A Response to Gellman over at SCU

I started to write this as a comment to his post, but it got a little long and I thought that it was worthy of it's own post on my blog.  Concerning Gellman's comment about the negativity, or perceived negativity on his blog as well as others, including this one. I think that's because most of us who blog, at least regularly, remember when the hobby was "pure" or however we choose to view it, using your term of choice. And a lot of us left the hobby for some amount of time or didn't do any more than pick up a retail pack or blaster every now and then at Wal-Mart or Target. And when we came back with an enthusiasm to collect for whatever reason and go to a hobby shop, if we can find one, for the first time in 5-8 years and are inundated with product that costs hundreds of dollars per pack, gimmick cards, terms like "mojo" and how quickly cards are flipped for cash or other cards and the arrogance, sense of entitlement and flippant attitude of a lot of younger collectors (as well as older ones) it can be kind of a shock. 

Now to use SCU terms, I understand there's a First World and a Second World and get the purpose behind both. I'm mostly a First World collector, but I dabble a bit in the Second World. But there's so much that's wrong with both Worlds, that there's enough negativity to go around. We've gone from having enough cases of cards in the early 90's to have a case for every person in China to now trying to make the most limited, most expensive product ever available. And I think we're heading towards a happy medium right now. Like Gellman said, I think there is a conscious effort on the part of the manufacturers, or at least Upper Deck, to make their product better and make the collectors happy. And I think what most collectors are looking for are being able to get their money out of the product they buy. Of course this applies a lot more to Second World Collectors than First World, but both are looking to get value, be it financial, emotional, sentimental, whatever, from their cards. And I think we're heading towards that. Some of that credit has to go to the Bloggers, both big and small. While we as a blogging community may not be able to sit and dictate where product should go, we have seen that the higher ups in the industry do take notice, read the blogs (maybe even this one!) and even comment on them or do an interview or two. Where the blogs make the biggest difference is in transparency. If there were no blogs and all we saw were Beckett's video breaks, the Beckett message board, Topps Rip Parties and all the other propaganda being spewed by the conglomerates then I think all you would have is a bunch of disappointed sheep. But the community allows us to agree, differ and discuss all of the aspects of the hobby and if need be, take someone to task for it. If the major players in the hobby are all in collusion, then there needs to be a neutral voice out there, speaking what everyone is thinking and until the invention of the Internet, this wasn't possible or if it was, it was available to a very limited group of people. Now with mass media, everyone can have a voice. Even if some are less prolific than others, it still allows collectors of all types to be heard by another collector at least which will hopefully will lead to discussion of the hobby in whatever aspect is being touched upon. Unfortunately, that does often lend itself to more discussion about the negative than the positive.

There is a lot of negativity in and about collecting on the blogs these days, but there is some good as well. The problem is that the negativity is more fun to talk about, it's more newsworthy and gets more people riled up. When there's a good story about one of the blogger's kids getting a pack of cards and being completely content with that David Eckstein base card or bloggers helping out other bloggers unsolicited, it goes unnoticed. Yes, there's a lot wrong with the hobby, but there's a lot of good being done and it often gets overshadowed because it's a lot more fun to berate Topps for a gimmick base card that no one will ever pull than to find the positive in the simplicity that a pack of cards can bring.

The Future Is Now!

While trying to get caught up on my blog reading and everything else, (yes yes, apologies about the lack of posts. Hopefully once exams are over in mid-May, there will be more posting) I was reading that dayf had a prediction about the inclusion of celebrity autos becoming more commonplace in the hobby. Well low and behold 2008 Spectrum did just that, which dayf missed in the sell sheet, which is even more hilarious because he commented on the Winkler auto over at Wax Heaven (you know I'm just ribbing you dayf.) So after looking at some stuff and taking a gander on e-bay for what's available right now, here's my thoughts on the whole thing. I figured it might take a few years to get to the point where the "stars" that are signing the cards are at the level of the utility infielder/rookie autograph that is often the hit of a box. Nope, looks like they went for medicority right out of the gate with most of the autos (at least the ones that are on e-bay right now) being from 80's hair metal bands and not the people that you've usually heard of from said bands. Oh sure, there's Sebastian Bach and Dee Snider, but for every one of those, there's 5 Dan Dokkens or Mark Mendozas listed. The best ones I see listed are a few Tom Bosley, Larry Hagman,and Eric Roberts cards. There's one Henry Winkler and it's a die-cut SP. There is also one of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I mean, couldn't you get all of the people that played bit parts on Seinfeld to sign cards? And I'm sure Michael Richards isn't doing a whole lot these days. At least most people would recognize them where as no one can tell the difference between the bassist from White Lion and the lead singer of Ratt. Get Jaleel White, Jodie Sweetin, Bob Saget, Craig T. Nelson, Dustin Diamond even someone like Jeff Probst who might just be a host, but I know who he is. I'd feel like I'm getting some value out of the cards at least then. Also, if you're a new collector, around the age of 13-15 and are being drawn in with the celeb autos as being one of the selling points, wouldn't it make sense to have autos of someone these kids would recognize? I'm not saying make every card someone from the Disney Channel, but maybe make some cards that are known by both the older and younger set like Hillary Duff or Shia Labouf. Now I understand that you can't make every autograph a big celebrity like Matt Damon or Bruce Springsteen, but there are recognizable faces that are more than willing to shame themselves on reality shows for weeks and weeks. I think they'd be open to doing one day of autographs and I know UD has the money. So basically what I'm saying is that if I want a box of overpriced crap celebrity autographs, I'll buy a box of Donruss Americana because at least most of those people I've heard of.