Kinda OT? Death of the Sportscard Industry as Reported by Sports Illustrated

[14 of spades]

Link

[oakman29]

I used to go to that very same shop when the sports card market was booming.I used to love that store,they still have some great old time uniforms.

[JLA_ALL_THE_WAY]

Where's the Link to the Death of the Comic Book Industry?

 

Oh sorry, Vince hasn't finished it yet (hasn't it been "years down the road" yet, JC?)

 

Rick

[Silverslinky]

Totally agree with that article, its too bad they went down after making all those "chase" cards. It seems also, once "magic the gathering" RPG games came out, Sports cards too even a bigger dive.

[delekkerste]

Thanks for the link. I wonder what the equivalent last "iconic" comic book is/was? The last mainstream, mass-produced, non-limited edition, non-gimmicky comic book to retain substantial value? That would exclude short print run indie books like the first issues/appearances of Walking Dead, Goon, Hellboy, Mouse Guard, 30 Days of Night, etc...Vertigo books like Sandman, Fables, Y, etc. might be too niche to qualify as "iconic" as well.

 

I think you might have to go back to an ASM 300 or X-Men 266 to find something that qualifies in the same way as the Griffey rookie card is to the card hobby...thoughts?

[benz]

I for one move from the card hobby to the comic hobby

[MR.COMICBOOK]

Thanks for the link. I wonder what the equivalent last "iconic" comic book is/was? The last mainstream, mass-produced, non-limited edition, non-gimmicky comic book to retain substantial value? That would exclude short print run indie books like the first issues/appearances of Walking Dead, Goon, Hellboy, Mouse Guard, 30 Days of Night, etc...Vertigo books like Sandman, Fables, Y, etc. might be too niche to qualify as "iconic" as well.

 

I think you might have to go back to an ASM 300 or X-Men 266 to find something that qualifies in the same way as the Griffey rookie card is to the card hobby...thoughts?

The Walking Dead is going to be the Amazing Spiderman of this generation,a lot of young people are into the book. Another book would be Bone which might surpass a lot of the super-hero so called iconic books.

[Reno McCoy]

You know, it's funny. I always hear that you need to collect what you enjoy, yet time and time again, I hear people say that this or that comic is pointless to collect because there are so many of them, or that the sports card hobby is dying, or if you do buy cards, don't buy those cards.

 

Screw it. I buy Packers cards because I enjoy it. I don't care if it's a dying hobby. Sure, I spend probably $250 a year on them and if I were to sell, I probably wouldn't get that for the whole lot. I also buy Conan comics that aren't numbered 1-50 even if there are plenty in circulation. And you know what? I enjoy doing so.

 

I know that's not the point of this thread, but something triggered something inside and I had to say it.

[the blob]

pricing in sports cards was a lot more irrational than comic pricing is now (but maybe not so much so vs. some of the bubbles like the B&W, the Valiant, etc.)....well, putting aside some CGC 9.8s out there. Sure, it was a bigger market to sell to (although it doesn't seem like its a bigger market now?), but there was a break with logic when you could open up a pack of topps 85 and supposedly have $10-$15 "worth" of cards, particularly if you lived in an area with a rabid fan base that overvalued its local stars (my friend who owned a comic/card shop in NYC alleges that he would open up packs of 85 topps, which was the start of the vast overproduction period (not that 84 topps is "rare" or anything, far from, but heck, at least cards from there like the McGwire rookie olympic card held up pretty well all the way to 98/99, after the sportscard market had already crashed) and claims cards like the Dan Pasqua RC would fetch $3-5 (really???), Mattingly's third year card would be another $3-5, Henderson $2-3, Vince Coleman RC $3-5, Clemens "RC" was $15-20, etc. etc. Very quickly that 35 cent or whatever pack was like a lottery ticket. My question is why on earth was anybody paying this type of money for individual cards when they could buy a case of packs? Everyone seemed to be in on this. In 90/91/92, my kid brother, who was like 14 at the time, was running a mini card shop out of some magazine shop. Crazy.

 

Maybe the one difference is that overproduction/saturation in cards seemed to take a bit longer for people to realize than in comics. It became REALLY apparent that Valiant was done with when books like Magnus 25 with huge orders wound up getting unsold and sitting in 25 cent boxes. It took a while for card collectors to come to the realization that if they had 10 copies of the Clemens RC then most other collectors had 10 copies too and that made for many millions of copies.

[Lego]

Thanks for the link. I wonder what the equivalent last "iconic" comic book is/was? The last mainstream, mass-produced, non-limited edition, non-gimmicky comic book to retain substantial value? That would exclude short print run indie books like the first issues/appearances of Walking Dead, Goon, Hellboy, Mouse Guard, 30 Days of Night, etc...Vertigo books like Sandman, Fables, Y, etc. might be too niche to qualify as "iconic" as well.

 

I think you might have to go back to an ASM 300 or X-Men 266 to find something that qualifies in the same way as the Griffey rookie card is to the card hobby...thoughts?

 

You want us to say "G.I. Joe #21", don't you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[the blob]

The Walking Dead is going to be the Amazing Spiderman of this generation,a lot of young people are into the book.

 

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then how come copies of the TPBs aren't out front on display at Borders with all of the teen vampire drek that the kids are reading? (not that I don't like watching True Blood...but I will not be tuning in to the Vampire Diaries aka Gossip Girl for Pastie Vampies). Borders puts out Manga books in those frickin displays!

 

seriously, I got a 40% off coupon and figured this was a good time to buy volume 1 at a discount and they didn't even have it in stock, just a couple of the later TPBs. is walking dead something that one copy gets bought of and it's being passed around and read by 10-15 kids/teens? Are there any WD t-shirts?

[jordanscott]

The Walking Dead is going to be the Amazing Spiderman of this generation,a lot of young people are into the book.

 

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then how come copies of the TPBs aren't out front on display at Borders with all of the teen vampire drek that the kids are reading? (not that I don't like watching True Blood...

 

If Anna Paquin was in Twilight or Vamp Diaries and just as naked, I might watch them...

[the blob]

Thanks for the link. I wonder what the equivalent last "iconic" comic book is/was? The last mainstream, mass-produced, non-limited edition, non-gimmicky comic book to retain substantial value? That would exclude short print run indie books like the first issues/appearances of Walking Dead, Goon, Hellboy, Mouse Guard, 30 Days of Night, etc...Vertigo books like Sandman, Fables, Y, etc. might be too niche to qualify as "iconic" as well.

 

I think you might have to go back to an ASM 300 or X-Men 266 to find something that qualifies in the same way as the Griffey rookie card is to the card hobby...thoughts?

 

You want us to say "G.I. Joe #21", don't you?

 

 

Iconic as in held up value-wise? Griffey's '89 RC held up ok because I don't think that UD's production was so big in its first year. Also dunno if maybe the #1 card was a little less common in the set? Superstar RCs from the 90 and 91 set didn't hold up at all because vastly more packs were manufactured.

 

Seriously, look at the Bonds regular RC, which came out before then. But Topps was already in huge overproduction mode by then and I don't know if was ever worth anything more than a buck (?) (putting aside some 10.0 encapsulation done years later). My kid brother literally had 50 of them.

 

 

Spawn 1 was pretty iconic? It's just that the series lost its umph over the years, although it's still being published. It doesn't have enough momentum anymore to spin off 3 or 4 titles at a given time.

[the blob]

paquin's sex scenes are just a little added bonus, i think it's a great show. for a gap toothed gal with a bit of a snout, i must say that she does have a lot of sex appeal, particularly when nekked.

[jordanscott]

paquin's sex scenes are just a little added bonus, i think it's a great show. for a gap toothed gal with a bit of a snout, i must say that she does have a lot of sex appeal, particularly when nekked.

 

 

I do love the show.

 

It's a good adaptation of what goes on in the books even if it's not more than 50% faithful to the source.

[Ringfinger]

What is the problem with collecting what you enjoy?

[carcrawfordfan]

Thanks for the link. I wonder what the equivalent last "iconic" comic book is/was? The last mainstream, mass-produced, non-limited edition, non-gimmicky comic book to retain substantial value? That would exclude short print run indie books like the first issues/appearances of Walking Dead, Goon, Hellboy, Mouse Guard, 30 Days of Night, etc...Vertigo books like Sandman, Fables, Y, etc. might be too niche to qualify as "iconic" as well.

 

I think you might have to go back to an ASM 300 or X-Men 266 to find something that qualifies in the same way as the Griffey rookie card is to the card hobby...thoughts?

 

You want us to say "G.I. Joe #21", don't you?

 

 

Iconic as in held up value-wise? Griffey's '89 RC held up ok because I don't think that UD's production was so big in its first year. Also dunno if maybe the #1 card was a little less common in the set? Superstar RCs from the 90 and 91 set didn't hold up at all because vastly more packs were manufactured.

 

Seriously, look at the Bonds regular RC, which came out before then. But Topps was already in huge overproduction mode by then and I don't know if was ever worth anything more than a buck (?) (putting aside some 10.0 encapsulation done years later). My kid brother literally had 50 of them.

 

 

Spawn 1 was pretty iconic? It's just that the series lost its umph over the years, although it's still being published. It doesn't have enough momentum anymore to spin off 3 or 4 titles at a given time.

 

Griffey UD Rcs were produced in the millions. It wasn't rare at all...it was stockpiled and collected like gold bars. It also wasn't less common than any other card and rumors persist that UD actually ran some extra Griffeys off when he was blazing hot in the early 90s. The Topps and Topps Traded Bonds Rcs were worth (and selling for) $10 and $50++ Raw before the bubble broke. I think the sportscard market is going through some chanages, but it isn't dead. This article is nice but it isn't addressing a lot of the real problems that ruined the market.

[dikran]

Is there trimming or color touch (on the black borders) in card collecting?

[carcrawfordfan]

Is there trimming or color touch (on the black borders) in card collecting?

 

Trimming, patch faking, autograph faking, cardstock rebuilding, soaking, etc...color touch is something the grading companies can actually spot. The other stuff is not something they can usually get.

[MR.COMICBOOK]

Is there trimming or color touch (on the black borders) in card collecting?

 

Trimming, patch faking, autograph faking, cardstock rebuilding, soaking, etc...color touch is something the grading companies can actually spot. The other stuff is not something they can usually get.

I remember back in the early 1990`s people would buy the baseball packs off of dealer at card show,open up the packs,take out all the good cards and replace them with commons,then glue pack back up and then go re-sell to same dealer and the dealer would just smile and wink. I wonder if that still goes on at the card shows?