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Here is an article from the Philadelphi Daily News on sports card collecting. It cites problems in grading among other things. This is part of what will happen to us if we allow ICG to invade our hobby uncontested.
Paul

Collectors' advocate has valid points

by Ted Taylor, For the Daily News
For the Daily News

James McCay, who calls himself "The Card Cop," has been a thorn in the sides of manufacturers, dealers, card graders and those he calls the "hobby elite" for as long as I can remember.

As a self-anointed consumer hobby advocate, McCay has initiated an ongoing series of battles with those he sees as the bad guys in the hobby power structure. While he sometimes tilts at windmills, his is basically a voice of concern.

McCay often sends e-mail to most hobby columnists, but one I recently received struck home. It followed a discussion I had with Allan Caplan, a friend and longtime collector who is the president and chief executive officer of Inkworks, a card manufacturer.

Caplan and McCay said the power and influence that has become centered among a few elite publishers and manufacturers is bad for the hobby in general.

"It's always bad news when only one voice is heard on the issues," Caplan said.

Added McCay, "In our hobby, we all share a common path. So we are all peers, and need to remember that. We all need to make a living, but we all need to step back sometimes and carefully separate our needs vs. our wants."

McCay defines the "hobby elite" as price-guide publishers, card manufacturers, grading companies, big dealers and distributors, and writers. He says the "elite" need to sympathize with collectors and, better yet, listen to them, read Internet message boards and open a line of communication with them.

McCay, Caplan and others believe the hobby needs to ensure that collectors feel as if those calling the shots have sympathy for their wants and that they are not simply people from whom the hobby can make a buck. Having been there myself, I must admit that sometimes their sphere of influence makes the "elite" forget that collectors don't need the sports memorabilia hobby, but they want to be involved in it.

Not all want it anymore, though, and that's part of the problem. I recently got an e-mail from a collector who was given a box of 2001 Topps for Christmas. He hadn't collected cards since the mid-1980s but was excited about the prospects of breaking open packs and finding some old-time Topps cards (as promised). He didn't find one.

"Just a few reprints," he lamented. "I guess I won't be resuming my card collecting after all." He's probably gone for good this time.

Caplan, whose company produces nonsports cards like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Charmed" and "The Simpsons," has been an executive with Impel, SkyBox and Fleer so he understands the mechanics of the hobby better than most.

"People like products that they can collect to completion," he said. "It is my feeling that sports-card manufacturers have taken the scarce insert-card craze way beyond where most collectors even care to collect them anymore."

Caplan laughed, and added, "There are so many inserts now in most sports sets that the regular cards have become scarce."

As a devoted sports collector and hobbyist for many years, McCay is annoyed when card companies ignore concerns from collectors or give out misinformation. In some cases, companies go belly-up and the collector is simply stuck with worthless redemption cards or unfulfilled canceled checks.

McCay said misinformation distributed on the Internet is becoming a serious problem.

He adds that his primary concerns are forgeries of certified autographs, inserts making their way to the market directly from inside sources at the manufacturers, badly graded cards, and mislabeled or misleading packaging that promise items not included in the product.

"Mistakes happen, but in most cases the 'elite' do nothing to correct the problem and make collectors happy, and re-establish trust," he said.

To that end he is correct. Correct price data must be collected if anyone is to have confidence in what they collect.

The graded-card infatuation also is seen by many, this writer included, as a bad thing for the hobby. It has priced the collecting of sports cards out of reach for many. Complaints often are heard from collectors who send a mint card to a grader only to have it come back undergraded and not in the condition it was sent in.

Grading also differs among companies (a 10 from one company is an 8 from another) and, worst of all, there is the supply-vs.-demand curve that is now resulting in a lot of high-priced graded cards gathering dust in dealer display cases.

McCay and Caplan both agree that the real new millennium gives the hobby a perfect opportunity to become fun again. Communication is the key. And it has to be fun, otherwise find something else to fill your time. Collect because you enjoy collecting, not because it's a surefire way to save for junior's college education. You will find it to be a very enjoyable hobby that way.

Ted Taylor has been a lifelong collector of baseball cards and sports memorabilia. He has run memorabilia shows in the area and writes for various publications. Taylor is the president of his own Abington, Pa.-area public relations/marketing firm.