Hello everyone!
Anyone else dealing with hobby-related fatigue? I have recently been making an effort to greatly cut down my collection size and have largely stopped making purchases.
Why?
The increase in products on the market certainly hasn’t helped. Selling top-level base rookie cards doesn’t yield great returns given the increase in cards produced of late and this writer is struggling to find reasons to buy anything other than heavily discounted hobby boxes or just individual cards that pique an interest.
I don’t see myself entirely giving up on buying newer products but until Fanatics calms down, if you will, with new releases, then I could find myself again acquiring cards at the rate I did a few years back.
Now for the rest of Hobby Chatz…
Lone box theory = winner
I was incredibly lucky recently and have an incredibly early nominee for retail pull of the year and it’s not even February. I was recently at a large retail store (they can pay me if they’d like the free advertising) for something necessary and had to stroll down the card aisle to see what was there, as one does. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the selection of mostly retail or mega boxes in the range of $24.99-$59.99 until I found a lone retail box of 2023 Topps Allen and Ginter behind some heavily discounted hockey products.
If you recall from my column from June 25, 2023 titled “Two Friends’ Innovation,” you’ll remember my lone box theory when it comes to buying sports cards from a large retail chain. My impulses have remained the same and I made the purchase. Fortunately for me, there was a nice prize inside.
A rookie Michael Harris II 2023 Topps Allen and Ginter Framed Mini Baseball autograph was in a box filled with solid rookie cards and inserts. Obviously, the Braves’ star rookies signature was the best part of the this transaction but an Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez statue mini insert card (#OI-28) made this collector giggle when he finally realized what the card was.
Overall, the lone box theory provided this collector with another positive experience.
Another column flashback
If you remember my first column with Hobby News Daily from April 7, 2023, you’ll remember that I had purchased a Jadon Sancho 2018 Panini Donruss Rookie PSA 10. That investment has been horrible up to this point but I’m feeling optimistic after Sancho’s recent move to Borussia Dortmund in Germany.
Future of the hobby
With Fanatics now in charge of many aspects within sports cards, the company’s connections to top-level athletes will keep consumers coming back despite creating an influx of products in the marketplace.
Insert the Bowman University Chrome Basketball LeBron James x Bronny James dual autograph. That card alone will bring an influx of non-regular card collectors to a product that normally hangs on the fringes of popularity.
If the James dual autograph doesn’t miraculously end up in your hands, you still have a chance at a Bronny James, Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese autograph. Those three alone make this product better than any previous Bowman University release.
A “random” hobby thought
Where are the Taylor Swift x Travis Kelce cards? I imagine the licensing would be a hurdle but Swift’s audience would surely buy them up like hotcakes.
Adieu
See y’all next month
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