I put spend more! I have already spent more money this Jan. Then in the last eight years. It's fun getting back into it.

quote:

I was looking forward to the DR Who set but I got a bad break, and that's kinda put me off. For every win, there seems to be 4 or 5 disappointments; the manufacturers need to manage collectors expectations better I feel.

I feel the same way. I lost interest in the DC sets when Cryptozoic decided to make them chromium and substantially increase the price, and I moved countries so culled anyway. But I was excited by Topps Star Wars High Tek. Then they stuffed it - no real promotion, too many sets, unclear what was in what and my 3 case purchase was generally a dud. So I am not sure what I will do next.

Spending more, considering I spent almost nothing on non-sports cards in 2015, Was getting burned out with the slew of releases related to the TV shows I liked.

I'm going to get back into it by getting the sets with binders and all from my early collecting days that I missed. Mostly comic book stuff, but now I see they are making a new BTVS card set. Don't know how I'm going to be able to resist that.

Eventually I will also go back and finish some of my TV card sets and may slowly look into getting the ones I missed. Definitely staying away from boxes and cases though. Thats going to drive me crazy and broke.

Time to stir the pot...

You may want to add vintage cards to the survey.

Decline is due to short-term thinking.
Major contributors:
Premium packs
Pricing kids(& their parents) out
No longer guaranteed base set per box

Have fun!

quote:

Originally posted by xtime:
You may want to add vintage cards to the survey.

That's a good idea, many collectors have gone back to older cards to fill in gaps rather than pursue newer releases.

Unfortunately there is no way to alter the survey questions now without erasing all the voting. I think that next year, if I start this thread again, or whoever decides to start it, should add vintage cards or at least older sets to the choices.

Only you have to be careful when you just say vintage, because collectors always disagree about the timeline. Some think pre-1950s, some think pre-1970s, some think pre-1990s and some just think older than 10 years. Trading cards have evolved so much even from only 5 years ago, I don't think we really have meaningful names for the periods. It's just vintage and modern, but modern from 15 years ago is not what they are producing as a modern card now.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Only you have to be careful when you just say vintage, because collectors always disagree about the timeline.

...and in my experience there are some out there who consider anything older than Twilight or Breaking Bad to be either "old school", vintage or otherwise uncollectable. Which makes me feel both decrepid and sublimely happy!!

Hi all.
Been away for a while...

Anyways, I voted as follows:

Less Money

Autographs primarily.

I said 'No' for demand because last time I checked in (A long while back) quite a few people (mostly for money reasons) were cutting back their sets, trading off a lot of free stuff.

I've recently come back after the release of American Horror Story American Horror Story and Bates Motel Bates Motel releases.

The last set I collected was The Big Bang Theory The Big Bang Theory but I was quite disappointed with the repetition of the post Season 1&2 sets.

I'm always working on my Charmed Charmed master sets. Seeing a few super rare collectable items related to the set going up online so that's got me pretty excited.

As for spending less money this is because:

(1) My new job is more fulfilling but pays less.

(2) Sadly I don't buy boxes anymore because the shipping and import to the UK from the US doesn't justify the face value of the box and the possible lower value contents thereof.
Currently I'm picking up reasonably priced autographs and costume-auto cards here and there from various sets.

Had considered working on a new promo set but that is a slippery slope my friends.

I know it's February but hope you all have a good 2016.

I think I will end up spending more because I didn't really spend that much last year (although last year's total would probably surprise me).

I buy mostly older promo cards now. I pick up cards that fill in blanks in a set started years ago (MAD, Disney/Suncoast cels, etc.) and anything I like that seems to be a good deal.

I used to buy 3-4 boxes/year but my most recent box purchase was Topps 75th Anniversary - might buy a box of that new Space 1999, though. For a teenager in the late 70's the show was a bit dull on average but it had a couple of interesting episodes.

Some of the recent sketch cards are true works of art but many look like they resulted from a contest of how many cards could be done in an hour. I have Dark Horse signing cards with better sketches and those artists really did spend only a few minutes per card. Creating caricatures is itself an art form but many sketches appear to be lazily mocking, or worse, misunderstanding the subject rather than celebrating it. For that reason I haven't gotten into sets with that kind of chase card (or at least I wasn't interested in the set because of that).

I think it's pointless to try to figure out what will be worth money in the future because the likelihood is that few will see any value in things made of cardboard no matter how "rare" they are. The advice to collect only what you like has never been more sound than today. Your hobby should be for fun - the antidote or at least the partial offset to the daily grind.

As for demand for non-sport cards increasing or decreasing, card collecting is generally seen as something your parents and grandparents did so it's an uphill battle to try to bring new people into the hobby as older collectors leave one way or another. When I was a teenager, I bought Star Wars and Moonraker cards with each one featuring a still from a scene I could run in my mind. Now, even James Bond motion cards seem static to a modern-day kid who can watch scenes or a whole movie on his phone.

Even in my case I lost interest in cards after starting college, getting back into them when my brother and I stopped in a tiny, temporary card shop near his apartment that had the then-new Star Wars Widevision cards. I dropped out of active card collecting again by the mid-2000's but got back into it again over the past couple of years. I've heard of other people who dropped out of card collecting and got back into it later - probably fewer people like that these days.

Still, I think card collecting will continue to appeal to that certain percentage of the population who thinks fondly of simpler times and there could be a time in the future when card collecting catches some wave of popularity triggered by some cultural event. Maybe the kids of today have no interest in Mom or Dad's boxes of cards but their kids might get a kick out of the things Grandpa or Great-Grandma collected.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: catskilleagle,