Dealing with Loss

 With the news last week that Fanatics was going to be taking over the sports card scene in a few years, everyone jumped online with their reactions.  My reaction at the time was similar to what I was seeing from a majority of people.  Sadness over the end of an era, worry that change will make things worse, and anger that money is at the root of this all.

The most positive reactions to the news was, "Let's wait and see."  I didn't see anyone posting why they thought that Fanatics was going to be good (other than a couple notes on distribution).  I saw a few happy posts that weren't pro Fanatics, rather just reveling in the old power structure in the #thehobby crashing down.

You'd think all this sadness would be accompanied by a bunch of posts reminiscing about Topps, but even the scorned lover of baseball was the target of our dismay.  Complaints about distribution, cost, poor design, overuse of vintage designs, and over-reliance on the same players every year.

I saw a lot of people declare they'd never buy Fanatics, they were done with the "new" stuff, and they would only buy vintage any more (BTW, vintage is defined as 20 years old, antique is 50 years.  So Drew Brees' RCs are vintage, and Bert Blyleven's RC is antique).  Or, a lot of this:

It's as though people forgot that Panini took Topps Football away from us 10 years.  People hated that as well, but football hasn't died.  People forget the 2000s where there was a million different sets.  People forget that in 1988 there was essentially one pack of cards available for football (Topps).  Things change, sometimes for the good and sometime for the worse.  But they change. 

I tend to follow people who came to the hobby around the same age I did.  It was a different time where you tended to collect in different ways than today.  In 1990, I could reasonably complete a Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Topps, and/or Upper Deck through packs and trades.  I could start a Will Clark collection, and feel reasonably confident I could get all his cards from the major sets and find the K-Mart cards at shows.   Today's collector does not have those opportunities.  

Today's collector has a adapted to the times, and collects what they want, and flips what they don't.  Or, they don't even have to collect anything and just flip.  My heart cringes at that thought, but creating a market where cards go to people who actually want them is not completely bad.  I have a Jo Adell Auto RC that I don't really care about, but it sits in my collection because I'm not actively selling, which means an Adell fan out there is missing out on this card.

I love collecting Allen and Ginter cards, its the one set I still try to put together.  It'll be sad when it goes.  I'll miss having my Iowa guy's Topps RC.  No doubt.  Stadium Club photography.  Bowman prospects. Sigh.  I'm sad too.

I think I'm sad/angry/frustrated that we have this change coming and there is no clue on if it will be ok or not.  The Panini transition was tough, until one day we decided Prizm was ok, and we can deal with Panini's crazy parallels (is this blue, carolina blue or hyper blue?!)  Fanatics has been super quiet about it too, and that doesn't help anything either.  But I'm also sad because its just another sign that the card business has  moved on from my generation.  Its never coming back to the way I remembered it.  

And that is ok.

I'm reminded of the last scene of The Untouchables.  Eliot Ness is told by a reporter that prohibition is coming to an end.  The subtext of this it that the thing that made him famous and gave him purpose in life was going away.  He had every right to be bitter about this moment.

"What are you going to do now?"

"I think I have a drink."

Well, when those Fanatic boxes show up in stores, I think I'll open a pack.

 

Change itself