I know that I haven’t quite dipped myself 100% into The Hobby just yet but it sure feels like Upper Deck’s ‘Evolution’ failed to live up to its lofty expectations. I mean, sure, there are some big sellers like Adrian Peterson but many others are not even hitting $20 dollars on the secondary market.
Of course, value isn’t everything in collecting but when you create so much hype and deliver so little … one has to wonder: Where’s the beef? I am not saying that Upper Deck won’t bounce back from their swing and miss. I am sure once all the kinks are fixed and the technology improves (WHY SO THICK?), Evolution could be something special. Just don’t call it a trading card.
In the meantime, wouldn’t it be great if the company with nothing to lose (soccer doesn’t count) could think outside the box and put out something a little different? How about a one-time and just one-time only return to holograms with SPx Basketball? I am not talking about a product with a $200 SRP, either.
If anyone was ever lucky enough to bust 1996 SPx then you know it had a lot of flash, a hefty asking price, and autographs so hard to pull that you had a better chance of finding Usama Bin Laden then you did the Ken Griffey Jr. autograph. The parallels were simple, too. Silver was base, then Bronze, and finally Gold. That was it.
Can you imagine a product like that today? Right off the bat, autographs would once again be worth something when there isn’t a guaranteed number to pull per box. You could throw out those worthless game-used relics that have polluted the Hobby and just make the cards the main attraction. You’d have to make it nice enough that a kid who doesn’t pull an auto won’t walk away in tears.
Of course, to do that … you have to lower the price. Look, I love collecting. I have loved it most of my life, so much so that it foolishly cost me my family two years ago. Still, I just don’t have any interest in boxes that cost $150 dollars. It’s 2011 and that money can bring in so much more entertaining things for you now a days. For starters, video games.
I hate to say it but if I have a choice between a box of Topps Tribute for nearly $400 dollars or an Xbox360 with a game or three, I am putting my cards away and joining Xbox Live. Yes, kids don’t live on measly allowances of $5 dollars per week but it’s the emphasis on high-end that has driven away so many kids and left card shows full of 40-year old men with pony tails and pizza-stained fanny packs.
