Maybe the trading card bubble will keep inflating. As a collector I sure hope so. And cards have a couple of more attributes not mentioned in this column that make them more covetable than comics. Their size, for one. They're easy to display, store and take care of. There's also a lot of exciting innovation, some coming along the periphery by "card" artists like PiggyBanx. Even the industry's big monopolist is proving able to innovate. Those MLB Debut cards! Who doesn't daydream about landing one of those? But a big red flag started waving this week. After the Los Angeles Dodgers stacked their all-star roster with even more big-name free agents, rumblings began: MLB owners should insist on a salary cap and new revenue sharing model in the next collective bargaining round with players. MLBTradeRumors wrote a story that asked readers if they would be willing to forego the 2027 season for a salary cap. Giving up on a season might be what it takes to get players to budge on this issue. But the junk wax bubble imploded in 1994 when a players strike canceled much of the 1994 season, leaving collectors to ponder their unsound financial decisions. For me, personally, there is another red flag -- our climate crisis. I would like to bequeath my collection to family who can sift through it and find some treasures they can decide to either keep or sell. But with all the global warming-triggered disasters taking place I'm wondering what use it is to be spending so much money on a collection that's just going to go up in smoke, be carried away by a flood or blown away by a hurricane. And even if I'm fortunate enough to escape such an event, how many collectors might there be if my heirs decide to sell any treasures they might discover in my collection one day far from now? I've cut way back on my card purchases since Hurricane Helene. Now these L.A. fires have me pondering whether I should start selling off my collection while there are still collectors. My money would be better spent traveling to exotic destinations before our world becomes even more disaster prone.
Interesting news piece that I didn't know about, since I don't dabble in comics. One of the things I believe helps cards is that they are tiny. You can have 100,000 cards -- and really only take up like a small closet if stored correctly. In doing so, you can have a large/wide inventory, and keep adding to it. I know this article was all about distribution, but I felt like the difference in the physical form of collecting cards is also worth mentioning as to why the hobby might have more stability. Just a though -- thanks for the article, Sooz.
Maybe the trading card bubble will keep inflating. As a collector I sure hope so. And cards have a couple of more attributes not mentioned in this column that make them more covetable than comics. Their size, for one. They're easy to display, store and take care of. There's also a lot of exciting innovation, some coming along the periphery by "card" artists like PiggyBanx. Even the industry's big monopolist is proving able to innovate. Those MLB Debut cards! Who doesn't daydream about landing one of those? But a big red flag started waving this week. After the Los Angeles Dodgers stacked their all-star roster with even more big-name free agents, rumblings began: MLB owners should insist on a salary cap and new revenue sharing model in the next collective bargaining round with players. MLBTradeRumors wrote a story that asked readers if they would be willing to forego the 2027 season for a salary cap. Giving up on a season might be what it takes to get players to budge on this issue. But the junk wax bubble imploded in 1994 when a players strike canceled much of the 1994 season, leaving collectors to ponder their unsound financial decisions. For me, personally, there is another red flag -- our climate crisis. I would like to bequeath my collection to family who can sift through it and find some treasures they can decide to either keep or sell. But with all the global warming-triggered disasters taking place I'm wondering what use it is to be spending so much money on a collection that's just going to go up in smoke, be carried away by a flood or blown away by a hurricane. And even if I'm fortunate enough to escape such an event, how many collectors might there be if my heirs decide to sell any treasures they might discover in my collection one day far from now? I've cut way back on my card purchases since Hurricane Helene. Now these L.A. fires have me pondering whether I should start selling off my collection while there are still collectors. My money would be better spent traveling to exotic destinations before our world becomes even more disaster prone.
Interesting news piece that I didn't know about, since I don't dabble in comics. One of the things I believe helps cards is that they are tiny. You can have 100,000 cards -- and really only take up like a small closet if stored correctly. In doing so, you can have a large/wide inventory, and keep adding to it. I know this article was all about distribution, but I felt like the difference in the physical form of collecting cards is also worth mentioning as to why the hobby might have more stability. Just a though -- thanks for the article, Sooz.