If you listened to Thursday’s episode of Beckett Radio, you know that the guys referenced my Wednesday post “The Latest, and Perhaps Last, Addition to The Andrew Shaw Project.”
First things first. Derek asked why it’s called “Bean’s” Ballcard Blog. When I took a job in Indianapolis in 2007, Bean became my nickname. Most everyone had a nickname and I just rolled with it. It seems that when I am clean shaven, I bear a striking resemblance to the boxer Butterbean. I don’t see it but it was better than the original nickname that a couple of guys tried to get to stick.
While Eric admitted that he didn’t know everything about my line of thinking, he was definitely on point with most everything that he said. As I listened, I thought about wanting to follow-up about a few things.
Collecting modern, even The Andrew Shaw Project, just isn’t fun anymore. There are many reasons for this.
I started on the quest about this time four years ago. The first Shaw NHL card came out in Upper Deck Series 2 and I only bought one box, but was fortunate enough to hit the Canvas Young Guns card. At the time, I was a single man and didn’t have much going on in my life. I had plenty of time to scour the internet looking for cards (or bobbleheads, autographs or anything else). There was an excitement when new product was released and he was in it. It was like Christmas morning each time a bubble mailer arrived and a new Shaw card was in it. It was pretty much the height of excitement in my life.
It’s not like that anymore. I have a great lady and a little family. I enjoy spending time with her and not refreshing my browser every few minutes just to see if a card I needed had been listed with a buy-it-now in the last few minutes.
Getting into vintage has changed my mindset. I look at the prices of modern stuff and have found myself thinking in terms of “what else could that buy,” both in vintage cards and just life in general. For better or worse, that’s what happens.
I’m sorry, but prices for a lot of this modern are out of hand. On this card, the seller was originally asking $150. What actually makes this card “worth” that asking price?
I understand that you paid x dollars for your box. That doesn’t make this card worth $150. Is it that it’s “scarce?” I’ve heard it said many times on Pawn Stars that just because something is old or rare doesn’t mean it’s valuable. I believe that to be very accurate.
It’s your card and you can ask what you want for it. However, the seller eventually just put the card on auction and it ended at just half of the original asking price.
At this point, I don’t want to even spend half of what it ended at on that. This is coming from a guy that has paid much more than that for quite a few of the cards in his player collection.
Other than what is perceived as “market value,” what makes these cards worth that much? Again, I’d rather spend it on a vintage card of a Hall of Famer. If not that, I want to spend it on something that is currently fun for me.
On Thursday’s Beckett Radio podcast, they mentioned that base, non-auto Connor McDavid SP Game Used cards (#d to 97) are selling on the secondary market for over $1000. WHAT? Why? Seriously, someone explain that to me. I’d much rather put my money into something that will likely retain it’s value, if not become worth more.
Onto the actual Shaw Printing Plate itself. The thing that gets me about the ePack isn’t necessarily that the Printing Plate I recently picked up came from one of those packs. It’s that it was placed in there, yet ePack didn’t debut until months later. If ePack had come out the same day as Series 1, I might view it differently. However, this card was “held back.” There’s no other way to put it.
Also, who’s to say that Upper Deck won’t manipulate what cards are in what packs? If ePack boxs are 20% of the “print run,” how do we know that 80% of the McDavids and Eichels aren’t in those packs? I have no complaints about the cards that are exclusive to ePacks, like the foil cards. That is no different than inserts that are exclusive to hobby or retail boxes. Even though I’m not paying money for ePack items, I could still get these cards if I wanted them.
If you are a player supercollector, you have to love what you’re doing. Once it’s not fun anymore and starts feeling like a job, it’s time to get out. You must enjoy it to justify that time and (likely too much) money you’re putting into it. Once you start thinking about what else you could be spending that money on, you’ve likely reached a place that you can’t go back from.
Both Eric and Derek made a couple of statements that I agree with. Eric mentioned that it isn’t just the ePack thing that is pushing me away from modern. It’s a lot of small things that just keep piling on top of one another.
Derek stated that you don’t want to be the grumpy card collector that complains about everything. I completely agree with that and don’t want to be that guy. That’s why maybe it’s time to just move on. I’m still “sleeping on it,” but am leaning that way.
It’s not just the ePack thing that has me feeling this way. It just may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The hobby is supposed to be fun.
Amazing point about the printing plate.