With me or without me....

I continue to purchase sports cards, but I admit I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them. As long as I can sell a few hundred dollars worth of cards every month, and as long as I can afford to buy some boxes, I'm already set up to sell them, after all, and boxes and packs are easy to accommodate in the space afforded and I've all but quit doing anything with singles except sell off my back stock at .50 a card -- whatever they're really worth.

Anything old I sell is pure bonus, and as a result I've actually begun to stockpile boxes from the last five to ten years which undoubtedly have some value inside them -- if anyone cares.

Now that I'm actually checking my blog stats, I realized that not only do some sports card people come here, but that I'm actually included on a couple of blog rolls.

Going to these sites, they are packed with info and news about sports cards, and I realize that this is one of those industries that just keeps going -- with me or without me. With my constant attention, or without my constant attention.

In other words, it's a whole world of collecting of which I've been only distantly aware.

I get the occasional nostalgic wave -- despite all the stress, I enjoyed my time in the sports card market, I enjoyed watching the games and talking to the customers.

But I just couldn't seem to make it work anymore.

I found an online magazine that included a history of sports cards -- ( I could write a history that would accentuate an entirely different slant) -- and a couple of sentences really seemed to stand out.

"As the 80's turned into the 90's"...."Many collectors turned investors found themselves selling at net losses and becoming increasingly disillusioned with the hobby. As a result, several small sports card shops liquidated their supplies and closed their doors."

I absolutely love that: "....several small sports card shops liquidated." Which is a little like saying, "The Titanic sprang a small leak." "The economy lost a few jobs in the Great Recession...." "President Lincoln's evening at the theater was cut short...."

It's interesting the contrast the obvious nostalgia of the writer of the article for the card shops of old:

"To a young collector, the local sports card shop was a paradise of wish list items, good sports banter, and the occasional trade with a fellow collector."

Which is followed later in the article by current state of the market:

"As the new millennium hit and the internet was finding its way into more and more households, eBay ushered in a completely new phase of the baseball card hobby. For the first time in its history, individual collectors decided the true market values of sports cards and memorabilia. Prices that were once updated on a monthly basis now ebbed and flowed in real time similar to a stock market ticker. Baseball card collectors had an opportunity to sell dispensable items from their collection to then purchase other items. Trading forums, websites and blogs have done volumes for the industry by connecting collectors from around the globe to a common meeting place to exchange sports cards and sports memorabilia."

I'm not sure that the classic card shop, and the above online world of cards can co-exist all that well.

Finally, the article blames dishonest dealers, over production, and ever increasing prices as problems -- to which I would add, the mass market, the emphasis on gambling, and the state of "heroes" in sports.

Personally, I have always felt the demise of a sports card market (that I could belong in) came about because of the mass market.

The online market was not only the nail in the coffin, but a whole bucketful of nails -- lining the coffin every centimeter. Don't think that corpse is getting out anytime soon.