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Originally Posted by mfw13
It's interesting that he conflates collectors with people interested in "alternative investments". While undoubtedly there is some overlap, those are by and large different types of people with different hobby needs/wants.
Because while there may be 50-100 million people interesting in gambling/investing on sports cards, there are nowhere close to that number of people who actually collect them.
If he's serious about increasing the size of the collector base, then the number one thing he has to do is increase availability/distribution. Get back to the days where cards were available at every supermarket/drugstore/gas station.
And since MLB is your partner, make cards much more available at MLB & minor league stadiums. Have more card giveaways....heck....get vendors roaming the aisles selling them.
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Agree with everything here, as would anyone whose been around the last couple of decades.
History has repeatedly shown the easiest people to influence in the hobby are those who flip, so these should be Fanatic’s first targets to quickly increase their bottom line. Perhaps Fanatics will have cards that are literally scratch-off tickets.
If Fanatics follows what Topps did starting in 1995 with Bowman is to work to convert collectors into flippers. One of Topps’ strategies back then was to offer a $125 set buyback guarantee. But nowadays the same result is achieved via shill bidding.
Will be interesting to dissect their actions moving forward, will be equally interesting to see the vernacular they choose to use (industry vs hobby, collector vs flipper, etc). It does seem they’ll work to eliminate, reduce or control hobby middlemen which will bring about much needed hobby change.