YAY! It's a b****-fest about the crappy offerings from the only companies left making cards!!! That was seriously NOT sarcastic at all. I am completely with all of you guys. I HATE the pure emphasis on "rookies" that the entire card-making industry has been obsessed with since about 2008 or 2009. "Player-worn" MEM, Manufactured Patches, and Sticker AU's have become way more of the norm than they should be, esp. considering the prices of boxes of cards now. Then there is the fact that half of a 200-300 card set is a bunch of people that just got drafted and can only be pictured in their college uniform b/c it was pushed out too fast to wait for them to get their own pro uniform. Then they also short-print those cards that most people don't really want anyway. I am SO sick of the "Rookie Push" that Topps and Panini have been doing for nearly a decade now. 2008 was about the time that Topps and Upper Deck jumped straight into making the "hits" in a box being cards of rookies that haven't even taken a snap, a pitch, a hit, a body-check, a jump-shot, etc. I loved the card designs from 2006 to 2010 in nearly any sport from any manufacturer, but the "hits" were a fail to me. Once the 2010's hit the shelves, I was pretty much done with buying boxes of new stick-and-ball sports. I switched to almost exclusively NASCAR cards then. And then Press Pass started trying the same stuff with NASCAR cards. Then they went out-of-business about 5 years later. That was mostly b/c of Panini buying up exclusive rights to over 200 colleges and universities. That alone killed Press Pass b/c it took away all of their football and basketball releases! I wasn't buying those anyway, but PP was doing awesome with NASCAR until they started trying to do what Topps, UD and Panini were doing at the time. 2007 to 2011 Press Pass NASCAR cards were some of my favorite releases and designs of their entire run, but then they changed it up. They dumped the sets that had been running for a decade or more and started replacing them with releases that cost more money but gave you the same value, but with fewer cards and less-interesting "hits". I don't care about 5 "HITS" per box if 3-4 of them are nobody's and they are also non-SN'd MEM and or AU cards.
muskie, I agree with you that the companies should be able to battle it out for our money. But there's a backside to that. In the 1990's, all companies were allowed to do that. The problem became that every company just kept pumping out more product to out-do each other. That's why there were at least 30 releases every year in many sports. The overkill of releases is kind of what led to the current era of only one manufacturer for any sport. But that is ALSO back-firing on the hobby! Now the manufacturers have no competition and can release as much product as they want. They JUST DON"T CARE IF WE LIKE IT!!! As long as people keep buying it, they'll keep making it. I have bought less hobby boxes (and even retail blaster boxes) in the past 3 years than I bought just in 2013 and 2014 alone. MOST of my box purchases have been a blaster here and there at Target JUST to see the product.
I bought 2 hobby boxes in 2017 and both were Absolute Racing. My best card from those boxes was traded for a $25 BV card and then I connected that trader with a buyer that bought the card for the same $25 price. That was an AU'd, dual MEM, SN5 card. My other "big hit" from the 2nd box (AU, MEM, SN49) was given away as a prize in my Fantasy NASCAR game. Panini has even ruined the NASCAR card community with their junk. 2017 Absolute Racing costs $100/box for 20 cards. STILL! I see why collector's are jumping towards the vintage cards. I've been in the same box for baseball for a couple of years now. I always prefer to trade, but I still like opening packs/boxes. If those packs/boxes aren't going to even produce what I am paying for, I know how to just skip that step and buy the cards I want to own.
Exclusive licenses SUCK!!!
NO PWE's EVER!!! PLZ PM me 1st before sending any offer. ONLY selling cards as of March 2024. No trades or purchases right now.
_______________________________________________________________________
Largest total PC card collections by Team, then Athlete (as of 3/22/24):
STL Cardinals (MLB) - 8810; Carolina Panthers - 2888; GB Packers - 1790+ cards
Mark Martin (NASCAR) - 2038 cards; Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR) - 1875 cards; Jeff Gordon (NASCAR) - 1594; Ricky Rudd (NASCAR) - 839; Ozzie Smith (MLB) - 707