First Buzz: 2024-25 Topps Chrome basketball cards

[RKH916]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Feels like Rubin's Leaf'ing these pre-licensed released to not show his cards too early, so to speak.

Anyone who's tried to ACEO their way to Ebay supremacy knows how difficult it is to create a Picasso whilst trying to cloak copyrighted material. Even Qwasian tapped out early and just said f- it...send me the cease n' desist if you dare.

They know this stuff caters to a small niche of clecters/flippers. Why go all out?

You underestimate Fanatics management. They're purely a financial instrument. Short-sighted & numbers driven. They have zero interest in history, heritage, or anything actually traditionally valuable to collectors.

Expect the Fanatics era to be driven by trash AI design, trash hiphop centric culture, trash celebrity collaboration, and of course... even bigger dollar figures

They consolidated the market at its very peak so they'll be doing everything they can to reduce input (AI design? AI marketing? WINNING) and increase output to maximise profit margins with little regard for anything else, especially that which they feel no innate connection to

On the next episode of MTV Cardboard........

[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by RKH916

You underestimate Fanatics management. They're purely a financial instrument. Short-sighted & numbers driven. They have zero interest in history, heritage, or anything actually traditionally valuable to collectors.

Expect the Fanatics era to be driven by trash AI design, trash hiphop centric culture, trash celebrity collaboration, and of course... even bigger dollar figures

They consolidated the market at its very peak so they'll be doing everything they can to reduce input (AI design? AI marketing? WINNING) and increase output to maximise profit margins with little regard for anything else, especially that which they feel no innate connection to

On the next episode of MTV Cardboard........

I'm not bullish on any of these major card manufacturers. Especially during/post-covid. The money was way too easy, and there's no going back after getting that initial taste.


However, their baseball designs are nowhere near as bad as these. And they've always maintained a semi-uniform look across all sports. We have yet to see what their flagship releases will look like, either.

I don't like the AI stuff, but let's not act like that isn't an existing concern.

https://x.com/SlabDaBase/status/1887...sign-its-cards


Companies will always take the path of least resistance if the product moves.

Hopefully Fanatics doesn't completely fumble it next year. But it won't bother me much anyways, as I've already had one foot out the door for a minute. Both companies have already set the table for the hyper parallel print era...it is what it is.

[RKH916]

I hear you.

I'm pretty much resolved to this being the long term state of the hobby and the continued degradation of the aspects we loved

I pretty much just collect 90's-2010 now

Which sucks as a father, as cards are something I would've loved to enjoy with my son, but I don't want to introduce him to this overpriced, uninspired profiteering degeneracy

A blessing in disguise though, as I'll be forced to direct his interest and abilities into more practical and fulfilling things

[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by RKH916

I hear you.

I'm pretty much resolved to this being the long term state of the hobby and the continued degradation of the aspects we loved

I pretty much just collect 90's-2010 now

Which sucks as a father, as cards are something I would've loved to enjoy with my son, but I don't want to introduce him to this overpriced, uninspired profiteering degeneracy

A blessing in disguise though, as I'll be forced to direct his interest and abilities into more practical and fulfilling things

I think retail still serves this purpose well. Thanks to the post-Vid market comedown, it's widely available to most and offers people (especially kids) an economical way to satiate the urge.

Hobby's been dumb for years now. I don't know how anyone does it, but bless their hearts. True scarcity is no longer a valid concept. Every 1/1 has 30 separate 1/1's. Just have to find beauty in the ugly, I guess.

[CTSportsboy57]

Originally Posted by yiguiri2002

What percentage of boxes do you think will have a Curry auto?

Probably a lot less than boxes with a Jamal Shead auto

[oldgoldy97]

Can’t wait for retail configs full of base and a refractor “hit” of Joe Smith.

[BlowoutBuzz]

Parallel lineups and a few images added to the original post. Link >> https://www.blowoutcards.com/blog/fi...me-basketball/

[onenineeightsix]

It’s wild to me that people still think Fanatics is designing cards.

[ninjacookies]

Those are iight.

Personally holding out for the Panoramic Moonroof sigs with Magic Sky Control©. Truly indespensable tech for most AMG owners. Especially in southern climates.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

https://x.com/SlabDaBase/status/1887...sign-its-cards

Oh my goodness -- that is horrible. The Falcons don't even play in an outdoor stadium.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by RKH916

I hear you.

I'm pretty much resolved to this being the long term state of the hobby and the continued degradation of the aspects we loved

I pretty much just collect 90's-2010 now

Which sucks as a father, as cards are something I would've loved to enjoy with my son, but I don't want to introduce him to this overpriced, uninspired profiteering degeneracy

A blessing in disguise though, as I'll be forced to direct his interest and abilities into more practical and fulfilling things

Their target demographic is gamblers. The gamblers only care about the monetary value of cards. For some reason they gamble on sports cards when there are better options. I don't get it, but to each their own. Anyway, that means the things that collectors value -- like quality products -- are not a priority.

Also, blame modern shareholder capitalism, which exploits IP for short-term profits at the expense of long-term investment, sustainability, and growth. Fanatics is just another big corporation pumping out overprice, bland, generic crap for mass consumption. They aren't going to convert a lot of people into long-term collectors, but they'll certainly sell a lot of units in the near term.

[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

Oh my goodness -- that is horrible. The Falcons don't even play in an outdoor stadium.

Not to mention the field hash marks are perpendicular to the endzone.


Can't say topps doing much better. Those sky sig backgrounds look like a beginner course in Stable Diffusion prompting.

'fluffy clouds, really nice, cordial, high quality.'


This new AI era is the bane of creative design.

[Nomad]

How much would it actually cost to get a human sky and space artist on team.

What was really cool was imperfect illustrators imagining what a perfect tech world would look like. Who would have imagined the reality of programs imagining what a perfect human world looks like.