(Non) Breaking News: Baseball Card Industry Still Struggling

ESPN.com’s Jim Caple had a rather amusing article posted on August 11th about Ken Griffey, Jr.’s Upper Deck rookie card and then the state of baseball cards as a whole.

I’ve previously written about the decline of baseball cards, specifically in response to Topps becoming the official baseball card retailer of Major League Baseball, and this article only furthers my point.  Baseball cards these days are essentially being created for older collectors who are willing to spend tens or hundreds of dollars on a pack to ensure that they land a special autograph or a piece of a game worn jersey.

Whatever happened to getting someone’s card and having them sign it for you?  Isn’t that more fun than opening a pack and finding an autograph of a player you’ve never seen face to face?

Granted, autographs aren’t the only reason to collect cards.  It’s supposed to be fun on its own.  The thrill of seeing which players you land in your pack of 12, hoping for a single Derek Jeter or David Ortiz Miguel Tejada Barry Bonds Alex Rodriguez …someone else… flipping the card over and checking out Jeter’s stats, nicknames and hometown.  Those days are over.

Too many different card companies and too many different card types under each brand – come to think of it, it sounds like the same problems the auto industry is having.

Maybe Washington can bail out the card industry?