Competition **Giveaway** How can we make the hobby better and attract new people post Covid boom?

[GarnettFan4Life]

I think its across the board.
Hobby Kingz is no more...
blow-out is nowhere near as active as it used to be.

I think part of the issue is that there doesn't seem to be many collectors left any more and a lot more rip and flip.
The recent boom over the past few years alot has come from Social Media people Gary V, Jake (or Logan whichever it was)Paul etc... so the people that saw that are obviously on those already and not on a forum so naturally look for groups on those platforms. All the breakers are on there posting the hits instantly so people already see all the cards.

Also the hobby seems to be getting younger and I would imagine a lot of people never knew forums existed or still exist as they only know social media.

How do we get people back to the forum is a good question.

The ozct fb page isn't super active so possibly doesn't bump on peoples algorithms and they forget about us or they don't know about.

With the hobby shows seemingly making a bit of a come back, the hangout in Melbourne was huge earlier in the year. Some sort of advertising maybe a flyer or give away sponsored by ozct at those events.

Im sure more posts will inspire more ideas here

where did the true collectors and hobby enthusiasts go though? How many times have we said or heard the story “back into collecting since i was younger, found girls, cars etc and found collection” etc - many times!

pushed back out by the prices? Disillusioned by flippers and greed? I can’t figure it out

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

What do you think @anakinleo ? You’re super into cards and selling but don’t post that much considering. I’d imagine you’d have a wealth of info younger collectors would love to hear. No urge to type long form?

 

[kiwi_in_melb]

where did the true collectors and hobby enthusiasts go though? How many times have we said or heard the story “back into collecting since i was younger, found girls, cars etc and found collection” etc - many times!

pushed back out by the prices? Disillusioned by flippers and greed? I can’t figure it out

I think a combination of everything you mentioned.
Product hasn't been interesting for a while (in my opinion) and redemptions parallels etc. making it hard to stay motivated to collect a lot.
I also think a fair few would have cashed out (cant blame them) when / while the prices are high.
I would be lying if I said I hadn't contemplated all of the above multiple times and having to reinvent my pc a little at times to keep my collecting passion.

 

[cotchin#9]

Facebook is too much here and now.
All the good information gets buried never to be found again!
Yes there's a search function, however we've all used it and it's an absolute mess.

Forums provide historical knowledge and easy access to that information. The forum needs to be protected at all costs!

100% well said...
maybe I'm to old for Facebook or it's I'm afraid off change..(probably more the latter)
but once you find a home, it's were the heart is..
We have a community here and it means alot

 

[Hornso]

Facebook seems to be hard to beat for sales. Just for the amount of cards that pop up on there and quite often the prices are the best I can find if you’ve got enough time to dig through every sales post.

What I like about here and wish there was more of is the community and discussion. I don’t learn anything off the Facebook groups and none of my friends are into it so this is where I go to “socialise” for lack of a better word.

I keep hearing about bad people in the hobby, but to be honest so many of the people I have dealt with have been so nice and generous. Way more friendly than your average person on the street.

I was expecting more product talk about basketball in particular but I guess it’s because it seems generally the member base on here skews older and don’t seem that into Panini’s offerings, plus they seem to be going through the motions somewhat or prices of ripping wax has just become unsustainable, taking the thrill out of the hobby.

I don’t have any solutions, but I’ll try to engage more particularly on the hoops portion of the forum to drive a bit more talk.

 

[graham]

I think one of the big things we did back in the day were case shares and box breaks. The prices nowadays make it almost impossible to do breaks and it's such a huge gamble.

Change the site name to ozcardgamblers ?

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Just to clarify - if someones (@graham above) comment gets the most likes but it's not a suggestion then that doesn't qualify as winner

 

[graham]

Just to clarify - if someones (@graham above) comment gets the most likes but it's not a suggestion then that doesn't qualify as winner

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

 

[anakinleo]

What do you think @anakinleo ? You’re super into cards and selling but don’t post that much considering. I’d imagine you’d have a wealth of info younger collectors would love to hear. No urge to type long form?

Thanks for the acknowledgement. Lol, I won’t do long form but provide some high level observations through my sales (circa 5000 cards per month). I will list what I think the direction or the change of mix the buyer. Note that some segments are mature ones whilst some are emerging. Some segments also cross over. I'll leave it to the forum to think how best to attract these different segments of the market. You really have to think laterally.

1. Female presence is starting to increase and is no longer just a boy’s hobby.
2. The investor mindset, treating cards like crypto and stocks.
3. The old school set collectors
4. Loyalty fan - Club, Country, Geographic, Players.
5. Card buybacks - normally by companies or players themselves.
6. Cross overs or cross cannibalisation from NFTs. Similar with cards and comics in the 90s.
7. The show-off or must have singular card or set. Normally instagram heavy or a passing fad.
8. Vaulters - just buy and keep till the day they die. A lot of super collectors fall into this category.
9. Thrill seekers…… normally box breakers.
10. Sports & TV enthusiasts. Can come in many forms. watchers, followers, stats/data driven, etc
11. Channel enablers I.e. grading companies, Beckett, forums, stores, etc

BTW, if anybody is interested in any of my cards in COMC, just send me a message. I'll try my best to entertain most offers.

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Thanks for the acknowledgement. Lol, I won’t do long form but provide some high level observations through my sales (circa 5000 cards per month). I will list what I think the direction or the change of mix the buyer. Note that some segments are mature ones whilst some are emerging. Some segments also cross over. I'll leave it to the forum to think how best to attract these different segments of the market. You really have to think laterally.

1. Female presence is starting to increase and is no longer just a boy’s hobby.
2. The investor mindset, treating cards like crypto and stocks.
3. The old school set collectors
4. Loyalty fan - Club, Country, Geographic, Players.
5. Card buybacks - normally by companies or players themselves.
6. Cross overs or cross cannibalisation from NFTs. Similar with cards and comics in the 90s.
7. The show-off or must have singular card or set. Normally instagram heavy or a passing fad.
8. Vaulters - just buy and keep till the day they die. A lot of super collectors fall into this category.
9. Thrill seekers…… normally box breakers.
10. Sports & TV enthusiasts. Can come in many forms. watchers, followers, stats/data driven, etc
11. Channel enablers I.e. grading companies, Beckett, forums, stores, etc

BTW, if anybody is interested in any of my cards in COMC, just send me a message. I'll try my best to entertain most offers.

I'M interested in many cards it's just my bank account is not

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Thanks for the acknowledgement. Lol, I won’t do long form but provide some high level observations through my sales (circa 5000 cards per month). I will list what I think the direction or the change of mix the buyer. Note that some segments are mature ones whilst some are emerging. Some segments also cross over. I'll leave it to the forum to think how best to attract these different segments of the market. You really have to think laterally.

1. Female presence is starting to increase and is no longer just a boy’s hobby.
2. The investor mindset, treating cards like crypto and stocks.
3. The old school set collectors
4. Loyalty fan - Club, Country, Geographic, Players.
5. Card buybacks - normally by companies or players themselves.
6. Cross overs or cross cannibalisation from NFTs. Similar with cards and comics in the 90s.
7. The show-off or must have singular card or set. Normally instagram heavy or a passing fad.
8. Vaulters - just buy and keep till the day they die. A lot of super collectors fall into this category.
9. Thrill seekers…… normally box breakers.
10. Sports & TV enthusiasts. Can come in many forms. watchers, followers, stats/data driven, etc
11. Channel enablers I.e. grading companies, Beckett, forums, stores, etc

BTW, if anybody is interested in any of my cards in COMC, just send me a message. I'll try my best to entertain most offers.

Anyone remember the poker boom after Chris Moneymaker in 2003-ish? Shortly after there was a similar increase in female participation and making the long-held belief of men dominated casino table games more female friendly. I'm pondering on this in relation to cards and collectibles. There's a few long term big collectors around but I am surprised there's not more.

High box prices, crypto and NFT's strike me as big factors. People are hurting from the downswing in crypto and bottom falling out of the NFT market so I would imagine some splurge funds have dried up. Anyone watching daily or weekly group breaks with cherry and the like - how are they going? are they filling every spot and time/day still? I just seen a presale of 21-22 Prizm Hobby for $2499 a box and almost puked all over the keyboard. Disgusting.

I'll be interested to see the impact of Fanatics coming in for Panini. A few things they do like changing the distribution model somehow will have an impact I believe.

Instagram is huge. I know it. I like it, it's just too hard to keep out of the hype circle-jerk and potential pump and dumps going on. I hear about deals getting done and people organising meet and greets via insta which seems cool but it doesn't suit me for long form discussion and finding old threads.

More points as I think on some of this info. cheers @anakinleo

 

[The Game of Sport]

Thanks for the tag. I've been pondering this for a while. I've mainly bought rather than sold since I started back in the hobby in 2017. I use this site for purchases as well as Facebook, COMC, e-bay etc. Apart from card shops and online stores this site has the safest system for purchases which is a big plus. I think I probably learned the majority of things I learned about the hobby from this site too. Buying cards has been hard since the boom. When you paid under $10 for graded 86 Fleer basketball cards, it is easy to balk at current prices. It makes you more selective. Another thing I think the site does well is providing a context for supercoach comps and I've been in a couple of the All time Nba drafts as well. Suggestions to increase traffic on the site would be somehow gathering all of the useful info into one place and keeping it up to date (checklists, how to use SMC, COMC, how to post cards, where are the card shops), reignite some of the group activities on the site (fantasy nba, nfl etc, who collects what and the card leaderboard), inreasing trading opportunities (trade nights coinciding with big trading card events in the capital cities) and possibly a monthly e-mail with news in the hobby - could be a sponsorship opportunity.

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Awesome points @The Game of Sport -

I real like make good sticky threads - and I had great interactions here when I joined and was guided with trading, looking up values and packaging for post too. Crucial

 

[Matt26]

I think there are many factors we have seen a slow down of late and I think can be contributed to some of the following:

- People aren't locked down anymore and are back focusing in on things they missed out on over the past few years and with that goes disposable income with it....concerts, drinking, sports, movies, holidays, drinking etc.....some of the cash that was being spent on cards between 2020 to Now is being redirected into those areas again.

I mean its a tough choice.... a blaster of Court Kings or an all expenses paid round the world holiday flying first class? What would you choose?

- The volume of product and the cost of it. You see boxes that were selling for $150-200 AUD now closer to $1000 AUD with set size/parallels and production up meaning 99% of the boxes you get offer little value or collectability. In the past you could sort of handle spending $150 on an NBA box and pulling a jersey card some inserts and an auto of some semi decent player.

Anyone remember Exquisite being $500 a box with usually a Jordan or Bron auto every few cases and now $500 will get you a Pack of Prizm Basketball Retail.

Sure you could pull a Chris Taft Exquisite RPA for your $500 but that stung a bit less than the $7000 you spent on an NT box which returned you a Zeke Nnaji RPA that probably sells for less than the Taft!

These days you usually get some never heard of grizzled veteran of the 70's or a mass produced rookie auto of a guy who is already plying his trade (post NBA) in Uzbekistan and a Jersey card with a piece of jersey in it that's actually closer to YOU having touched it than the player.

- Generational change - those who were collectors back in the 80/90/00 and had a specific player PC's, the players have all retired (or are in jail/dead/wont sign for Panini) and either their cards are so expensive to buy now you cant really fill the gaps in your PC from these eras.

Funny thing is with no money during that time we couldn't buy the rare cards we wanted, and with our income 10 times that we still cant buy these rare cards now! Thanks Goldin, PWCC!

You end up having to settle for no new cards at all (unless MJ playing Golf of wearing a Suit tickles your fancy) or the other situation is another 1000 autos/cards of your player from Panini using the same photo each time (see Horace Grant).

Or you could buy one of these puffy jacket cards from Topps to pacify your need for nostalgia.

Speaking of Nostalgia.......players these days are soft........Dennis Rodmans softest fouls would have been automatic ejections these days!

I mean this play below was called a charge on Larry Legend......thats how soft the game has become now compared to this!

Anyway Im off to tell the kids to get off my lawn again....

But bring back 80's basketball, 90's designs, 00's product prices and get rid of the influencers who tell you who and what to collect and how if you buy into some fractional ownership of Nico Mannion cards you will be able to retire by the year 2040.

Cheers
Matt

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

I think there are many factors we have seen a slow down of late and I think can be contributed to some of the following:

- People aren't locked down anymore and are back focusing in on things they missed out on over the past few years and with that goes disposable income with it....concerts, drinking, sports, movies, holidays, drinking etc.....some of the cash that was being spent on cards between 2020 to Now is being redirected into those areas again.

I mean its a tough choice.... a blaster of Court Kings or an all expenses paid round the world holiday flying first class? What would you choose?

- The volume of product and the cost of it. You see boxes that were selling for $150-200 AUD now closer to $1000 AUD with set size/parallels and production up meaning 99% of the boxes you get offer little value or collectability. In the past you could sort of handle spending $150 on an NBA box and pulling a jersey card some inserts and an auto of some semi decent player.

Anyone remember Exquisite being $500 a box with usually a Jordan or Bron auto every few cases and now $500 will get you a Pack of Prizm Basketball Retail.

Sure you could pull a Chris Taft Exquisite RPA for your $500 but that stung a bit less than the $7000 you spent on an NT box which returned you a Zeke Nnaji RPA that probably sells for less than the Taft!

These days you usually get some never heard of grizzled veteran of the 70's or a mass produced rookie auto of a guy who is already plying his trade (post NBA) in Uzbekistan and a Jersey card with a piece of jersey in it that's actually closer to YOU having touched it than the player.

- Generational change - those who were collectors back in the 80/90/00 and had a specific player PC's, the players have all retired (or are in jail/dead/wont sign for Panini) and either their cards are so expensive to buy now you cant really fill the gaps in your PC from these eras.

Funny thing is with no money during that time we couldn't buy the rare cards we wanted, and with our income 10 times that we still cant buy these rare cards now! Thanks Goldin, PWCC!

You end up having to settle for no new cards at all (unless MJ playing Golf of wearing a Suit tickles your fancy) or the other situation is another 1000 autos/cards of your player from Panini using the same photo each time (see Horace Grant).

Or you could buy one of these puffy jacket cards from Topps to pacify your need for nostalgia.

Speaking of Nostalgia.......players these days are soft........Dennis Rodmans softest fouls would have been automatic ejections these days!

I mean this play below was called a charge on Larry Legend......thats how soft the game has become now compared to this!

Anyway Im off to tell the kids to get off my lawn again....

But bring back 80's basketball, 90's designs, 00's product prices and get rid of the influencers who tell you who and what to collect and how if you buy into some fractional ownership of Nico Mannion cards you will be able to retire by the year 2040.

Cheers
Matt

Facts! I came back just after 08-09 Exquisite I think but mannnnnn - imagine getting Exquisite for $500 ?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Thinking , thinking….

 

[TAB1980]

The biggest advantage a forum has over Facebook and the like is a sense of community. It's more than just random buying and selling. This is the reason why I have very little interest in those cesspit marketplaces.

So how do we attract more members / activity on our boards? A few ideas:

Firstly, when you think about it, a forum/ community is very similar to a real life gathering. If you were to turn up to a gathering for the first time and no one is really talking to each other or there's very little happening, you're not likely to stick around too long or come back. On the other hand, if everyone is chatting, joking etc and you are welcomed, you're more likely to stick around and get involved. This is where it's up to us to be as involved and active on here as much our lives permit. Whether it's trading, sharing our wealth of knowledge or just having a joke and a laugh.

Also, I get the sense that there is a lot more box breaking on here than we think. If you are busting something, no matter how insignificant you think it might be, share it on the box breaking forum! Once again, it is another opportunity to create discussion.

Someone mentioned card shows and I think this is a major opportunity and competitive advantage for our forum compared to Facebook if we could leverage it. One thing I noticed recently with Ship my Cards is that whenever they are attending a card show, they give their members the opportunity to have cards sold on their behalf at the show. We have many long term, reliable members on here all over the country that could perhaps man an ozcardtrader table at these shows selling members cards, sharing their knowledge and promoting our forum. We could also have members donate cards for these shows that could be used to put together to sell Mystery Packs to kids. Members could also donate cards that could be sold for $1 - $3 each which would help fund the cost of the show. This helps promote the sense of community. How we could get this to work, i'm not entirely sure but I don't think it would be impossible.

A few thoughts on the card selling show idea:

• Members pay all postage costs
• Limited number of cards per member
• The member gives an advertised sell price for each card as well as lowest possible price
• Sales done direct through members' paypal
• .....

There's a lot of generous/ wonderful members on here. The potential and future of this forum lies with us. Basically whatever effort we are prepared to give to the forum, the forum will eventually give back. We have to be bold and be prepared to step outside the boundaries or be stagnant.

Another thing... I'm sure we have email addresses for all accounts on here. Maybe it's an idea that we reach out to lapsed members who still have live accounts (not banned), and say something like. Hey, we've noticed we haven't seen you in a while. Whether you are still collecting or not, it would be wonderful to hear from you again. Feel free to drop in and say hi!

That's about all I've got for now...