General Forum

Hey everyone, I've not been here as long as some of the rest of yas, and I appreciate the way you have all helped me build my sets  and stuff. Anyway, there are always questions bouncing around in my head, and I thought it would be helpful to me and even newer people to have a No Stupid Questions thread. These are questions we can ask with immunity, and not get ripped on for being dumb. Like I've always wondered:

1. How do card companies select their photos?

2. Do any card company employees frequent this forum?

3. Do we have an former/current athletes here who have their cards listed on this site?

4. What's an unwritten rule that we should adhere to as traders?

5. What's a trade or sale you regret making?

I'll answer #2  first - I used to work for Star Company (Star International) for about 7 years.

#1 - The owner there did all the selections himself. he wuld look through all of the slides that he'd get from the photographer(s) and pick which ones he'd want for the entire set (remember, these were mostly single-player sets). He had a bit of a pattern he'd go with as far as which card would have which type of photo. A lot different that the selection process a Topps or Upper Deck would go through as they basically have 1 chance per year (well, now with the scads of inserts and sets, they have more opportunities like we did). As for the minor league sets, we had no choices. The teams sent us everything.

Wow that's pretty cool. I really like the star sets.

If more people did back in 1992 and 1993, maybe they'd still be around. At least I would've had my job longer. LOL

What was your job, Dan? How many people worked there?

When I first started, I was simply collating sets (along with my parents, and we'd bring other friends in when things were getting overwhelming for the owner). By time it ended in 1993, I was essentially the customer service, shipping, and receiving departments (as well as collating).

There were never too many people there, even at it's busiest. (At one point, we had a warehouse in NJ that employed several people, but I wasn't as high on the food chain then, so I don't know the details.)