Yeah, Blowout might be the new high school we have to go to. Somebody has to teach those kids that cards are not an investment. We don't have portfolios here. We have collections. And some of our favorite cards are probably still worth less than a dollar.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Yeah, it's been a joy to frequent a space where the love of cards (as opposed to purely their monetary value) was always the driving factor.

I've truly enjoyed my interactions with the one-and-dones, the short-timers, the here for a year-or-twos, and most of all, the long term die-hards. Thanks especially to the Toser family (better friends than them the non-sport card hobby never had), the many contributors to the magazine over the years, and the Forum moderator(s).

I won a couple of contests here, gave away some promos, made some trades, and actually once met a fellow member in person (John Tirohn in the SDCC parking garage, by pure happenstance). I already regretted never making it to the Card Talk dinner in San Diego all those years, and now I do even more so. I'm based near L.A., but I've always wanted to get to the Philly show. Hopefully, I will do that someday soon and can meet a couple more of you there. I'll be wearing a badge that says "chesspieceface".

In the meantime, the Blowout Cards forum has a non-sports section and breakdowns thread, and although it doesn't (and can't) approach the breadth and depth of subjects found here, it's definitely better than than nothing.

You have all always been my kind of people.
Take care.

Reading this has made me sad. I have learned a lot of information and received a lot of help from Card Talk members over the past 20 years

Is there a way we could gather some donations and send them to Harris (Venmo, PayPal) that he could use to keep the site running for a month or so? We could then look into different options, such as setting up a GoFundMe or Kickstarter

Also, there have to be card companies, entertainment companies, and sketch artists that benefit from Card Talk. How about somebody or someone offering a special promo card for sale, with the money going to Harris?

I would gladly pay now to save CardTalk for a special promo at some point

Harris, please keep us updated on what is happening and what we can all do to help.

Andy

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
The expense is more than I can reasonably take on personally, but it may be manageable if enough members want to help preserve the forum.

Card Talk has given me much enjoyment over the years. I would pledge $50 to extending it for another year.

Are there 19 other people who feel the same? Or 38 who can pledge $25?

Just waiting for Harris to tell us if it’s even possible.

I would pledge $50, but as the zero hour nears, is there time to save our beloved Card Talk?
Card Talk has been a big part of my life for over 25 years. It introduced me a number of like-minded friends all over the world. I will continue to see many of them at the Chicago show, and some on Face Book, and I'll always keep in touch with Harris. He gave me my writing job at Non Sport Update, best job I ever I had, based on my writing on Card Talk.
We had fun too, remember the "Killer Ants Christmas"? A twisted holiday tale that makes "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" look like a work by Shakesphere.
I will miss Card Talk, and the people on it, but we lost NSU already and that was a hard one.
In closing I want to thank Harris and his family for all they have done to keep Card Talk alive.It was a Great Run!

Harris, I've reached out to you via email. Please let me know the details and I'll do as much as I can on my end. Thanks.

I would match that, Bill. The store I work at is closing. When the district manager, head of regional HR, and regional VP, came to tell us the store was closing, they told us not to be sad (yeah, sure, none of them has to wonder how they will be making money the rest of the year with the holidays) and everyone was going to have a place to go. Yesterday, I got a notice in the mail from the company to tell us that they were going to TRY to place everyone. With all that, I will still come up with $50 if it can save the forum for more time until something more longterm could be figured out.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
The expense is more than I can reasonably take on personally, but it may be manageable if enough members want to help preserve the forum.

Card Talk has given me much enjoyment over the years. I would pledge $50 to extending it for another year.

Are there 19 other people who feel the same? Or 38 who can pledge $25?

I pledge the full remainder needed, but would need the Forum to be renamed after me, naturally.

I will also pledge $50 to keep the forum going
But herein lies the fishook.
I notice that there are over 2700 guests on now who will be getting this on the backs of donors is there any way to keep guests out or make them pay as they do not give any input.
And are you going to start a site that we can donate to

I will pledge $50 also.
But what about all the looker ons surely some of them can also put something in.Will you be starting a site to take the pledges .I think that I have asked this in another post is this an annual pledge or a onecer

I'd certainy put some money in, but probably too late. We needed 12 months to get the pledges in and sort out ownership/rules etc. We should have thought about this site and it's future, once the magazine closed.

Hey all....it's pretty heartening to see the interest here and offers of donation!

Being realistic.....

- While I see several overs of donations and specifically, $50 donations, do you think we could actually get that to $1,000?

- Don't forget, we would have to do this every year!. Is that realistic?

- Being totally honest, I am not sure I want to be the one to lead this effort, and especially do so every year.

- While I've heard that Beckett/Collectors are not interested in continuing to pay for the forum, I still have not gotten the green light that they have said we could retain ownership. So that's definitely a hurdle! As posted above, Matt has been in touch and I've asked him about it since he's still an employee.

- Time is running out. I will not be around much today at all and will only have limited time tomorrow.

So with all of that, I am not sure where things stand.

Harris

Say it ain't so...

Thank you to the Tosers for running this site.

I always thought someday I would dig deeper into some of the threads, particularly the ones with trading lists.

I told myself that I was not posting to Card Talk again because I already said my goodbyes. I will miss it, but I did stop before, so I expect I won't go into withdrawal. For the record, I too would have been happy to kick in for a subscription but honestly, I didn't think it was a viable plan. Technically I don't know if you could reclaim the forum as it is and I don't know who would do it. Financially I don't know how much it would cost, not just as a hosting fee, but also as maintenance, privacy and security. I don't know if $1,000 is a bargain or a rip off and I don't know what exactly it buys or for how long. There are too many unknowns and too little time. I would be happy to be proven wrong, but I see this as an ending and it was an outstanding run that all the Card Talk contributors should be proud of, which brings me to what I think is my final comments directed at those fine card experts on Blowout.

Bill, I saw that you started a topic about Card Talk turning off on Blowout. Certainly none of them would have mentioned it. I'm not joining up, so I can say what I want. What a bunch of JERKS! I hope some of them will read this before it goes away and tell each other. The discourse over there would be massively improved by a migration of Card Talk regulars. Instead, some wise guy is worried about "grandpas who can't post pictures" joining their boards. Somebody else is advising how to sell cards on the forums. I am not surprised, those attitudes are why I stayed here among actual card collectors, even while my own specialty has been in autograph cards.

So let me remind the clowns on Blowout, you are selling your cards to card collectors. Those "grandpas" know more about this hobby then you will ever know. They know what is and what isn't a scam. And what's more important to you, they have the valued card collections and the money to afford them that you can only hope to acquire. So what's funny is not Card Talkers, it's you. Blowout should welcome any displaced regulars that are willing to lower their standards and give them a try because they are not the inferior ones, it's the other way round.

And now that I have burned that bridge, I really am signing off. If anything drastic changes someone will tell me, but I can't keep saying this is my last Card Talk post, so this is my last post. Happy Halloween and best of luck to you all. It's been a blast.