Saw this posted on another forum:

https://www.previewsworld.com/...rogram-for-Retailers

Seems like we may be seeing cards in comic shops again soon. . .

I wonder if some of The Mandalorian Season 2 promo cards will be hard to get?

regards

John

Mandalorian is ridiculously popular, so I hope this is a great launch, and I hope that means the promos are easy to get. . . but who knows.

I haven't been in a comic shop in quite a while so I wouldn't even know where to go to ask about getting these. Looks like I have a couple of months to figure it out if I want to try to chase some down.

Just Topps? Not going to grow the hobby if all we get is the same three Topps licenses.

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:
Just Topps? Not going to grow the hobby if all we get is the same three Topps licenses.

I noticed that. At least it is a start, maybe if it catches on other manufacturers will get on board too.

Upper Deck with all the Marvel licenses seems like an obvious choice for releases in comic shops. . .

Crypto with DC too, although I'm not sure what is on Crypto's release calendar for cards.

Is this going to be like old times when Comics and Magazines had a promo card in them .
Or just promo cards being sent to Comic Shops to get them back into selling cards and card related items .
If neither of these how is it going to work

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:
Just Topps? Not going to grow the hobby if all we get is the same three Topps licenses.

To be fair other companies do produce promo's. Topps, nowadays, hardly ever do.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:
Just Topps? Not going to grow the hobby if all we get is the same three Topps licenses.

I noticed that. At least it is a start, maybe if it catches on other manufacturers will get on board too.

Upper Deck with all the Marvel licenses seems like an obvious choice for releases in comic shops. . .

Crypto with DC too, although I'm not sure what is on Crypto's release calendar for cards.

That would be great to see some Marvel trading cards by Upper Deck, but they don’t see to be interested in producing entry level Marvel products. And since comic shops seem to be hesitant to carry trading cards to begin with, it’s hard to imagine shops picking up mid-tier and high end products for fear of the packs just sitting on the shelves. But I think comic shops could do okay with products like Fleer Ultra and Fleer Metal if the packs retail around the same price as a new comic book in the $2.99 - $3.99 range.

Conversely, I have notice some comic shops carrying Cryptozoic’s DC Bombshells vinyl figures and packs in the past. Maybe if Cryptozoic can do some type of collaboration with the figures and cards again with the program.

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:
Just Topps? Not going to grow the hobby if all we get is the same three Topps licenses.

To be fair other companies do produce promo's. Topps, nowadays, hardly ever do.

I wasn't actually talking about promos. I meant packs/boxes/cases.

The fact that people are actually excited that cards might come back to comic shops shows how quickly dying the non sports industry is. Talk about hitching your saddle to a dead horse.
Non sports need to come back to convenience stores for things to get better.

quote:

Originally posted by Studio-Hades:
The fact that people are actually excited that cards might come back to comic shops shows how quickly dying the non sports industry is. Talk about hitching your saddle to a dead horse.
Non sports need to come back to convenience stores for things to get better.

So true -- the expansion of the hobby to a more accessible area with more exposure is a horrible thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Studio-Hades:
The fact that people are actually excited that cards might come back to comic shops shows how quickly dying the non sports industry is. Talk about hitching your saddle to a dead horse.
Non sports need to come back to convenience stores for things to get better.

Topps is already at Target with Star Wars, Garbage Pail Kids, and WWE. I remember seeing WWE at Walmart, but not positive about Star Wars and GPK though. I went to Target over the weekend and I didn’t see any packs nor blaster boxes just empty shelves
If this program’s products are priced reasonably and has some comic shop exclusivities then it could be pretty good for collectors that frequent local comic shops.

quote:

Originally posted by Studio-Hades:
Non sports need to come back to convenience stores for things to get better.

I know you are talking about expanded access to non-sport cards in common places, but what exactly do you mean by convenience stores. Big box stores like Target and Walmart? Dollar discount stores? Drug stores? Supermarkets? Corner grocery stores? Newspaper stands? Gas stations?

Depending on your neighborhood, the retail landscape can be very different. I'm old enough and have lived in a large metro area long enough to remember a time when sports cards, Topps in particular, could be found in all those places more often then not. That is not true now and hasn't been true for a long time.

The neighborhood "candy store" is gone. Food, drink, newspapers and lotto are sold in corner grocery stores that are often better called bodegas in NY, regardless of the specific culture. They sell many things, but they don't sell trading cards of any kind. I also haven't seen trading cards in a gas station since I can't remember when.

We all know about the retail boxes and packs that can be found at the big box stores. All limited titles, mainly sports, and no hobby editions. Drug stores generally have a small card display and sometimes they can be found in chain dollar stores. If there are any non-sports cards in the mix, they often of the Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh Oh variety. Even in times when trading cards were common, it was always harder to find non-sport, so now its really hard.

So that convenience store structure isn't present where I am and the only place I can even find non-sport titles that I collect is in what remains of the hobby and sports memorabilia stores, which is very few, as are comic book stores. I have virtually one place to obtain non-sport hobby boxes now.

If Diamond can coax comic book stores into buying and trying entertainment cards, that is a bigger positive step then trying to get small food stores or other individual small outlets to buy into it. Then it would be up to us as consumers to actually go to those stores and buy non-sport cards so that they make money, rather than look on eBay anyway and not support local places taking the chance. We have to get off the internet to make any change in local economy.

And I don't think we are really going to do that, given the way the hobby has evolved.

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:

Topps is already at Target with Star Wars, Garbage Pail Kids, and WWE. I remember seeing WWE at Walmart, but not positive about Star Wars and GPK though. I went to Target over the weekend and I didn’t see any packs nor blaster boxes just empty shelves
If this program’s products are priced reasonably and has some comic shop exclusivities then it could be pretty good for collectors that frequent local comic shops.

You can get Star Wars and GPK as well -- people were hunting the GPK blasters earlier this year apparently they were very hard to find in the stores and would sell out fast. Walking Dead was available in stores for a long time too.

Also keep in mind that entertainment cards were available everywhere because they sold with the 'newsstand' model of distribution. . .

The companies that stocked the magazine racks also stocked the cards. More importantly the sales were guaranteed -- any unsold boxes could be returned -- returned boxes were blacked out with a large black ink mark or X on the lid. Unsold magazines could also be returned -- typically with the covers torn off.

I don't see trading card manufacturers or newsstand stockers returning to these models for trading cards. I have no idea if magazines are still treated this way -- it has been many years since I had to tear the covers off stacks of magazines that were being returned.

Plus you have to realize that when we are talking about a time when you could find trading cards in various local places, they were almost always the sport cards of the current playing season, they were overproduced in the millions, a pack cost 50 cents or less and there was no such thing as a premium hit.

This is a bygone era that no longer exists and hardcore card collectors, who now demand premium hits and rarity in their collections, wouldn't even want it.

What happened to the card hobby and hobby related stores of all stripes is the internet, pure and simple. I can still remember talking to local dealers that I saw regularly at weekend shows telling me how they could make more money selling from home then they made at the table that day. That was the beginning of the end for shows.

Card and comic book stores were in walking distance of each other. You could hit 3 a day if you wanted and they were all making money in the mid 80's to the mid 90's, even though many were run poorly by the owners, who often were not good businessmen, but were cashing in on the popular wave. Only for awhile though, because the prices got too high, the production too much and the long time card collectors started to sell their collections, plummeting demand and values. By the late 90's all those badly run hobby stores began to close. In another few years, the good ones would start to go, unable to compete with the wide range of cards offered on eBay and the cut rate prices of people who did not have any overhead.

As long as the majority of card collectors can use the internet to get exactly what they want, they aren't going to need local card or comic book stores. They will say they wish they had them, but they won't spend enough to keep them in business. They will say they want retail cards, but they will buy the hobby boxes. Diamond is trying to promote entertainment cards using the only connection they have and its a welcome try in a losing battle. There are many reasons why the card hobby is where it is today and its not going to go back.

There was a time when almost every comic book sold had to be distributed through Diamond.
With the exception of those few underground publications that popped up every so often, Diamond had a hand in ALL comic books.
That all changed in June of 2020 when DC severed ties with Diamond and found another distributor.
I am not 100% sure how that is going. I am not a comic book guy. But I would think that it had some effect on Diamond's bottom line.
I see this new deal with Topps, and maybe other non-sport trading card companies in the future, as a way to try and make up some of that lost revenue with the loss of the DC distribution deal.
I don't know if this will be good or bad for the ultimate non-sport card collector. We will have to see how it goes. But any time you have a new player in the game, especially one with a huge bankroll, you kind of have to think it is going to be bad for the small guy.
We shall see.

quote:

Originally posted by cubby5454:
But any time you have a new player in the game, especially one with a huge bankroll, you kind of have to think it is going to be bad for the small guy.

Interesting insight -- who is the 'small guy' you are referring to?

At first I thought you were referring to entertainment card dealers, and maybe you are . . . My first thought after that was -- it seems like 90% of card dealers have gone out of business, and it least in my area there is literally no brick and mortar location I can go to reliably get cards. From that perspective it really can't get worse.

There is a comic shop close to me, if they carried cards I'd go in there and buy some. In theory that could pull business away from the dealers I buy from online, but in my personal situation that wouldn't impact anything unless the local shop started breaking tons of product and selling singles, which seems unlikely -- at least in the near term.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by cubby5454:
But any time you have a new player in the game, especially one with a huge bankroll, you kind of have to think it is going to be bad for the small guy.

Interesting insight -- who is the 'small guy' you are referring to?

At first I thought you were referring to entertainment card dealers, and maybe you are . . . My first thought after that was -- it seems like 90% of card dealers have gone out of business, and it least in my area there is literally no brick and mortar location I can go to reliably get cards. From that perspective it really can't get worse.

There is a comic shop close to me, if they carried cards I'd go in there and buy some. In theory that could pull business away from the dealers I buy from online, but in my personal situation that wouldn't impact anything unless the local shop started breaking tons of product and selling singles, which seems unlikely -- at least in the near term.

If we use this Topps deal as our conversation point- the little guy could be the small local comic shop owners who still buy direct from Topps (there have to be some of them left I would hope), show/internet dealers who purchase enough to order directly from Topps or even the distributor(s) those two groups buy from if they are not buying direct (i.e. they buy from GTS or the like). Heck, it might even affect Retail avenues like the companies that stock blaster boxes in Walmart and Target. They might also have to go through Diamond instead of directly through Topps.

I am not implying that Diamond is going to do this, but if they wanted to, I am sure they can work a deal with Topps, or any of the other non-sport manufacturers, that would set up the same type deal they had with the comic book manufacturers where the vast majority, if not all, of the distribution of cards had to go through them.

Again, I am not saying this will happen, but I wouldn't put it past Diamond to at least try to get that monopoly.

That means you either buy from Diamond (at their mark-up pricing) or still buy from places like GTS and pay for both Diamond and GTS mark ups.

Interesting.

I'm not worried about that because Diamond used to sell cards to comic shops (and probably still does), and they didn't have a monopoly before, so it seems unlikely that it would happen now.

In my area I really don't see any downsides. I moved here 4 years ago and I've been to every card and comic shop I can find. 2 card shops carry a small selection of entertainment boxes, but that's essentially it. I've been to several big comic cons -- the entertainment card dealers at those shows are the same as the ones that were setting up at the cons before I moved -- hundreds and hundreds of miles away. I've been to a bunch of small comic shows and I don't think I've bought a single card at any of 'em. One dealer did have a bunch of 80s sets, but no one was carrying anything modern that I found.

I used to live in the Chicago suburbs. Cards were more accessible there, so there could be an impact to sellers in that market.

Accessibility is important -- even to serious collectors. I never really collected Upper Deck cards until ePack. Now I do collect cards on ePack, but mainly because they are accessible.