General concensus: GU is dead. So what of the hobby?

[hsv006]

Lets face it lads....card companies are there to make money and how do they do that...
By giving the majority of collectors what they want most.
Back in the late 90s game used were highly valued so it was only natural to keep on pumping them out...(maybe in excess some would say)
Ive seen boxes of cards sit at the local shop here at a fraction of the price they were years ago..still very few people want them .
Why....weve become so used to that gaurenteed hit or 3 per box/pack its unheard of to cough up $$ and not get something.

Time will tell on what direction this great hobby of ours will take.

 

[RareAirShoes]

good ol' fashioned card design with creative themes (eg letter chronology) have always been eagerly accepted. It doesnt have to use GU or even an AUTO, it begins with great design and quality.
I am beginning to really look outside of the usual square for other cards that i can add to my collection.

 

[jimboiitmac]

well your not wrong and it's a pressing issue that many people have brought up. i wonder what they do...

 

[chadjaja]

Its already 1994 again imo.

High end products have killed the hobby, over production once again. Now unless its a patch with colours its worthless. Bird and Magic gu's fetch $2-5. Its trickled down and the cards of the last few years have all taken big hits. Even high end is cheap these days.

If I can buy an exquisite RC auto of a Celtic with multi colour patch what hope is there for any of the other RC's from cheaper product that the player will have??

The bubble has already burst as far as i'm concerned. People no long collect commons and autos and gu sell for what commons used to.

An alarming similarity imo. Hopefully it matters less to collectors that collect because they enjoy collecting because if you think about the value of the cards and their long term future its pretty bleak.

And this from me a guy in the hobby for a long time :-(

 

[33WING]

Its already 1994 again imo.

High end products have killed the hobby, over production once again. Now unless its a patch with colours its worthless. Bird and Magic gu's fetch $2-5. Its trickled down and the cards of the last few years have all taken big hits. Even high end is cheap these days.

If I can buy an exquisite RC auto of a Celtic with multi colour patch what hope is there for any of the other RC's from cheaper product that the player will have??

The bubble has already burst as far as i'm concerned. People no long collect commons and autos and gu sell for what commons used to.

An alarming similarity imo. Hopefully it matters less to collectors that collect because they enjoy collecting because if you think about the value of the cards and their long term future its pretty bleak.

And this from me a guy in the hobby for a long time :-(

I agree that the bubble has burst and we have seen this trend right here on this site with the so called high end Exquisite becoming quite worthless unless it has a pretty colored patch. The over production of players such as Bird & Magic just to name a couple are killing the hobby. I remember a few years back that these two players and a few other legends fetched a high price for auto & memorabilia cards until more & more were being released. I can see this trend happening with Bill Russell.

I don't want to sound like a certain player collector on here and preach my obsession about my player choice but I'm glad that Patrick Ewing no longer has any cards produced for this very reason, not only do I save money but my PC keeps it's value or maybe even an increase in value.:v:

 

[chadjaja]

I used to think the same way. They Havlicek signed for more releases, then he is in this years exquisite etc etc.

Don't even get me started on Parish autos. Its only been really 2-3 years since he STARTED signing and now his auto is worth jack even the low numbered stuff that used to fetch $50US. Not only are the new cards of his lowly valued but the older stuff now is going for $2 and up too.

I hope for you Ewing doesnt start down the same road in amount of signings.

After all this I still cant' get an Eddie House or James Posey Celts gu or auto despites their play for us in winning a title yet the same players get gu's and autos over and over. A whole season has come and gone yet nothing.

I'm glad I've invested in Russell vintage over Russell autos more now. A few years ago people told me I was made to do so.

 

[Yawnie]

some great points made, when i regained an interest in collecting, the first thing i did was buy a box of topps from westriot, then went and collected a beckett from a newsagency.

the first thing i noticed was an abudance of different products, in fact i had no idea when to buy and what was good. so basically i decided to collect nice looking cards from my favourite team, the idea of collecting cards of favourite players was crazy to me considering how many low numbered/parallel cards there were.

i hope card companies listed to their customers and seriously consider the direction and future of cards they produce.

 

[nenjabin]

Its already 1994 again imo.

High end products have killed the hobby, over production once again. Now unless its a patch with colours its worthless. Bird and Magic gu's fetch $2-5. Its trickled down and the cards of the last few years have all taken big hits. Even high end is cheap these days.

If I can buy an exquisite RC auto of a Celtic with multi colour patch what hope is there for any of the other RC's from cheaper product that the player will have??

The bubble has already burst as far as i'm concerned. People no long collect commons and autos and gu sell for what commons used to.

An alarming similarity imo. Hopefully it matters less to collectors that collect because they enjoy collecting because if you think about the value of the cards and their long term future its pretty bleak.

And this from me a guy in the hobby for a long time :-(

Like Leigh I agree the bubble has finally burst. It was in the bursting process I believe when this thread was first opened, but now it is done. There's just far too much product out there period. If they cut the number of sets in half then suddenly there are half the number of each of these repeated players, and yes it stinks that they don;t go with new players that arn;t legends. They keep adding new cards of older, retired guys, but as you mentioned, no Posey or House in Boston. If you're not a rookie or a starter, you might as well not be in the league as far as cards are cocerned...mind you, Stromile Swift got a guernsey in Exquisite, as did Shaun Livingston

 

[jimboiitmac]

I used to think the same way. They Havlicek signed for more releases, then he is in this years exquisite etc etc.

Don't even get me started on Parish autos. Its only been really 2-3 years since he STARTED signing and now his auto is worth jack even the low numbered stuff that used to fetch $50US. Not only are the new cards of his lowly valued but the older stuff now is going for $2 and up too.

I hope for you Ewing doesnt start down the same road in amount of signings.

After all this I still cant' get an Eddie House or James Posey Celts gu or auto despites their play for us in winning a title yet the same players get gu's and autos over and over. A whole season has come and gone yet nothing.

I'm glad I've invested in Russell vintage over Russell autos more now. A few years ago people told me I was made to do so.

i agree with you about the players mate, as a Miami fan there are cards i wanted to pick up of Posey and even the rare J-Will from Miami days in the 2006 season and just couldn't find them anywhere.

they should not produce the current quantity of player auto's, but spread the players more to make collections more extensive instead of the same 50 or so players always making the headlines in terms of cards.

 

[dickyKnee]

Further evidence that the hobby is evolving, a Bill Russell 1/1 auto (on a manufactured patch granted) went for $150. A Russell 1/1!!!! Sure the manufactured patch turns a lot of us away but still its a 1/1 of one of the top 5 players of all time! The death of the manufactured patch already?

07-08 TOPPS LETTERMAN BILL RUSSELL AUTO LETTER "R" 1/1 - eBay (item 170263773028 end time Sep-25-08 17:55:54 PDT)

 

[A_Iverson_I]

That's topps letterman for ya...... those things are selling for pennies!!

 

[jimboiitmac]

Which is devastating, Bill Russell autographed 1/1 going for $150. That's a disgrace.

 

[chadjaja]

Well its not high end anymore. How can it be when everyone here alone has 50 1/1s of their own, logomen and 16 colour patch cards. Fewer cards are high end now because the above is close to the norm and anything else is dirt cheap.

So a Russ auto 1/1 is now mainstream?? Just about.

 

[Dr. Curlytek]

1/1 must surely mean different things from different products. If a product contains about 10,000 1/1's, most or all with manufactured patches, then are these still to be considered 1/1's? I don't think they should come into the same category as say an Exquisite 1/1, or whatever other product that has a more reasonable number of 1/1's coming out of it. I guess that Topps are just feeding the market based on what sellers on ebay are doing...by advertising every possible serial number as a 1/1 (first card, last card, jersey number, Dream Team number, players lucky number etc etc.), giving the "flippers" what they can most easily sell to the detriment of the collectors.

And these 14 carat Gold cards...surely they are being searched out of the supply chain at some stage, by weight or by detection, or have Topps protected against this?

 

[chadjaja]

Well money has value. People want more but just look at other countries. If you simply print more you devalue your whole economy.

Simply put to show the current state of this hobby.

 

[Matt26]

I have to say when I picked up this card on ebay (see below) I immediatley thought of this thread!

Dantley Chronology GU #/99

Winning bid:

0.25c

I think this answers the question for me!

Cheers
Matt

 

[chadjaja]

If you want to flip it I'll give ya 50 cents LOL

 

[Matt26]

Make it 0.60 and we have deal....LOL

 

[jimboiitmac]

Well money has value. People want more but just look at other countries. If you simply print more you devalue your whole economy.

Simply put to show the current state of this hobby.

Exactly.

It's just like regular economic activity.

 

[suihon]

Speaking of economic activity.. It could be that bball card collecting for many is considered a luxury and with the current economic climate the way it is, perhaps the biggest customer base (USA) are just not willing to spend lost of $$ on bball cards anymore. Getting off topic I think.