General Forum

I've always wondered why minor league cards aren't more popular. They are often the actual first card for a player and they are generally far more scarce than the big company cards. I love them myself, probably more than the mass market cards. The thrill of hunting down minor league cards is extremely satisfying to me and since there aren't usually a bunch of annoying parallels and artificially created rare cards, I can feel like I've really completed a set.

Especially with Topps going away and the investor bubble jacking things up, I'm kind of only really excited about minor league cards now. Plus, they have really wacky mascot cards. This week I added another Crazy Hot Dog Vendor, Recycle Man, and Sprocket the Trash Panda.

Not exhaustive list, but...

Regionalized (mostly) instead of mainstream. Heritage Minor League and Pro Debut are the only national releases really. Panini doesn't count for.....

Lack of national media exposure to the teams, players, day-to-day action and so on

Bigger names that may move the needle are, for the most part, affected by the first 2 items.

Many people want to see the players in the ML unis

Minor League collector here, but mostly just my favorite local team.  In a team set you find things you'll never see in a mass produced national brand.  The quantities are smaller, making some older sets and some variations fun to hunt down.  Learning about different teams histories, and like you said, the Mascot cards!

I also collect MiLB cards, but mostly just my local club and cards from STL Cardinals affiliates. The regional releases are much harder to find if you don't go to the games early in the season. The teams usually sell out of them by mid-season and with so few card stores around these days, there isn't much of a secondary market for them getting out to the public away from the park or stadium. The sets mostly get bought by parents for their kids at the ball game and the children either destroy them over time or hold on to them. Some of the sets also end up left behind as the kids become adults and move away. Eventually they go in the trash as they are considered to just be taking up space.

The national products have just not been consistent over the decades and not many collectors cared enough to buy them. The products made over the past decade are overpriced for what they are actually selling. Even investors and prospectors aren't really buying them. Nationwide MiLB products should be cheap for people to consider buying them. The only people willing to buy them are really the team collectors and there might not be a single player in that set that ever makes the MLB team. There is not much value in buying MiLB cards, so it is just the true collectors and that doesn't make much money for Topps or other card companies. But the true collectors aren't going to pay the high price for MiLB cards that the card companies are charging with their bells and whistles that nobody wants. It was nice to have companies like Line Drive, Grandstand and Choice making MiLB cards over the past few decades, but the market for them is much smaller and makes them harder to find in general.