Five Things Destroying the Sports Card Collecting Hobby

In a world of technology and excitement, the hobby of collecting sports cards has taken a backseat to video games and iPods in today's youth. American's still love their favorite athletes as much as ever and collecting things as a hobby still attracts many. So what or who is to blame? Here are five interconnected situations that have contributed to the downfall of the card collecting hobby.

1. The thrill of the non-chase - Beginning in the late 90's, sports cards had become a highly profitable business, thanks to the help of some innovative cards and low supply. With high demand in the early 2000's, the supply also increased exponentially in recent years. It was a win-win situation for both the collector and the card dealers. The supply has become so abundant that most cards are relatively common. Chasing a certain card is no longer much of a chase. In addition, the abundance of products and cards have made collecting every card of one player an almost impossibility.

2. Overproduction of the Game-Used and Autographed cards - Due to the abundance and decreased rarity of cards, card makers were forced to make their cards more collectible and desirable. After the arrival of game-used and autographed cards, collector's clamoured for them and lusted after them. The invention of these cards were great in the beginning as collector's are able to own a piece of their favorite player's jersey or have the autograph of a real player without having to stand by the locker rooms after a game. However, due to the tremendous success of these cards, card company had once again flooded the market with these highly desirable cards. Because of this, cards without autographs and jersey pieces are rendered virtually worthless and much less desirable. Collecting cards is now no longer about collecting cards but rather collecting autographs and jersey pieces.

3. High price of cardboard - One of the main culprits to the decline is the ever increasing price of cards and the ever increasing amount of high end cards. The increasing price is linked to the increasing production of game used and jersey cards. In order to obtain autographs and jersey pieces, card companies must spend money. This lead to increasing prices of cards. However, card companies took this as an excuse and went one step further to produce "premium cards" such as Exquisite and Ultimate in order to extort more money from card collectors by removing base and insert cards and guaranteeing only jersey and autograph cards. The result of this vicious cycle is increasing number of packs of cards costing $300 or more. When the price of a few pieces of carboards and cloths are the same price as an XBOX 360 or almost a PS3, the reason for the decreased interest is obvious. In addition, when the most desirable cards are now only accessible to those with large disposable incomes while those with less money are stuck with sticker autographs and cheap looking inserts, this further breaks the hearts of young and old collectors alike.

4. Gimmick cards - The overproduction of game used and autographed cards have also led to the rise of gimmick cards. Gimmick cards such as those with manufactured patches (read: fake patches/jersey's), Logoman, 14 K Gold pieces, letterman's, and rip cards, are popping up left and right. While these cards are fun and might even be collectible, they are a hindrance to creative card design. If you take a look back at some of the insert cards in the late 90's, a lot of the designs were simply beautiful and a sight to behold. Rare cards such as precious metal gems and brilliant 24K are magnificent to feast your eyes upon in person. Gimmick cards are a decoy to placate the masses; they are passed as something collectible and desirable when in fact the cards itself is plain and unimaginative. Gimmick cards has just simply become another justification for card makers to increase the prices to their cards.

5. Rookies and Prospecting - Remember the days that there were only one Michael Jordan rookie card and one Mickey Mantle rookie card. Those cards are now highly collectible and expensive. Fast forward a couple of decades and you can see that each rookie has about at least 20 different "true" rookie cards and another 20 "non-true" rookie cards. One person invest heavily on rookies thinking that they might have the next "Jordan" or Mantle" rookie card, when in fact there are millions of others who are thinking and doing and thinking. The card company is happy to supply of course. However, the numerous rookie cards have turned something that was once collectible into garbage, and the only way that your rookie card will be worth something is if everyone else treats their card like garbage. The problem is that everyone is careful to protect their cards with sleeves and toploaders and pages. However, with the mindset of "the next Jordan", collectors pay premium prices for cards that are essentially worthless. Of course the card makers are happy to oblige. What the collector's are left with rookie cards that are virtually worthless, unless someone attaches an autograph or jersey to them.

The only people to blame for the sad state of the hobby is perhaps the collector's themselves and the card company. The collectors are at fault for always wanting more exclusive products, and the card makers are at fault for their love of money. The future is bleak unless something can be done, but sadly, most likely the hobby will collapse unto itself like a once bright star.