Speculate On Baseball Cards Online

from the oh,-how-the-times-have-changed dept

When I was about 10 years old, I became a pretty avid baseball card collector, buying packs of cards with whatever money I had saved up. It was a fun hobby, and I still remember the joy of going through each pack looking for players I was missing (and usually throwing out the gum). My parents, hearing stories of people selling Mickey Mantle cards for lots of money made sure I saved those cards, and they're stored away in a closet in their house. One of these days, when I'm there, I'll have to go through the cards and see if there's anything valuable. That fad only lasted two or three years of my life, so I had no idea what was going on in the world of baseball card collecting until I read the following article about Topps' new online baseball card trading marketplace, eTopps. It seems they've decided to finally go dot com. They're releasing special edition cards that you can buy online, and then automatically put up for auction (thanks to an agreement with eBay). You don't even ever have to take possession of the card - as Topps will hang onto them in a climate-controlled warehouse. They're hoping to attract baseball fans who enjoy day trading, but who simply can't stand the stock market any more. To me, though, this seems like it takes most of the fun out of collecting baseball cards. It seems odd to buy and sell a baseball card that will never even leave it's "climate-controlled" drawer. They've even stopped selling gum with the packs of cards, for those who are so last millennium that they still want to buy the cards in packs. Of course, as the article points out, the timing of this system couldn't be worse. If baseball goes on strike (as is increasingly likely), they expect many fans to bail out on any sort of baseball card purchases as well.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    I. M. Tired, 12 Jul 2002 @ 8:16pm

    Card "collecting"

    Remember when collecting cards involved collecting or was done for fun? Ahhh! The good old days...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    EchoHawk (profile), 2 Jan 2012 @ 12:42pm

    One better...

    Topps has decided to play games with it's loyal customers. By creating a nearly impossible game of chance, "Cards Your Mother Threw Out". Or so it is disguised as such. You see, you as the collector find special cards with codes, go online and enter the code to receive a valuable gift.

    Possibly a 1952 Mickey Mantle or as millions have found out a "Virtual Ring". Now that's collecting. No way do you get these magical rings or other "virtual" prizes but, buying the redemption cards on eBay for anywhere from $ 2.95 - $5.00 a piece sure brings back those summer memories.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.