Why Baseball Card Collecting May Never Be Popular Again

10 Reasons Why Baseball Card Collecting May Never Be Popular Again (as compared to the late 1980s and early 1990s):

#1 – The number of available hobby alternatives has only increased over the years making baseball cards merely one of many forms of card collecting. Hobbies (such as gaming) that didn’t exist in prior generations now are readily engaged by willing and ever-diverse audiences. If one can call texting a hobby or surfing the Internet or any of a number of electronic-based activities out there hobbies, this generation has far more available options than ever before. Baseball card collecting is just one of a ridiculous amount of hobbies that exist in today’s world.

 

#2 – The price per pack for newer items has increased so dramatically that it is less affordable relatively as compared to previous generations. In the 1980s, it was common to pay 39, 49, 59 cents per pack but rarely more than that. In today’s generation, you’ll likely pay $1.99 at the very bottom end and get less cards per pack than you would have in the 1980s and certainly no gum, puzzles, stickers or holographs.

 

#3 – The late 1980s/early 1990s was an era of mass production that became unsustainable and frankly untenable. Mass production – a certain magic lingers in the very words. It speaks of greed on the part of card companies who hailed its arrival. It tells of long, cold winter months where the presses kept rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling.

 

#4 – Even if there are new and/or younger hobbyists, there is so much older product coupled with new product being rolled out each year that it is unreasonable to expect a new and/or younger hobbyist to fully embrace both the old and the new. A young hobbyist has a wealth of options at his/her disposal. In addition, with new product continually pouring out, older product from the 1990s or 1980s is a less attractive alternative. Younger hobbyists are not as likely to pursue Canseco, Bonds, Puckett or McGwire simply because they never saw these players in action. They don’t know much about these individuals in many cases. No surprise. That refrain has always been true through the generations.

#5 – With the partial demise of the family nucleus – i.e. 2 parents at home – it is increasingly difficult to pass down such an interest from one generation to the next. Picture this: Dad bringing son to the card show. In 1992 America, it was an extremely common site to behold. However, with the rise of divorce and parents having relatively less time to be with their children, sacrifices are commonly made. One of those sacrifices I would argue has been time to jointly pursue a hobby or interest between father/son. That father/son connection drove the hobby in big ways during the Junk Wax Era.

#6 – Young consumers are notoriously fickle in their buying habits. It should come as no surprise that young consumers have the interest of a hummingbird when it comes to pretty much anything. The fad of pursuing something can disappear so quickly that it is just that – a fad. Remember POGS? In 1994 America, POGS could not be stopped. In other years, it was the Beanie Baby or Coca Cola collectibles or colored bracelets or ____________. Fill in the blank. In the late 1980s/early 1990s, baseball cards fit the buying habits of young consumers and there was definitely a fad-component to the hobby which hobbyists from before and after that era likely can attest. When other opportunities presented themselves, young consumers redirected energies toward other avenues and consumed accordingly.

#7 – How young consumers buy is vastly different in 2014 with eBay, Craigslist, social media, the Internet, big box retailers, etc. versus 2004, 1994, 1984, etc. It is much more difficult to truly tell what the buying habits are of the hobbyists overall when it is no longer as simple as Johnny going to the local drug store to buy a pack or two of baseball cards. In previous generations, one could more easily track the amount of sales of the year’s product to the end consumer because the point of sale was limited largely to the local drug store or grocery store. With the myriad of buying alternatives available to consumers in the 21^st century, the buying habits can be rather challenging to ascertain.

#8 – The young consumer doesn’t have the available free time to pursue hobbies such as coin collecting, card collecting or similar as in previous generations considering the number of activities the average youth is involved in these days. In previous generations, children were involved in fewer activities and/or less-involved activities than what is commonplace in the 21^st century. Traveling teams, year-round single sport leagues and the like are prevalent to a much larger extent in our society as compared to 1980s America and before. With a diminished amount of available free time for many children, the interest in pursuing what often can be a very time-consuming hobby has a reduced level of desire on the part of those children.

#9 – The drive for high-end product, graded cards and the like has turned the hobby into more of a business for many of the hobbyists who remain. With an appreciable percentage of hobbyists, to some extent, there is a business aspect of profiting in the business of sports cards. Outsiders often have come to view the hobby as something that is largely the domain of those who wish to engage in the hobby as a business and not so much as a hobby. The simple joy of collecting for the sake of collecting may not have the appeal if the dark underbelly of the hobby is met with greed and insolence. Some hobbyists who are purely collectors chose to ignore or else bury this reality to some extent as best as they can. But there is no question that the hobby has a significant profit-based component to it that drives an appreciable percentage of those involved in the hobby to continue functioning within the hobby.

#10 – Young consumers have access to far more information about the true potential in this hobby compared to prior generations and are much less likely to engage in speculative purchasing. In 1990 for example, hobbyists were very actively buying up the hot rookie cards of the time – 1989 UD Griffey Jr, 1984 Fleer Mattingly, 1983 Topps Traded Strawberry, 1986 Donruss Canseco, etc. Prices for these cards shot up into stratospheric regions that boggle the mind in hindsight looking back 25 years. Sports cards were viewed as largely an investment to many people engaged in the hobby and even to outsiders who were not involved in collecting but were reading articles or watching TV programs discussing the phenomena. Indeed, demand seemed to outstrip supply at that time. 

 

But the card companies (multiplying by the week seemingly) kept cranking out cards by the millions and some people would dare say well into the billions. Who truly knows how many 1987 Topps baseball cards exist? Or how many 1990 Donruss baseball cards are floating around? Or how many 1991 Upper Deck baseball card sets were produced? Based on where things are today, it appears that mass production hit the hobby somewhere between 1985 or 1986 (1987 for sure at Topps) and stretched well into the early to mid-1990s (due in no small measure to the plethora of card companies in existence by that time) before things noticeably scaled back. Young consumers these days can look back to a time before they were born and see the arc of the hobby’s history between 1985-1995 and learn a lesson as far as what speculation did to the hobby. Speculation created monsters out of many and genuine hobbyists out of few.