Past is epilogue

I was already intending to write the following blog before I heard this morning that Upper Deck was no longer going to be making football cards.

Since they also aren't making baseball and basketball cards, they're toast. It would be like a music store not selling rock and roll, country western, and classical. Or a book store not selling mysteries, science fiction, or romance. A game store not selling board games, card games or toys.

Possible, but not likely.

As I mentioned before -- and this is said in the most sarcastic of tones -- it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. This company was emblematic of all that was wrong in the sports card industry. I think they were crooks. Certainly short term thinkers. I didn't like them much.

So there is justice and karma after all.

Anyway, to tie this back to what I was originally going to write:

I gleaned two nuggets of vital information from the latest Internal Correspondence, which is the de facto trade publication for the game and comic industry. Try to catch the jarring contradiction.

First this:

"Magic the Gathering continued to surge in mass (market) in Q4 as the retail environment for collectible games remains a dynamic one...

"Mass merchants' share of the total Magic business is the highest it's ever been..."

O.K. Keep that thought in mind.

Now this:

"...the environment for collectible games at mass is changing. The biggest immediate factor is thr recent rapid decline in sports card business and in the number of sports SKUs, which affects the space for games because they're often near each other due to their similar formats.

"The sports cards business is down 35%.

"As a result, space allocated to sports is declining, and space allocated to games and entertainment is increasing."


Do you see the fly in the ointment? Is it obvious only to me?

You know, there was great fanfare 20 years ago when the sports card market expanded in the mass market. About how good it was for the hobby -- bigger exposure and all. They kept saying that as my sales disappeared... It was self evident it was NOT helping.

And as the hobby shops disappeared, and the mass market became the biggest seller of cards, the hobby disintegrated. Now the mass market is jettisoning the sports cards, and there are very very few cards shops left to pick up the slack. There are really only two card companies left who are viable: Topps and Panini. (Hell, there were three companies before the boom started: Topps, Donruss, and Fleer...followed by Pinnicle, and Score, and Upper Deck and Pacific and....and.....all defunct.)

I mean, it really fell apart.

It's all but gone.

So, what? The game industry is now determined to follow in those footsteps?

You know, because it worked so well for sports cards...?!

The gullibility and naivete of the game stores is astounding.

Oh, I already know what they'll say. They'll maintain that having play space and service and knowledge and blah, blah, blah will keep their businesses viable. Because, you know, it works so well to have the mass market sell the product cheaper, while you keep doing all the things that cost money but don't bring in money.....

Did I mention the mass market will sell the product cheaper? Because you know your customers are going to be willing to pay an extra 20% or 30% and 40% and 50% because they LIKE you and APPRECIATE YOU. They would never actually go buy the product cheaper from the mass market and still come and use your space and services.

They would NEVER do that!

So I just want to say, Past meet the Future....Future meet the Past. Be sure not to learn anything from each other....