Basketball Collecting Too Corrupt To Enjoy
 

Collecting was fun in the beginning when you didn't later find out it was full of shady people and transactions.

Ebay - constant hidden fees, shillers, and loopholes for scams
Paypal - sellers and buyers worst nightmares if something goes wrong
Trades - relies too much trust on complete online strangers
Forums - 99% crying(that's me)
LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
BO store - constant price fixing and changes to take advantage of customers

*insert thumbs down*

[B]LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
[/B]

I hate that its like that everywhere!!

[QUOTE=MikeMamba;2833640][B]LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
[/B]

[/QUOTE]

My LCS doesn't even order Basketball...it's ridiculous...

I worked at a LCS and used to fight to have a basketball case.. I feel your pain.. problem is the community for Bkb is all online. I'm sure stores in asia are 90% basketball lol

even singles at LCS, they have very few and if they do, they are overpriced compared to ebay....

[QUOTE=MikeMamba;2833640][B]LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
[/B][/QUOTE]

True for me too, my LCS sadly has stocks nothing in terms of boxes/packs of anything before the current year releases basketball wise. They do have singles though, so that's good.

As for these two


[QUOTE]Trades - relies too much trust on complete online strangers
Forums - 99% crying(that's me)
[/QUOTE]

I've had lots of success with trading in the past and it had really helped my collection for low end mid end stuff, unfortunately trading low end stuff is just not a great options anymore thanks to postage charges and a lot of people not wanting to deal in low end anymore.

On this forum there's a lot of crying and arguing, but at least it's lively. Sadly, a lot of the other forums are dead in the discussion sections.

[QUOTE=suki24;2833575]Collecting was fun in the beginning when you didn't later find out it was full of shady people and transactions.

Ebay - constant hidden fees, shillers, and loopholes for scams
Paypal - sellers and buyers worst nightmares if something goes wrong
Trades - relies too much trust on complete online strangers
Forums - 99% crying(that's me)
LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
[SIZE="4"]BO store - constant price fixing and changes to take advantage of customers[/SIZE]

*insert thumbs down*[/QUOTE]

i bought a case of sp sig for 950 from bo and i had so much fun i went back for a second only to see they upped the price to 1,299.95...said not a chance and decided against placing the 2nd order

So true about the bball, my lcs only. Has products that been sitting there for 3 4 year, and maybe 1 or 2 new boxes

[QUOTE=suki24;2833575]Collecting was fun in the beginning when you didn't later find out it was full of shady people and transactions.

Ebay - constant hidden fees, shillers, and loopholes for scams
Paypal - sellers and buyers worst nightmares if something goes wrong
Trades - relies too much trust on complete online strangers
Forums - 99% crying(that's me)
LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
[B]BO store - constant price fixing and changes to take advantage of customers[/B]
*insert thumbs down*[/QUOTE]

ummmm...supply and demand....

[QUOTE=bbplaya11;2834792]So true about the bball, my lcs only. Has products that been sitting there for 3 4 year, and maybe 1 or 2 new boxes[/QUOTE]

3-4 years? Are any of them 07/08 stuff?

Pretty sure most of the "higher end" and stuff people want to see from like 07-08 till last year are pretty dried up...UD stuff like Black, Premier, and Exquisite are the stuff everyone wants and no one wants to bust the lower end stuff so the shops don't order them

[QUOTE=armyatc22;2834827]3-4 years? Are any of them 07/08 stuff?

Pretty sure most of the "higher end" and stuff people want to see from like 07-08 till last year are pretty dried up...UD stuff like Black, Premier, and Exquisite are the stuff everyone wants and no one wants to bust the lower end stuff so the shops don't order them[/QUOTE]

All the stuff is almost double the price of blowout lol I try to talk him down but he never wants to go down

[QUOTE=suki24;2833575]Collecting was fun in the beginning when you didn't later find out it was full of shady people and transactions.

Ebay - constant hidden fees, shillers, and loopholes for scams
Paypal - sellers and buyers worst nightmares if something goes wrong
Trades - relies too much trust on complete online strangers
Forums - 99% crying(that's me)
LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
BO store - constant price fixing and changes to take advantage of customers

*insert thumbs down*[/QUOTE]

I agree with everything you said, and I've been saying these things for a short while now. It's the reason I'm on my way out of this hobby, there is no resurrection when corruption like this starts. It's all centered around more $$$ going into SOMEONE's pocket ... and that would leave no reason FOR it to stop.

eBay and Paypal are awful now ... high fees and so much risk as a seller, so much shilling as a buyer. I don't trade at all anymore because it so much of a hassle. Forums are OK, but with HK as an example, you still have so many people with their head's up their ***. I don't mess with LCS since any around me that were decent have gone out of business due to online monopolies, and any left are owned by old, stinky d-bags. And BO store ... I don't know either way on.

The hobby has obviously seen better days, and I personally don't see it recovering from this. Sportscards will go the way of POGs and other crap, only with a few rich guys and a bunch of huge scamming, shilling dealers existing.


Well, it's been pretty fun while it lasted! :D :)!

I've toned it down big time for a lot of the same reasons.

The main reason is because of market manipulation

It is killing the hobby, a $25 card suddenly starts selling for $1000 a week later.
Then all of a sudden its in demand, and every similar card that shows up after, tries to beat the last price which makes absolutely no sense.

These guys are making the hobby too expensive.

not to pile on, but I think the real problem is that there is no underlying hobby demand except for the same 3-5 superstars.
And everyone wants the super high end cards which squeezes out any demand/interest for "common" players (name a Spur that is overvalued for example). At least football and hockey you have team collectors!

[QUOTE=edhou1;2834978]not to pile on, but I think the real problem is that there is no underlying hobby demand except for the same 3-5 superstars.
And everyone wants the super high end cards which squeezes out any demand/interest for "common" players (name a Spur that is overvalued for example). At least football and hockey you have team collectors![/QUOTE]

Its been like that for ages and always will be

[QUOTE=Dacubs;2834803]ummmm...supply and demand....[/QUOTE]

umm a case from 0506..not much demand for it..i emailed chris and he said..one case gone..harder to find..worth more

Don't forget corruption from manufacturers like Panini... They are a big part of the problem with their Mapp program and horrible customer service and Finally stupidity when planning the 11-12 season.

buy the ocassional box, pick up singles, always pay goods, try to avoid selling on ebay = me = a hobby thats enjoyable.

The problem is there are not enough companies that produce cards. And quality cards at a reasonable price that are well designed without over producing them by the sh t load! When there are fewer of anything the demand goes up. But when they continue to make hundreds of the same peoples autos over and over and over who is left to keep buying? The price should be way lower for people who buy in bulk. There are very few people that can bust cases for a hobby because the roi is so bad because the market is watered down with thousands of stickers that are multiplying into millions as we type.

That's why i'm almost done with this hobby....

[QUOTE=suki24;2833575]Collecting was fun in the beginning when you didn't later find out it was full of shady people and transactions.

Ebay - constant hidden fees, shillers, and loopholes for scams
Paypal - sellers and buyers worst nightmares if something goes wrong
Trades - relies too much trust on complete online strangers
Forums - 99% crying(that's me)
LCS - never stock enough BBall stuff
BO store - constant price fixing and changes to take advantage of customers

*insert thumbs down*[/QUOTE]


This is exactly why I left the hobby a little over a year ago. Man I want to collect so bad again but just don't feel like its worth it with all the above [B]FACTS[/B]

added to all this is the fact that the card company's staff are stealing our redemption cards and making up BS to not fulfill their end of the role

i pulled a redemption card, redeemed it, presold it and now the card company said that their previous staff stole some of the cards including mine

it hurts when you have to sell your PC to raise $3k to pay back the buyer, who's more bummed about not getting the card.

this is not to mention other cards that are apparently stolen that i have with them.

[QUOTE=crackberry;2835257]added to all this is the fact that the card company's staff are stealing our redemption cards and making up BS to not fulfill their end of the role

i pulled a redemption card, redeemed it, presold it and now the card company said that their previous staff stole some of the cards including mine

it hurts when you have to sell your PC to raise $3k to pay back the buyer, who's more bummed about not getting the card.

this is not to mention other cards that are apparently stolen that i have with them.[/QUOTE]

What company was this?

[QUOTE=crackberry;2835257]added to all this is the fact that the card company's staff are stealing our redemption cards and making up BS to not fulfill their end of the role

i pulled a redemption card, redeemed it, presold it and now the card company said that their previous staff stole some of the cards including mine

it hurts when you have to sell your PC to raise $3k to pay back the buyer, who's more bummed about not getting the card.

this is not to mention other cards that are apparently stolen that i have with them.[/QUOTE]

Wait, so did they end up giving you a different card or basically tell you that you were SOL? That is the dumbest thing I have a heard a card company do yet.