Monday, January 19, 2009

3rd Blog Bat Around: CARD WARS

The 3rd Blog Bat Around, hosted on this occasion by Fielder's Choice , is to expound upon the future of card collecting. Well, in a phrase ... in a collecting galaxy far, far away ...

I hope to impart some sensibility by seeking a person of wisdom ...

While it would be ideal that the card collecting universe be a peaceful and harmonious place, the reality is that there is and always will be an evil empire ...Er, um ... no, not that EMPIRE ...
ahhh, yes ... the very topp EMPIRE and the one in the upper deck of the chancellery ...
... and the one we count on for other aspects of the hobby - like the Perenial Systematic Active grading companies who decide the value of some cards ...

... yes, to rule the EMPIRE that produces the cards and want to ... produce ALL the cards -

and make us prisoners of the hobby ...

We need a Champions who will look out for us ... we, the collectors ...

... some one to help us ... guide us ... rescue us ...

... someone to strike back ... with a bat ... or a blog ... an all around saviour ...
... after all, if there is no future ... what good is the past ... ?

As a historian I have seen many phenomena come full circle. Card collecting is not different. It began with tobacco cards - surely not meant for children (although with the tobacco companies you never know). The product was first marketed toward adults - primarily men.

And so it seems it has progressed toward a return to using tobacco brand and style - back to the men (no offense ladies) who spend money on this hobby ... cum business ... cum fiasco.

If I could dictate a doctrine to govern the next ten years of card collecting - I would suggest the following draconian laws:

1. Limit all companies to two (2) sets per sport each year.

2. Limit the gimmicks - autographs, game-used, or any other inserts to one per set. - One of the sets may contain either parallels, autograph, numbered or memorabilia, but only one.

3. If a company makes two sets of the sport, one can be a full size set, the other must be less than 200 cards in total number.

4. Only two companies - maximum - can produce any one sport. So, there would be only 4 baseball sets per years - 4 football sets, 4 hockey, etc. - period !

5. No player should have more than 4 cards made in a year - unless there is a historic or monumental record to feature.

6. Card sets may have subsets - ones that inform, educate and entertain - (examples in the recent Allen & Ginter series may serve as nice templates.) These may reflect trends, either historical or manufacturing.

I hope that these ideas from ALL the bloggers will have some sort of influence over the future of card collecting. Thus the piles of cards remain intrinsically more than three peas in a pod ...

3 comments:

Jeffrey Wolfe said...

Some good ideas and I love the humor in the post it was great.

Steve Gierman said...

Nice post! We share some of the same core ideas.

Could that be why my word verification was "logicul"?

Dave said...

Great stuff with the Star Wars cards. I'd be pretty bored with only 4 baseball card sets per year though, and I think the card companies would lose a lot of money...