I have said some pretty pointed things in the past, but I think this might be one take that needs some old fashioned venom. This post will be in direct response to the idiots at CBS Sunday morning, who took it upon themselves to report un-researched crap on a very touchy subject that hits very close to home. 

In the report, Armen Keteyian, the reporter from CBS news, decided he was going to break down an industry that has dropped 75% in sales since the mid 1990s.

He whiffed on reporting the biggest market segment of the industry, shown here with some of these UNBELIEVABLE recent sales:

Michael Jordan Precious Metal Gems – BGS 8.5

Cam Newton Topps Chrome Red Refractor Auto

Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Red Refractor Auto BGS 9

In the course of his report, Keteyian made numerous hyperbolic statements with the help of a number of people who were commenting on behalf of the entire population of card collectors. Without knowing, his ridiculously broad statements intended to describe the INDUSTRY (people responsible for selling the cards) were instead directed at the HOBBY (people who collect said cards). For that, he deserves to get his smug look smacked straight off his face.

Although he is correct that sales are down significantly since the 1990s collecting boom, he fails to understand how separate these sales are from collecting. I agree that at some point, the industry producing new cards in the way it is now, will be dead. However, the people collecting these cards will ALWAYS be around. Not only that, but traditional card collecting will transform into something different, much like it did when the first memorabilia card hit the market in 1995. Painting with broad strokes is something that national media members should avoid, period. Similarly, I dont think its fair to highlight the most disconnected members of the vast network of collectors to represent a group that has actually rebounded in the last few years. Its like picking on the weak because you know they will tell the story you want, rather than what is actually happening.

Keteyian is using a paradigm of the old pre-internet and pre-ebay days of the hobby to define something that has changed drastically since that time. Its like saying “the flip phone is dying” without considering that there are new smart phones that have replaced it. Its a lazy argument, and I think it was in bad taste to report a skewed reality of a hobby conducted almost 85% on the internet. Its like me writing about the future of computers without talking about Tablets.  There was not one goddamned mention of the thousands of daily blog readers, internet message board active users, and ebay buyers, who have all replaced the outdated card show attendees that Mr. Mint used to do all his shady business at. No one, in any similar industry, is continuing to bank on the face to face interactions of its customers. No one. This is especially so if the majority of business for that industry is done online, like with books, movies, and even TV.

The 1990s were the golden age of collectables because the economy was incredible. Card companies were printing money? No shit. Everyone was printing money, because Bill Clinton was running the country’s economy at a level that was unheard of. Once 9/11 hit, the bubble burst on EVERYTHING, not just on cards. Since that time, collectables have slowly been coming around, even after taking a huge hit with the recession over the latter part of the 2000s. Per capita disposable income is down, which obviously means that everything purchased with that money is also down by association. Keteyian replied to one of my tweets saying this fact was not obvious to the viewers of the show, which I find ludicrous.

His main point was that kids are not coming to the hobby the way they used to, and therefore there is no future for collecting. That is a blatant oversight of the target demographic of cards and collecting these days. In the modern era, Adults are the target market for any collectable, not kids, as evidenced by the sheer number of them at the national card show. Hell, how many 8 year olds attended the San Diego Comic Con this year? 3? Give me a fucking break.

Kids are not the future of our hobby, the marketing to the millions of casual sports fans is.  Kids have limited income and spending power, and that alone shows they should have some but not the majority of the focus. Target the people with the money, and that is people like me, and the other readers of this site. With 4 million eBay auctions currently being offered, its pretty clear that someone is buying, even if Mr. Mint only gets 25 calls a day. Maybe Keteyian should have asked how much of his sales portfolio is done over the internet instead of at a tiny card show in a tiny town.

Bottom line, I dont think there is anything to worry about in terms of the hobby OR the industry, even with Upper Deck taking on a ton of water. If Keteyian actually talked to people that mattered, he would have found out that things arent dying, just rerouting from old fashioned methods. Its a shift, not a death, and the quicker that people get that through their fucking heads, everything will be peachy.