What’s it going to take to revitalize the NBA card hobby?

jhssketchcards · 04-11-2025, 01:51 PM

Just my opinion…

The last real, true superstars come out of drafts are:
Top Tier- Jokic. Luka, Tatum. Giannis
Second Tier- Edwards, Morant, Trae, Booker, Embiid, Cunningham, Banchero, Ball and several more.

It has been several drafts where we saw a player come into the league and consistently electrify the league like the Top Tier group I listed. All of the guys above Re tremendous players but being good at a sport doesn’t translate to hobby stardom.

The past 5 years we’ve seen a huge amount of cash thrown at Wemby, Holmgren, Ball, Zion, Morant etc with very little to zero return to hype prices.
I’m sure many here, including myself, can tell stories of what we spent or “invested” in young, unproven lottery picks only to have injuries, poor performance or discipline problems derail said player we targeted.

The truth is trading cards has become a stock market, and eBay is the ticker. Prices are watched daily and in a given 24-hr period we can see cards jump from the 25 cent box to $5 box in a matter of the time it takes to commute home from work. $50 cards go to $100 in a day or so. Baseball is even more demonstrative of this with games almost every night. The NBA tries desperately to cultivate and incubate the “next” guy but inevitably he either a: is a bust or b: becomes a very dependable, even All-Star player, but has zero seismic shift in the hobby. It’s interesting that the last year, as far as rookies taking a league by storm, aside from Wemby, the most exciting thing to happen to professional basketball cards is Caitlin Clark.
Are these players just not good enough? Too small a sample size? Collector ADHD?

From 2020-2024, the NFL has seen QBs like:
Burrow
Hurts
Herbert
Tua
Lawrence
Wilson
Fields
Lance
Jones
Mills
Pickett
Willis
Purdy
Stroud
Richardson
Levis
Daniels
Nix
Penix

Just to name a few. Only two on that list has been to a SB, and 1 won it. I get it that it takes time, and football is obviously different, but I use these to illustrate the vast hype money that went into and stayed with these guys, versus what their prices are now. It wasn’t ling ago Hurts was third fiddle behind Burrow and Herbert, but now he has surpassed them in some collecting circles. Think about where prices were on most of these guys compared to now. It’s crazy.

Personally I’d rather spend money on proven, sure fire players that have established hobby stardom rather than sinking money into a guy who hasn’t even made an NBA All-Star team yet. It’s the sane in each sport though. But as long as suckers are willing to fork over $$$ for guys like Cooper Flagg, it will stay the same. Problem is, we son’t know if hime will be the next Jayson Tatum, or the next Christian Laettner.

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View Poll Results: What need to happen to bring nba cards back to life?
Stephen Curry wins his fifth ring	4	3.54%
Luka Doncic wins his first ring	30	26.55%
Caitlin Clark joins an NBA team	8	7.08%
Tariffs are placed on cards of foreign-born players	3	2.65%
It’s over Johnny, the NBA golden age has come and gone	54	47.79%
Other ideas?	14	12.39%
Voters: 113. You may not vote on this poll

04-11-2025, 01:51 PM	#10
jhssketchcards Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Louisiana Posts: 11,365 jhssketchcards2012	Just my opinion… The last real, true superstars come out of drafts are: Top Tier- Jokic. Luka, Tatum. Giannis Second Tier- Edwards, Morant, Trae, Booker, Embiid, Cunningham, Banchero, Ball and several more. It has been several drafts where we saw a player come into the league and consistently electrify the league like the Top Tier group I listed. All of the guys above Re tremendous players but being good at a sport doesn’t translate to hobby stardom. The past 5 years we’ve seen a huge amount of cash thrown at Wemby, Holmgren, Ball, Zion, Morant etc with very little to zero return to hype prices. I’m sure many here, including myself, can tell stories of what we spent or “invested” in young, unproven lottery picks only to have injuries, poor performance or discipline problems derail said player we targeted. The truth is trading cards has become a stock market, and eBay is the ticker. Prices are watched daily and in a given 24-hr period we can see cards jump from the 25 cent box to $5 box in a matter of the time it takes to commute home from work. $50 cards go to $100 in a day or so. Baseball is even more demonstrative of this with games almost every night. The NBA tries desperately to cultivate and incubate the “next” guy but inevitably he either a: is a bust or b: becomes a very dependable, even All-Star player, but has zero seismic shift in the hobby. It’s interesting that the last year, as far as rookies taking a league by storm, aside from Wemby, the most exciting thing to happen to professional basketball cards is Caitlin Clark. Are these players just not good enough? Too small a sample size? Collector ADHD? From 2020-2024, the NFL has seen QBs like: Burrow Hurts Herbert Tua Lawrence Wilson Fields Lance Jones Mills Pickett Willis Purdy Stroud Richardson Levis Daniels Nix Penix Just to name a few. Only two on that list has been to a SB, and 1 won it. I get it that it takes time, and football is obviously different, but I use these to illustrate the vast hype money that went into and stayed with these guys, versus what their prices are now. It wasn’t ling ago Hurts was third fiddle behind Burrow and Herbert, but now he has surpassed them in some collecting circles. Think about where prices were on most of these guys compared to now. It’s crazy. Personally I’d rather spend money on proven, sure fire players that have established hobby stardom rather than sinking money into a guy who hasn’t even made an NBA All-Star team yet. It’s the sane in each sport though. But as long as suckers are willing to fork over $$$ for guys like Cooper Flagg, it will stay the same. Problem is, we son’t know if hime will be the next Jayson Tatum, or the next Christian Laettner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk