The biggest advancement in card making last 20 years?

Ok its 20 years now from the 86 fleer set. Cards have come along a long way since it was released and the earlier years of card making. In a way basketball has lead most of the sports hobbies in coming up with new ideas and production techniques. While borrowing ideas from the other sports and also the non sports sets.

So since we live in the age of high tech carboard whats the most significant and best advancements in the last 20 years then.

I have a clear favourite and underapreciated one to start it off

UV coating. Simply before that cards were matte and prone to fade and lose surface coating. This one advancement was intially thought to be a gimmick but its simply the most usefull idea the card companies have come up with. No longer have cards had to be stored in dark boxes away from an inch of sunlight and can be appreciated without concern that in years they wont resemble the original form of the card. Sometimes the best ideas are the most simple and go unoticed. Now its basically an afterthought and I'm sure most collectors don't even give it a thought that their cards are UV coated mostly.

What else do you think?

Foiling? Embossing? Stamping? Holograms? Prisms? Die Cut? Acetate? Press plates? Wood cards? Thicker 132pt cardboard? Refractors?

Its a long way away from the hobby of the past starting 57 topps to 88 fleer where little change as far as carboard and final product was achieved. Although printing techniques changed the end product was basically a 32pt piece of cardbord with little flare and player pic on the front and stats on the back.

I count the use of jerseys, floor and ball in a seperate catogory.

I wonder what change we will see in the next 20 years or will we see a more stabel period like we saw in the earlier years of the card hobby?

As a purist I'd like it not to go too far with talking cards and ones with video etc. I'd hate to see the death of the common base card.

I'll put out an idea. Game ticket cards with a barcode that admits fans to actual NBA games and to a lesser extent cards hat give your free items at the NBA store etc. While no use to us they could be a big hit.

Barcodes huh??

i'll take the easy answer and say the addition of jersey/patch/ball/wood/auto cards!!

i guess still only in infant stages compared to the hobby overall, but definitely a major change. changed the way of the hobby like nothing else before it, whether it be good or bad.

although, i dont really think they can do much else in terms of memorabilia cards?? i mean, what else can they do that they havent already??

Yuggggg..gameused jock patches!!!!
multi colour !!!

Like I said game used etc are more an add on to the card not part of the card itself in the printing process.

Maybe serial numbered cards....makes it more interesting.

Game used stuff revolutionised the industry. You had people who used to collect, but stopped, think "Geez, these new cards have a piece of a uniform in them' and grab a few, re-igniting the passion to collect (somewhwat).

Autos were always around, to a lesser degree, but the game used stuff was new and exciting.

Serial numbers are a good point. A way of making the same card different and rarer over and over. Its also good to be able to identify the rip off sellers with fake pics of cards on ebay etc and fake box breaks :-P

Again I don't count gu as and advancement in card production. I'm more talking about the cards itself. Pure sportscards without autos and jerseys in them. They do exist you know. ;-)

I would say foil stamping and serial numbering would be 2 of the biggest advances I have seen in the evolution of the humble trading card.

It was only 8-10 years ago that serial numbering came into being, yet most cards these days are "serial numbered". Foil stamping came into being around 92-93 from memory (im happy to be corrected). I still remember some of the hot cards from the years after the introduction of foil stamping were the Hoops 5th anniversary cards or the Topps gold parallel cards. Most companies then jumped on the band wagon and had some sort of foil stamping on their cards.

Another big evolution in the history of the trading card, has been the importance and evolution of the Rookie Card. Many rookie cards up until the late 1990's were generally the first year base cards of the rookie player.

These days its almost uncommon for a rookie card not to be foil stamped or numbered and in quite a few cases most high end rookie cards now are autographed or contain a piece of "game used" (read photo shoot worn) jersey/hat or ball. Not to mention the refractor rookie cards.

Interesting topic!

Cheers
Matt

Futera were well before their time with the serial numbering of cards...and limiting production.
I still have the Beckett from Dec '94 where, in the letters section, Michael Beauchesne (from Australia!!) wrote in and mentioned Futera numbering their inserts and were US manufacturers likely to follow suit?
The reply from Beckett was - "The only insert cards that are currently numbered individually are most randomly inserted autos. There are no major NBA card manufacturers at this time with plans to number insert cards individually."
How long was it until the US card manufacturers caught on??

Di-cut. I love di-cut cards. I know it's nothing extraordinary but they look cool. And holograms. The UD SPX di-cut holograms are one of my favourite all-time insert sets. Then probably autos that are directly signed on the card as in the Greats of the Game set. Definitely beats a sticker or a smaller piece of card inserted into the main card.

Good post!

Not really sure tho, I guess the "what he said" comment comes in to mind. lol.

Hey, what was the set that brought out cards with about 3 seconds of footage when the card was moved? holgrams or something?

I was thinking about this last night, and couldnt remember....

SPx or something?

They were COOOOOL! But I never saw one. Was like 1 card per pack or something...??

I have those topps golden greats cards with game footage on them Mavs. Not a hologram though more just motion card like the old simpsons ones.

And All stars is right. Futera was the first for basketball that i know of unless you count hand numbered cards like the jerry west heros auto etc but thats more an afterthought addition to the card.

How about "inserts".

No-one here can tell me they didnt like the days with "1 insert per pack" and insert hot packs. I woul dheva to say 94-95 Fleer probably have my favorite range of inserts!!!

I think Holograms and Refractors brought me back into the hobby. They just made the cards look a whole lot nicer with the added effects

i agree withthe first post and say UV coating is the most "important" advancement...

as for most interesting...flashy sells...holograms, refractors etc etc

SHINEY!!!

I'm going to go with Refractors.
Maybe a strange choice, but I think the Refractors that were inserted into the 93-94 Finest Set were pivotal in the development of the hobby.
Those refractors were so highly sought after that card companies became aware of the power of the insert - which led of course to parallels like the collector's choice signature cards, to autos, game used, serially numbered cards etc.
The Refractors were a big change to the actual cards themselves, which is what I think this topis is about.
I don't know as much about the Hobby as many here, but I can't think of any major developments with actual cards themelves before then.

One advancement that I don't think has been mentioned and affects common cards is Upper Decks hologram security. Imagine if these had been on 1986 Fleer Jordan RC's....it would have been a lot harder to make counterfeits.

My vote is for jersey cards. Foil, numbering, refractors, even autos is all still part of the card to me; embedding an new element, the jersey swatch, was a big step up.

One advancement that I don't think has been mentioned and affects common cards is Upper Decks hologram security. Imagine if these had been on 1986 Fleer Jordan RC's....it would have been a lot harder to make counterfeits.

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Hit the nail on the head All-Star. Probably as significant as the UV coating. The start of fraud protection? I think it was more a quality gimmick in the early days though.
Next to these would be the foil-tech stuff that spruced up the insert card. I personally loved the 94-95 Fleer "All-Star" insert set with the Basketball texture background. Made me want to crack open packs just searching for them!

chadjaja® said:

UV coating. Simply before that cards were matte and prone to fade and lose surface coating. This one advancement was intially thought to be a gimmick but its simply the most usefull idea the card companies have come up with. No longer have cards had to be stored in dark boxes away from an inch of sunlight and can be appreciated without concern that in years they wont resemble the original form of the card. Sometimes the best ideas are the most simple and go unoticed. Now its basically an afterthought and I'm sure most collectors don't even give it a thought that their cards are UV coated mostly.

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I agree with you Chad. I mean I only think of UV coating as an afterthought. I don't realise how much it has aided cards, as I um largely unaware of condition sensitive vintage cards, that you would be more aware of.

Others??? - I'd say inserts, especially 94/95 which fuelled the boom, where we were basically guaranteed an insert per pack.