They just don't make 'em like they used to

Like a lot of card collectors, I collected as a kid, took a break for awhile, and then returned to the hobby as an adult. My original run was from about '87-00, and my second, or current, run started up around 2010. It probably goes without saying, and it might be cause for a captain obvious comment, but now after having collected cards for almost a decade again, I've noticed quite a few differences between these two runs.

I'm sure that there's more, but the three biggest things that I've noticed since returning are: a) how people collect, b) where people buy their cards, and c) what kind of cards are currently being produced.

I could probably dedicate an entire post to each one of those topics, and no matter in-depth, they would still likely just scratch the surface of each, but I'm not motivated enough to do so at this time, so for today I'm just going to be scuffing the polish on C.

My original collecting run took place primarily during the 90's, and as any of you out there who collected during that time period already know, the sky was the limit as far as what was being produced goes. Everybody and their mother were making cards, and sets were being created for just about every subject matter under the sun, from Beanie Babies to Penthouse (the adult magazine) -- if you were into something, there was probably a card set for it!

I guess there's still a lot of sets being produced these days, but there sure is a lot less variety. As far as sports go, we get five new sets a week from the "Big Two", the only problem is, they all kind of look the same, and even from year to year, those designs don't seem to change too terribly much. And if you collect non-sport cards, well, the good news is that non-sport sets are still being made, but the bad news is that more often than not, those sets are only going to feature whatever's currently most popular with the mainstream crowds.

Then there's the modern chase cards (those are inserts for you younger folks), they certainly still make them, but again, there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety with those anymore either. Innovation seems to have fallen by the wayside as well, during the 90's there was never a shortage of new and innovative chase cards, while the card companies of today are completely content with producing the exact same looking inserts/parallels from year to year, or even worse -- trying, and failing (hard), to replicate what everyone loved 25 years ago.

I'm sure that's it probably doing so, but my intentions aren't for this post to come across as me bashing newer cards, or anyone who collects contemporary products. I'm not the sort who cares about what people collect, or how even how they collect, if it brings you joy... DO IT!

I do like some of the stuff that's been made during this current card collecting run of mine, I even collect some of it, but with each passing year, I find myself missing the stuff from my original run more and more.

Holograms are something that I really miss, and I know for a fact that a bunch of other people do as well. Holograms were very innovative in the early 90's, and were still exciting to pull even by the mid 90's, there was just something about opening a pack and seeing that sliver of shiny silver peeking out at you from somewhere inside, I can think of no other chase card that ever induced that kind of excitement.

When it comes to nostalgia, you'll often hear people say things like "I sure wish that someone would bring that back", or "Why can't someone bring that back?". I'm not one of those people though. I don't like bastardized things (cough* Ghostbusters *cough) from my youth, or anybody else's youth for that matter (cough* Charlie's Angels *cough), so since I know that they wouldn't be done right, there's no way that I would ever want Panini or Topps to bring back holograms. The answer to the "Why can't/won't they?" is pretty easy too, as they could bring them back, but the folks that they're currently catering to aren't the right crowd for holograms. Hologram technology is considered to be old (i.e. obsolete) by most, so trying to bring it back probably wouldn't go over so well. Even if one of these companies tried to do something really crazy and make them into some sort of rare case "hit", I still don't think that modern collectors would except them as such, and would probably then take to social media in order to complain endlessly about the sucky the new case "hits" are.

Averaging out at two per box, refractors used to be quite rare, and quite desirable. In their earliest  days, collectors would get genuinely excite about pulling them, nowadays you can find one in every pack, and they've basically been reduced to just slightly above base card status, or in other words... dome box fodder!

As much as I would like for it to occur, there really is no way to make refractors desirable again, at this point they're a genie that can't be put back in the bottle.

Thanks to the many film adaptions, interest in comic books has seen a resurgence over the last two decades, one could even say that the public's interest in them has almost reached the level that we saw during the 90's, but even so, could you imagine a non Marvel or DC comic set being put out in 2019? No? Me either! With Marvel now being owned by Disney, and Disney being owned by China, don't expect to see a lot of other non-Marvel related projects from this point on, at least as far as projects related to comic books go. DC is still hanging around, but one has to wonder how much longer they can continue to do so, the deck is certainly stacked against them.

Everyone misses Dufex... everyone! Don't try to argue otherwise, because I'll know that you're lying, and are just trying to be difficult for your own amusement. Will we ever see a company try to use Dufex again? I can't imagine so, it takes too long to do, and time most certainly isn't on the side of today's card producers.

Despite the overabundance of "stickergraphs", on-card autographs are still being produced today, and a lot of them still look pretty good, but back in the 90's, that's all we had, and that's the way we liked it (anyone?)! Granted, sometimes they were signed on the back, which wasn't ideal, but even those still felt like they had more of a connection to the athlete than some ugly stickers that were signed, and than later affixed to a card. You didn't have to worry about smearing, or signatures that didn't fit on the card (unlike stickers) either, at least I've never seen a 90's auto that suffered from those problems, so if there were any, they were obviously not the norm.

Prism was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, truly innovative printing processes to hit the scene back in the 90's. It was a brand, it was a parallel, it would make you chicken soup when you didn't feel well!. Sure, the technology would later evolve into cracked ice, but it wasn't the same, cracked ice would never put a Band-Aid on your skinned knee and kiss it until it felt better, Prism would, and has! And yeah, we got the Prizm now, some of which has been pretty neat, but it's still not the same, I don't see Prizm coming to make sure that there aren't any monsters in the closet, Prism would, and not only would Prism make sure that there weren't any monsters around, it would also be sure to let any monsters that might be lying in wait, know just what would happen to them if they did decide to try and scare you. What I'm trying to say is that whether you appreciated it or not, Prism was always there for you, and always will be.

I said earlier that that I'm not one to ask for things from the past to be brought back, and that's true, I like a lot of things, meaning that there's never a shortage of things for me to collect, so why would I want some new version of an old thing, when there's still so much from the past to collect? I also alluded to the differences between collecting runs earlier as well, and while I don't want to take the time to list all of those differences, I will quickly mention that one thing that's different, and better, about this current stretch, is the existence of this blog. Having a blog has allowed me to connect with so many great people, people who actually collect things, which is something that I always had trouble with during my original run. One of the people that I've been most fortunate to meet, and become friends with, since joining the blogging world, is Marc (you can find him on the Twitter). Not only do we have a bunch of similar interests, but he's also just a pretty cool person in general. And in case you couldn't tell, Marc is also very generous when it comes to sending out stuff, the cards in today's post being a perfect example of that. It's worth noting too, that this package was sent before I had my current want lists up, and I've never discussed some of these cards on the blog before, and yet he knew, or at least thought, that I would like them... and he was right!

It took me a few months to get this post done, but that wasn't a reflection on the cards, or the generous nature of the sender, it was just a matter of me trying to do them, and him, justice. So in an effort to finally put a bow on this post, thanks again for the cards, Marc! I really did appreciate the thought that went into this package, and on a more personal level, I'm even more very grateful for your friendship :)


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.