Is Upper Deck Marketing Message Good for the Hobby?
October 9th, 2007Back in August I wrote an article called A Reality Check on What Your Cards are Worth, essentially questioning why we collect. Do collectors collect to turn a profit or because they love collecting? Because they want a card that’s “worth” a certain amount of money that they’ll be able to sell in ten years, or because they enjoy chasing after cards to complete sets with their favorite players?
We all know that the average collector is getting older and older and there’s a lack of kids in the hobby today. To their credit, Upper Deck and Topps have begun aggressively marketing to kids to help pump some new blood into collecting. We’ll have to wait to determine whether or not it’s too-little-too-late, but so far it has been promising.
That said, I saw this ad in Sports Illustrated this week:
“The most valuable rookie cards: time to start collecting” makes me question whether or not Upper Deck wants collectors or investors. Are they selling fake hope to young collectors that they’ll become rich if they buy today’s rookies? Because I (and every other child of the 80’s) fell for that back then and we’ve all subsequently seen the value of our collections crash. Personally, I’d like it if the ads focused on collecting todays stars and team sets without mentioning value. “Value” should be in the eye of the beholder and not correlate to monetary value on the open market. Otherwise todays kids will be as disappointed as my generation and we’ll have an even worse situation than we do now.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:16 am
You could not be any more wrong. Now that MLB has put their dollars into bringing back kids with TV ads, we have the kids back. Now, and for the first time, MLB needs to push spending mainstream TV dollars toward adult males to start collecting — and they will only collect if “value” is attached to the pitch.
I’ve been saying this for years. If you don’t start getting those adult males with money to start spending every hobby shop will fold up. Kids don’t keep shops open, adult males with money do.
Wanna see the hobby die? Ignore those adults and keep pitching kids. We don’t have time for those kids to grow up and start dropping $200-$300 per week. We need the adult males and we need them now.
Pitching Value is what Topps, UD and Playoff should be doing, and, better yet, putting value into packs would be a great help.
Bob Brill
Publisher www.thebrillreport.com
owner KC Kings Sportscards
October 10th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Bob - good to hear from you. I don’t disagree with what you are saying. But we wouldn’t have the problem right now if my generation (20 - 30 year olds) weren’t completely screwed over in the 90s with the false hope that our cards would actually be worth something. It’s just repeating the problems we encountered years ago. Kids will never stay lifetime collectors unless they love collecting for the sake of collecting (unless you’re one of the 1% out there like CardCollectingRambler who does his homework and can make $ buying and selling).
Now, should they ALSO be targeting my generation with $$ trying to get them back into the hobby? Hell yes, but I think we’re dealing with two separate issues here. I’m talking just about the kids, and just about the long-term well being of the entire hobby: and not just the well being of a hobby shop owner.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Good discussion guys. I agree that the thirty, forty and fifty somethings keep the shops open and the presses printing. But, I would love to see a study of how many of the afforementioned group did or did not collect as a child. I knew a ton of grown men that collected in the nineties trying to make money that did not collect regularly growing up. Many of them no longer collect today. I think the majority of adults that spend a lot of money on cards today collected as children.
So, it is a quandry what message the card manufacturer need to spread. I think both messages need to be used. Therefore, I think the time and place the ad is running should dictate what message to use. Saturday morning TV should focus on fun, interactive and base card issues as should Sports Illustrated for kids. But for Sports Illustrated, ESPN ect. the message should be more adult oriented with a mixture of messages to sell the big pull and the love of the sports.
Anyway, great discussion guys. Any others have thoughts?
October 14th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
As Joey says, the hobby needs both kids and adults and should market toward both. This seems an appropriate ad for SI.
I think the bigger problem is the lack of products available to kids. How many kids can afford $2.99 for eight cards? The hobby needs to find a way to develop quality products that appeal to both kids and the price sensitive adult. I know the hobby has tried countless times since the early 1990’s to develop such a set, but the hobby shouldn’t stop trying.