for collecting, as collecting is not only time consuming endeavor but also an increasingly money consuming enterprise.

Brian

[Ronnie73]

I believe we are all addicted to something, and that something can change over time. Heck, at one point, I was addicted to drinking water. I've always been addicted to toxic women. But I am big time, totally against modern chase cards. Especially when a new case of cards cost $4000 and there's one big case hit. But then two years later, that same case hit is selling on ebay for $20 and dealers at card shows have one dollar autograph boxes, and these were the cards that you were buying hobby boxes at $350 for. A few weeks back, Fanatics said they were going to release something that was going to be a generation changer, and the biggest announcement of all time. That makes me nervous for many people, and I shared my thoughts on what I believe would be a true generation changer. It's a long read, and I might lose a few of you along the way, but here it is. Don't say I didn't warn you.


MY IDEA FOR A FANATICS GENERATION CHANGER

I know what I’d like as a generation changer. It’s something that I’ve mentioned in the past a couple times. First thing I have to say is I’m not a collector of modern cards, but do purchase a few Don Mattingly cards because he was my favorite player as a kid. I’m a collector of original T206 cards, and I specialize in all the different front/back combinations. I enjoy the set because nobody knows what a complete set consists of. Every year, maybe one or two new combinations are discovered. I’d like a set of cards released that don’t have card numbers, no inserts and no parallels. Just regular cards that are printed on 1980’s type cardboard, so cost of production is low and we can get back to a 15 card pack for under a dollar. So no checklist, but have cards from every sport, including all minor league players, and even cards with the people behind the scenes, such as owners, office workers, scouts, referees, coaches, just everyone. So a set would have a minimum of 20k cards. But the fun part is not knowing what exists. Plus this product could be issued over multiple years and have different poses on the cards, but still not have any way of knowing what year it’s from. By doing this, collectors will have to build their own custom checklists and even share their finds with other collectors. Remember, numberless cards. Have it set up so only 100 master sets can be built, but keep the lower print run cards a secret. Have different print runs for all the cards, so collectors have to research the cards and do their best to determine what cards belong in certain print groups. Every diehard T206 collector will tell you that collecting the cards is just part of the fun, the time spent on researching the set is just as much fun. Remember that I’m talking about the T206’s that were released in 1909-1911. Having a modern set of cards released, with so many unknowns, would be the best scavenger hunt ever. Because you would open a pack of cards and have absolutely no idea if a card is a common, or a card somewhere in the middle, or a card that is one of the ones that only had a hundred produced. Obviously cards that have a rookie or star player would have a premium, but some may have a higher print run, so the value may not be there, because it’s a game of rarity, but you won’t know what’s rare and what’s not, until collectors do research and share information with others. The main thing is keep production costs down, so a full box can sell for $36. Bring back the 15 cards per pack, 36 packs per box. Don’t offer any other types of packaging. No hobby, jumbo, tins, hangers, nothing. Just one type, on standard 1980’s type cardboard, keep costs down, so everyone can afford to be a part of the biggest multi sport card collecting scavenger hunt of a lifetime. The T206’s from 1909 to 1911 was and still is the biggest scavenger hunt of all time. With between 5000 and 6000 different combinations possible, and over a 110 years later, and still new combinations are being found. Many cards from that set only have one or two known cards of a certain combination. I’ve done so much research that I know of certain rarities that nearly all T206 collectors know nothing about. To them, it falls into the commons pile, but me knowing what I know, I purchase that common because it’s actually an extremely rare combination. So, just like I mentioned before, you would open a pack and not know what’s rare and what’s common. I think it would be a ton of fun, especially if it was done over multiple years. Heck, I wouldn’t mind if the only information released was that the product would be sold during a five year period, with 50 thousand different cards, and only 100 possible complete sets. Keep everything else top secret, including keeping as much information from the printers and the employees. Because if a product like this was produced, and someone from the inside leaked a checklist that included print runs and what cards were the rarities, then the research and sharing between collectors would just not exist, and the fun would be ruined. You should be able to open a pack and not know the difference between a 10 cent card and a 10 thousand dollar card. Yes, I know I typed a lot, and repeated many things, but it’s because I’m passionate about this idea, and feel that it would bring back that feeling from the mid 1980’s when packs were affordable. All people care about nowadays is the hits and inserts. They open packs and go straight to the inserts and parallels, and don’t even look at or care about the other cards in the pack. What a waste. That’s why I don’t buy new products ever. Every card should be just as important as the next one in the pack. That’s what true collecting is about. Everything I see nowadays is basically like gambling. You either get the case hit or you don’t, and the rest of the cards nobody wants. Even some case breakers only send you the hits and who knows where the rest of the cards go. Probably to some company that sits on the commons for a few years, then they use them as fillers for repacks. Hopefully Fanatics somehow sees this post and just considers my idea as a possibility, when everyone eventually catches on that everything is overproduced unless it’s serial numbered, jersey patched, or autographed. I think many collectors are blinded by the inserts and case hits. The sad reality is that I will see a case hit card that was pulled from a $3000 case, and a couple years later that case hit card is listed on eBay for $20. Plus all those autographed cards, dealers selling them for a dollar each, and they came out of a product that was $200 a box. That’s just sad and not good for the hobby. It’s like the hype of a PSA 10 card that sells for thousands, but you can buy hundreds of the same card for a dollar or less, just because the centering is a bit off, or a corner is not razor sharp. Sorry, but I’d rather have a thousand of one card, rather than one card that cost me a thousand dollars. I probably have over a thousand original T206’s that would grade a 1 or is already graded a 1, and it’s still collectible, because of its rarity. I get it though, you could have a card that’s graded a 10, with a population of just that one card, but a million of that same card exists in lower grades and ungraded cards. Now think about a T206 that’s graded a 1, but the population report shows no cards graded higher, and none graded by SGC or BVG. I’d choose that 1 over that 10 every single day. Let’s make collecting fun again. Don’t get me wrong, making money is fun too, but I see too many people getting into the hobby and making some bad decisions, and then getting out. I’m also seeing collectors from the 80’s and early 90’s that left the hobby because of overproduction and just too many different sets being made, are getting back into the hobby because everything is shiny or sparkling, and autographs and 1 of 1’s. But after a few years, realizing history is repeating itself. I know of T206 collectors that started in the 1970’s and are still collecting that same set. Continuous collecting, even during the up’s and downs of the hobby. Why is that? It’s because it’s a fun set to collect. I’ve even had collectors agree with me that it’s almost like they are an archeologist, because of the research and the hunt. I’ve been interviewed many times on the hobby, along with other hobbies, but this one interview, I was asked what I planned on collecting after completing the T206 master set of over 5000 different cards, and my answer actually stuck with the person interviewing me, because he just didn’t like my answer, but after asking me about it again, he understood my answer clearly. I told him that I hoped that I never completed the set. Sounds odd and totally unexpected, right? Well, once you complete a set of something, what happens? You get to brag about it, others envy you, and this goes on for a few weeks to even a couple months, but then you find yourself getting bored with the set you just completed. Because you now realize that the fun was in the hunt and not in the completion of the set. So you then find yourself looking at other sets to start collecting, but money is tight and you have so much equity tied up in the set that you just finished, so you decide to sell your set, do a set break, auction the cards off, or even consign it to an auction house. If you’re lucky, you come out ahead of your investment. But the reality is that you are lucky just to break even, after fees and taxes, but most will actually lose money. But you get to start a new set and get that fun feeling of the hunt. In 2010 (I wish someone told me the things that I shared in this post, when I first started collecting cards in 1983. I would have saved a ton of money and time, plus I’d probably have a 30 million dollar set, instead of a million+ dollar set and a truckload of 1980’s and 1990’s cards.) I choose the T206 master set, because nobody has ever completed it. A few have come close, but still not complete. Mainly because nobody knows what a complete set consists of. So the hunt never stops, and I’m explaining all of this, to help make it easier to understand my reasons for wanting a 50 thousand card set, or however many, that has no way of knowing what to look for. Like a scavenger hunt but without the list of things you’re hunting for. If you made it to this point of my post, I thank you for sticking with me. I also apologize for the inconvenience and length of my post. There were just some things that I’ve been wanting to say, along with my idea for the ultimate multi sport and multi year product that can be made affordable to everyone. In my mind, that would be the set of a generation.

[brianp-beme]

I broke down Ron's Fanatics Generation Changer idea into smaller, mouthful size portions.

I think it is a great idea, perhaps a little too elaborate, but a scaled back version, perhaps 1000 within the span of one year, and leave out the office workers, might just pull folks in.

Brian


Here is the smaller chunk version:

I know what I’d like as a generation changer. It’s something that I’ve mentioned in the past a couple times. First thing I have to say is I’m not a collector of modern cards, but do purchase a few Don Mattingly cards because he was my favorite player as a kid. I’m a collector of original T206 cards, and I specialize in all the different front/back combinations. I enjoy the set because nobody knows what a complete set consists of. Every year, maybe one or two new combinations are discovered.

I’d like a set of cards released that don’t have card numbers, no inserts and no parallels. Just regular cards that are printed on 1980’s type cardboard, so cost of production is low and we can get back to a 15 card pack for under a dollar. So no checklist, but have cards from every sport, including all minor league players, and even cards with the people behind the scenes, such as owners, office workers, scouts, referees, coaches, just everyone. So a set would have a minimum of 20k cards. But the fun part is not knowing what exists. Plus this product could be issued over multiple years and have different poses on the cards, but still not have any way of knowing what year it’s from. By doing this, collectors will have to build their own custom checklists and even share their finds with other collectors. Remember, numberless cards. Have it set up so only 100 master sets can be built, but keep the lower print run cards a secret. Have different print runs for all the cards, so collectors have to research the cards and do their best to determine what cards belong in certain print groups.

Every diehard T206 collector will tell you that collecting the cards is just part of the fun, the time spent on researching the set is just as much fun. Remember that I’m talking about the T206’s that were released in 1909-1911. Having a modern set of cards released, with so many unknowns, would be the best scavenger hunt ever. Because you would open a pack of cards and have absolutely no idea if a card is a common, or a card somewhere in the middle, or a card that is one of the ones that only had a hundred produced. Obviously cards that have a rookie or star player would have a premium, but some may have a higher print run, so the value may not be there, because it’s a game of rarity, but you won’t know what’s rare and what’s not, until collectors do research and share information with others.

The main thing is keep production costs down, so a full box can sell for $36. Bring back the 15 cards per pack, 36 packs per box. Don’t offer any other types of packaging. No hobby, jumbo, tins, hangers, nothing. Just one type, on standard 1980’s type cardboard, keep costs down, so everyone can afford to be a part of the biggest multi sport card collecting scavenger hunt of a lifetime. The T206’s from 1909 to 1911 was and still is the biggest scavenger hunt of all time. With between 5000 and 6000 different combinations possible, and over a 110 years later, and still new combinations are being found. Many cards from that set only have one or two known cards of a certain combination. I’ve done so much research that I know of certain rarities that nearly all T206 collectors know nothing about. To them, it falls into the commons pile, but me knowing what I know, I purchase that common because it’s actually an extremely rare combination.

So, just like I mentioned before, you would open a pack and not know what’s rare and what’s common. I think it would be a ton of fun, especially if it was done over multiple years. Heck, I wouldn’t mind if the only information released was that the product would be sold during a five year period, with 50 thousand different cards, and only 100 possible complete sets. Keep everything else top secret, including keeping as much information from the printers and the employees. Because if a product like this was produced, and someone from the inside leaked a checklist that included print runs and what cards were the rarities, then the research and sharing between collectors would just not exist, and the fun would be ruined. You should be able to open a pack and not know the difference between a 10 cent card and a 10 thousand dollar card.

Yes, I know I typed a lot, and repeated many things, but it’s because I’m passionate about this idea, and feel that it would bring back that feeling from the mid 1980’s when packs were affordable. All people care about nowadays is the hits and inserts. They open packs and go straight to the inserts and parallels, and don’t even look at or care about the other cards in the pack. What a waste. That’s why I don’t buy new products ever. Every card should be just as important as the next one in the pack. That’s what true collecting is about. Everything I see nowadays is basically like gambling. You either get the case hit or you don’t, and the rest of the cards nobody wants. Even some case breakers only send you the hits and who knows where the rest of the cards go. Probably to some company that sits on the commons for a few years, then they use them as fillers for repacks.

Hopefully Fanatics somehow sees this post and just considers my idea as a possibility, when everyone eventually catches on that everything is overproduced unless it’s serial numbered, jersey patched, or autographed. I think many collectors are blinded by the inserts and case hits. The sad reality is that I will see a case hit card that was pulled from a $3000 case, and a couple years later that case hit card is listed on eBay for $20. Plus all those autographed cards, dealers selling them for a dollar each, and they came out of a product that was $200 a box. That’s just sad and not good for the hobby. It’s like the hype of a PSA 10 card that sells for thousands, but you can buy hundreds of the same card for a dollar or less, just because the centering is a bit off, or a corner is not razor sharp. Sorry, but I’d rather have a thousand of one card, rather than one card that cost me a thousand dollars.

I probably have over a thousand original T206’s that would grade a 1 or is already graded a 1, and it’s still collectible, because of its rarity. I get it though, you could have a card that’s graded a 10, with a population of just that one card, but a million of that same card exists in lower grades and ungraded cards. Now think about a T206 that’s graded a 1, but the population report shows no cards graded higher, and none graded by SGC or BVG. I’d choose that 1 over that 10 every single day.

Let’s make collecting fun again. Don’t get me wrong, making money is fun too, but I see too many people getting into the hobby and making some bad decisions, and then getting out. I’m also seeing collectors from the 80’s and early 90’s that left the hobby because of overproduction and just too many different sets being made, are getting back into the hobby because everything is shiny or sparkling, and autographs and 1 of 1’s. But after a few years, realizing history is repeating itself. I know of T206 collectors that started in the 1970’s and are still collecting that same set. Continuous collecting, even during the up’s and downs of the hobby. Why is that? It’s because it’s a fun set to collect. I’ve even had collectors agree with me that it’s almost like they are an archeologist, because of the research and the hunt.

I’ve been interviewed many times on the hobby, along with other hobbies, but this one interview, I was asked what I planned on collecting after completing the T206 master set of over 5000 different cards, and my answer actually stuck with the person interviewing me, because he just didn’t like my answer, but after asking me about it again, he understood my answer clearly. I told him that I hoped that I never completed the set. Sounds odd and totally unexpected, right? Well, once you complete a set of something, what happens? You get to brag about it, others envy you, and this goes on for a few weeks to even a couple months, but then you find yourself getting bored with the set you just completed. Because you now realize that the fun was in the hunt and not in the completion of the set. So you then find yourself looking at other sets to start collecting, but money is tight and you have so much equity tied up in the set that you just finished, so you decide to sell your set, do a set break, auction the cards off, or even consign it to an auction house. If you’re lucky, you come out ahead of your investment. But the reality is that you are lucky just to break even, after fees and taxes, but most will actually lose money. But you get to start a new set and get that fun feeling of the hunt.

In 2010 (I wish someone told me the things that I shared in this post, when I first started collecting cards in 1983. I would have saved a ton of money and time, plus I’d probably have a 30 million dollar set, instead of a million+ dollar set and a truckload of 1980’s and 1990’s cards.) I choose the T206 master set, because nobody has ever completed it. A few have come close, but still not complete. Mainly because nobody knows what a complete set consists of. So the hunt never stops, and I’m explaining all of this, to help make it easier to understand my reasons for wanting a 50 thousand card set, or however many, that has no way of knowing what to look for. Like a scavenger hunt but without the list of things you’re hunting for. If you made it to this point of my post, I thank you for sticking with me. I also apologize for the inconvenience and length of my post. There were just some things that I’ve been wanting to say, along with my idea for the ultimate multi sport and multi year product that can be made affordable to everyone. In my mind, that would be the set of a generation.

[2dueces]

Video after video of big hits opening packs. The chaser is like scratch offs. Even if they hit one it’s never enough. New a couple that got divorced because of his closet addiction to scratch offs. Addiction is addiction in any form.

[Ronnie73]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

I broke down Ron's Fanatics Generation Changer idea into smaller, mouthful size portions.

I think it is a great idea, perhaps a little too elaborate, but a scaled back version, perhaps 1000 within the span of one year, and leave out the office workers, might just pull folks in.

Brian

Thank you Brian. I type like I talk.

[jethrod3]

It's an interesting article with several truths. Among them is that if you think you can make a lot of money off buying a lot of cases and boxes, you're usually gonna be fooling yourself. Most folks can see why that is true, but the person looking for the big hit, maybe fueled in part by a previously lucky hit, cannot.

Also, this thread needs a card. I wonder if a company ever made a Kenny Rogers trading card. The singer, not the ball player. Does someone have a card of "The Gambler?"

[RCMcKenzie]

Agree about "office workers" part, otherwise sounds good. I like the numbers, like a 782 card set for a binder. Cards only released in packs with gum. No factory sets etc.

Saw a K-Rog card on the net, they have everything.

[todeen]

Please, no one wants a card of KRog. They want a plate..... with a three piece dark chicken combo on it.



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[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by todeen

If he didn't smoke on the toilet he got constipated.

That's a really $h*tty problem to have.

He should try some Activia...it helps you poop



or maybe he prefers dry cereal:



Thanks, you've been a great audience. Enjoy Cheap Trick.

[steve B]

I like Rons idea, yeah, even the office workers. Looking at collecting long term,You never know who might become famous.

Imagine being down about pulling a card of Bill whatsis name, that kid who seems to live in the film room even though we don't pay him.
Then years later realizing thats the rookie card of a now famous coach.

I think that could be loads of fun.

[todeen]

Ron's idea isn't bad. Topps is doing something similar with their living set, with a new release every week. Each player will only appear once per uniform. So Griffey Jr could appear three times. They did no inserts or parallels until just this year. So collectors got grumpy about that because now people will increase print runs just trying to get the parallels.

[benge610]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

I am not addicted to posting on Net54.

Brian (says the man of 6387 posts)

... although my wife will tell you that I am addicted to,
consuming/digesting posts on net54.

( a good-natured, lol.)

Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."