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I agree a separate category for CCG/TCG cards would be great. Non-Sport I consider a trading card category TCG cards I consider game playing cards, not Non-Sport trading cards.

I am recently a new member who mainly has non sport cards.  I know that by the way all sports are separated, even wrestling, but everything else is lumped into one group (Star Wars, super heroes, etc.) I immediately felt like my areas of interest were very much the minority here. I've posted a few questions here to learn how to do things, and I've referenced non sport cards, but at the time of posting I felt like I wonder if the sport guys will ignore replying to me because I'm asking about some silly superhero or TV show cards, and not 'real' trading cards (sports).

I have not had any reaction like that and have had some very helpful replies.  But visually, the lumping of non sports and breakout of multiple sports lends to the impression of non sports being secondary in importance.

In terms of looking something up under Non-Sports, it does not take me longer to choose Non-Sport then type my search category, than it would take me to select say Star Wars then type my Search category.  And I don't know how difficult it would be to break out categories.  But superficially, I think breaking out some categories from the catch all Non-Sport might lend to the impression of  there being a larger non sport presence here, and perhaps casual passers-by might stop and become members, rather than moving along looking for a more sc-fi or superhero, or gaming card specific site.

I could see breaking out categories of Superhero and Sci-fi, though one person's listing of each category may be different from another's.  I understand the gray area of overlap that would need someone to define.

As a mainly Non-Sports card guy, the breaking out of categories would give the impression of being more friendly to such areas, rather than simply tolerating them and making a catch all category to contain them.

Again, by no means has anyone here made me feel unwelcome, please don't think I'm saying that.  But if I wasn't the curious type, I may have skipped over looking into the site and becoming a member because I wouldn't have known how indepth Non-Sport actually was.

Even the logo shows three cards with three sport outlines.  It doesn't lend to suggest beyond that.  But, I just got here.  You longer time members may know that the Non-Sport presence is so minor that changing the place to advertise and make them more welcome wouldn't bring new members in anyway.

I opened the topic because I actually thought the title meant there are too many Non-Sport cards on the site and it was a discussion about eliminating some Non-Sport categories, in effect making it more of a sports card only site.

Sizzzler, I know so little about non-sport cards, it would be ridiculous for me to reply to most non-sport topics. And while I can't speak for most members, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. Having said that, I like non-sport cards and value their presence on this site. I just don't have the knowledge or background to comment on them.

I'm not as knowledgeable on gaming cards, but I think separating them along with playing cards might be a wise move. I honestly don't know how large a category it would make but it will draw a certain grouping out of Non-Sports Cards and reduce the numbers. I'm for it. ~BOB~

And that makes a lot of sense.  But through your own area of concentration you would have knowledge of how the database is constructed and organized.  Someone could pose a question in regards to a card franchise you know nothing about, but the question is actually a database structure question, and in that regard you might be able to chime in and help.

Like if someone said I have a few Monster Joe cards but can't find them here, you may not have any idea what Monster Joe is, but you would be able to inquire about Monster Joe, and perhaps do some searches and find Monster Joe cards listed on the site, because you understand the patterns and style of listing cards, regardless of the actual card property itself.

But a guy with Monster Joe cards might not even bother asking that question if Monster Joe is lumped under Non-Sports.

You don't have to know what Monster Joe is to relate the structure of the site to a Monster Joe collector.  Like say you asked him what Monster Joe was, and he said he's one character of the Planet Y series of books, then you might look up and find Planet Y either under Planet Y, the Stoo-pid Card Company, or Dumdum Publishing, and then could explain how to go about looking up Monster Joe or any other cards that person has, relating the naming conventions and such to them.

So you actually could help someone out of your area of expertise, and a further breakout of categories may help Non-Sports collectors feel more welcome and open to where they may ask such questions and contribute.

Or it may never happen even once, I don't know.  I'm just contributing my perspective to the conversation.

(Monster Joe, Planet Y, the Stoo-pid Card Company, and DumDum Publishing are all registered trademarks of Sizzzler Inc.)

whoisrob wrote:

Sizzzler, I know so little about non-sport cards, it would be ridiculous for me to reply to most non-sport topics. And while I can't speak for most members, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. Having said that, I like non-sport cards and value their presence on this site. I just don't have the knowledge or background to comment on them.

I'm all in on that too. TV/Movies could get split off as well IMO.

I have to agree with a category for gaming cards and such.  While I have gotten a few recently, they are out of my wheelhouse, but I always felt they should have been seperated from the rest of the other non-sports.  I would also be curious how some of the percentages of images would change as a result of splitting it up as well.

As for a seperate category for TV/Movies, I'd say no. To me that is pretty much the definition of what non-sports cards are.  I don't think splitting up the non-sports category beyond the gaming cards need to be done, at least not right now.  If in the future it needs to be addressed again, then it can come up, but by splitting it up further you could make it a lot more confusing.

About the gaming cards associated with sports, I'd leave them in with whatever sport they are.  I would possibly add a note at the top of a potential new gaming category directing you that sports gaming cards are in there specific sport.

With that said, Sizzzler, I wasn't sure what Monster Joe was, but I figured it was some gaming card brand.  I figured it was similar to Dinosaur King, which I have a few cards of but have no idea what they actually are.

Monster Joe (and the other names) are something I just made up while writing to illustrate an example.  I said they were registered trademarks as a joke.

You are right though, that Non-Sports by definition would include TV/Movie, because it is defined by its relation to sports.  Another site might have a sci-fi breakdown, and every sport would fall under Non Sci-Fi, and someone there might have the same view as you when asked to have Baseball made its own category.

So the title Non-Sports would be less accurate if some things like gaming or TV/Movie or Star Wars and Star Trek were broken out.  The name Non-Sports would have to reflect 'not them either' and it doesn't as stands.  So either everyone would have to understand it really meant Non Sports and 'not these other categories either,' or perhaps it would have to be renamed to something like Everything Else.  No matter what new sub categories you breakout down the road, Everythng Else would always be an accurate name.  Non-Sports becomes less accurate once non sport categories get broken out into their own categories.

We had a similar topic come up a while ago, although the gist of that thread was more toward the "pin-up" category getting split out. It was eventually agreed that splitting that out would be more problematic than helpful.

As for Non-Sports all being lumped together, I think it really was more of a not knowing where to draw the lines rather than it being the "second-class citizen" of the database. I would say that 98-99% of my collection here is sports, but there is still an aspect of it that is non-sports.The wonderful thing about this site (the members) is that there really doesn't appear to be any negativity toward anyone's collecting "style". I do think that sports "rules the roost" in the trading card industry, which translates into more members being more knowledgeable of sports cards versus non-sports. So, if there aren't replies, it usually just means people don't know.

Anyway, I am all for breaking the Non-sports category into at least 2 categories. Non-Sports Card games would definitely be one of them. Obviously, we need Admin for this. The biggest challenge with splitting sections off is the moving of the PIDs to that new category.

Admin is  clearly the key to what can and will be done on the site. FWIW, I think there are about 96 sets currently listed in Yu-Gi-Oh, 275 in Pokemon, and 648 in Magic the Gathering. Pulling up a few random sets suggests Yu-Gi-Oh sets often have about 50-70 cards, Pokemon about 100, and MTG closer to 200, but there are some far larger and smaller in all three. I'm not sure if those numbers weigh more towards "something that needs to be done" or "something that is more trouble than it's worth"...