Around Baseball 2021

[Spanky__99]

Yeah someone mentioned Hutch, maybe a different thread and I was looking at tomorrow’s SP and saw Nolin

 

I just checked there debuts this year from last week, lol... Yikes!

[Spanky__99]

Nola, you hangy, Cronenworth bangy! What a huge HR.

[Spanky__99]

Both my relievers in that Rockies game got rekt...

[Spanky__99]

Cutch with the platinum sombrero, fugly.

[Stangstag]

Cutch with the platinum sombrero, fugly.

 

And an awful walk off wild pitch lol. Phillies suxxx

[Spanky__99]

And an awful walk off wild pitch lol. Phillies suxxx

 

They won't catch the Braves, imo. Far better team, kind of felt bad for Nola.

[BTS]

Archer left injured two innings into his return today.

[Spanky__99]

Archer left injured two innings into his return today.

 

lol... guess I'm dropping him, feel sorry for him as he's such a nice guy.

[BTS]

lol... guess I'm dropping him, feel sorry for him as he's such a nice guy.

 

Yeah, one of the best in the game. Sucks watching him fall apart.

[JFD]

Amazing that we swept the Braves twice. They would steamroll this team right now.

[Stangstag]

Amazing that we swept the Braves twice. They would steamroll this team right now.

 

Truth

[Spanky__99]

Truth

 

Or the Jays would win, weird game, baseball.

[King]

Is this Giants team sustainable or are they going back to s*** next year? All of their old guys are having career years.

[intentional wok]

Is this Giants team sustainable or are they going back to s*** next year? All of their old guys are having career years.

 

I felt from even mid-May that this is a 2013 Red Sox situation. Regardless of how 2021 ends, back to the middle of the road in 2022.

[Stangstag]

I felt from even mid-May that this is a 2013 Red Sox situation. Regardless of how 2021 ends, back to the middle of the road in 2022.

 

Spot on IMO. Too bad the Jays never have a lucky season like that...

[Spanky__99]

Is this Giants team sustainable or are they going back to s*** next year? All of their old guys are having career years.

 

I find this s*** Fascinating and still can't move, Longo, weird!

[5ToolPhenom]

I think Topps was very well-regarded by most collectors, and they’re pretty upset with MLB right now.

 

There's no doubt about it. Baseball card sales have been having a major resurgence. The hobby is booming and Topps with their baseball cards are the biggest name in the game. It's also a classic brand that many collectors grew up buying when they were kids so there's a brand loyalty aspect that comes into play.

 

Seems to me like it's a if it's not broke, don't fix it type of situation but I guess MLB sees the hobby resurgence and thinks "hey, we can get a bigger piece of the pie".

 

An unrelated point is that Topps has really upped their production levels for the 2021 releases and they're cranking out cards at unprecedented rate and some industry experts worry that it may be leading to another junk-wax era like they experienced around 87-95. So I think it's only a matter of time before the bubble bursts again and Fanatics gets the license in 2025. A lot could change by then.

[Laika]

There's no doubt about it. Baseball card sales have been having a major resurgence. The hobby is booming and Topps with their baseball cards are the biggest name in the game. It's also a classic brand that many collectors grew up buying when they were kids so there's a brand loyalty aspect that comes into play.

 

Seems to me like it's a if it's not broke, don't fix it type of situation but I guess MLB sees the hobby resurgence and thinks "hey, we can get a bigger piece of the pie".

 

An unrelated point is that Topps has really upped their production levels for the 2021 releases and they're cranking out cards at unprecedented rate and some industry experts worry that it may be leading to another junk-wax era like they experienced around 87-95. So I think it's only a matter of time before the bubble bursts again and Fanatics gets the license in 2025. A lot could change by then.

 

The next couple of years will be crucial for trading card brands. NFTs are exploding but it's still just the tip of the iceberg. The future of baseball cards will be digital.

 

Topps already has an NFT system with WAX.

 

I am not sure if the new company Fanatics has any involvement yet with NFTs.

 

It's interesting that the new deal starts in 2026. People who buy Topps NFT baseball cards in 2021 through 2025 will kind of be getting a piece of history. The first official NFT baseball cards and the last official Topps baseball cards. Hmmmmm smart buys?

[5ToolPhenom]

That's the first I've heard of the NFT angle. I really don't see that flying, but who knows. I mean, what would be the point? Plus, a lot of the most sought after cards are the autograph and relic inserts. Part of the fun with sports cards is that it's a tangible item. A lot of the community revolves around the sports cards expos and LCS's and that kind of thing. Also, card breaks online are very popular. Digital cards would take the entire fun out of it.

 

Would be madness! haha:p

[connorp]

Don’t forget video games too. Too bad us old timers didn’t forget to open our Super Mario bros game from the box. We’d have a couple million to show for it

[Laika]

That's the first I've heard of the NFT angle. I really don't see that flying, but who knows. I mean, what would be the point? Plus, a lot of the most sought after cards are the autograph and relic inserts. Part of the fun with sports cards is that it's a tangible item. A lot of the community revolves around the sports cards expos and LCS's and that kind of thing. Also, card breaks online are very popular. Digital cards would take the entire fun out of it.

 

Would be madness! haha:p

 

Look into it a bit more. Yeah you don't get the physical card anymore but you also get other benefits and you solve a lot of the problems with physical cards.

 

- You can't damage an NFT. It is in mint condition forever, so to speak.

- Ownership is verified on the blockchain. Counterfeiting solved.

- Transfer of ownership is instant and borderless.

- You can have animated or video "cards"!

- You can have redeemable NFTs that you can "burn" in exchange for a physical object.

- You can still do pack openings. Kids sit and watch streamers open packs from digital trading card games (even non NFT games like Hearthstone).

 

You can import the card collecting hobby, in its entirety, onto a smartphone. This makes the whole hobby so much more accessible.

[glory]

The next couple of years will be crucial for trading card brands. NFTs are exploding but it's still just the tip of the iceberg. The future of baseball cards will be digital.

 

Topps already has an NFT system with WAX.

 

I am not sure if the new company Fanatics has any involvement yet with NFTs.

 

It's interesting that the new deal starts in 2026. People who buy Topps NFT baseball cards in 2021 through 2025 will kind of be getting a piece of history. The first official NFT baseball cards and the last official Topps baseball cards. Hmmmmm smart buys?

 

From an article in June of this year:

 

"Candy Digital, a new sports non-fungible token (NFT) company backed by some heavy hitters including Galaxy Digital, has teamed with Major League Baseball (MLB).

 

Candy will build an MLB ecosystem to buy, trade and share officially licensed baseball content NFTs.

 

Galaxy Digital set up Candy Digital with entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and sports merchandiser Fanatics, which will be the majority owner, according to an announcement Tuesday."

 

So sounds like Fanatics is already involved in the NFT market with MLB, and Gary Vaynerchuk is big on card collecting, so him being involved is probably a good thing for the hobby.

 

Fanatics has time to build some type of trading card system if it chooses to. Hell, maybe even buying out Topps is an option down the road (Topps without MLB seems like it would hurt the company a lot).

[Abomination]

Look into it a bit more. Yeah you don't get the physical card anymore but you also get other benefits and you solve a lot of the problems with physical cards.

 

- You can't damage an NFT. It is in mint condition forever, so to speak.

- Ownership is verified on the blockchain. Counterfeiting solved.

- Transfer of ownership is instant and borderless.

- You can have animated or video "cards"!

- You can have redeemable NFTs that you can "burn" in exchange for a physical object.

- You can still do pack openings. Kids sit and watch streamers open packs from digital trading card games (even non NFT games like Hearthstone).

 

You can import the card collecting hobby, in its entirety, onto a smartphone. This makes the whole hobby so much more accessible.

 

I think the main concern people will have is what happens if the company goes under? Not owning physical copies also allows copies to go poof very easily. Several companies that deal in ultraviolet and other digital copies of movies have disappeared, so it does happen. If the NFT exchange for the cards is proprietary, it's very much at risk.

[Laika]

I think the main concern people will have is what happens if the company goes under? Not owning physical copies also allows copies to go poof very easily. Several companies that deal in ultraviolet and other digital copies of movies have disappeared, so it does happen. If the NFT exchange for the cards is proprietary, it's very much at risk.

 

Yeah it depends. You can never make the token address for the NFT go "poof" and some NFTs can be made with "metadata" that makes it so the visual of the NFT can actually be produced from the on-chain information. But it is true that current setups have the NFTs basically linked to a centralized UI/database. But there are a myriad of ways to do this and some are more lindy than others.

[metafour]

 

- You can't damage an NFT. It is in mint condition forever, so to speak.

 

But doesn't this eliminate the entire point/purpose of high end collecting? Or are you suggesting that this "submarket" of the trading card hobby needs to be weeded out entirely? The fragility/deteriorability of trading cards is what ultimately gives them value or long-term collectability. Lots of people still have Base Set Charizard Pokemon cards sitting in their basement, but the fact that these were generally held by children ~20 years ago means that they are likely to be in subpar condition in 2021 and hence not special. Now, a PSA 10 Charizard is a completely different story - hence why it's worth what it's worth. The only way I can see maintaining this submarket of trading cards in a digital landscape would be to offer extremely low population cards which would be valuable by way of their predetermined low population count, but that isn't really the "point" of what makes collectable cards a cherished hobby: a Base Set Charizard isn't inherently impossible to pull; and any random kid could pull one out of any pack purchased - which means that it could be enjoyed by not just serious collectors, but the actual general target market as well.

[Laika]

But doesn't this eliminate the entire point/purpose of high end collecting? Or are you suggesting that this "submarket" of the trading card hobby needs to be weeded out entirely? The fragility/deteriorability of trading cards is what ultimately gives them value or long-term collectability. Lots of people still have Base Set Charizard Pokemon cards sitting in their basement, but the fact that these were generally held by children ~20 years ago means that they are likely to be in subpar condition in 2021 and hence not special. Now, a PSA 10 Charizard is a completely different story - hence why it's worth what it's worth. The only way I can see maintaining this submarket of trading cards in a digital landscape would be to offer extremely low population cards which would be valuable by way of their predetermined low population count, but that isn't really the "point" of what makes collectable cards a cherished hobby: a Base Set Charizard isn't inherently impossible to pull; and any random kid could pull one out of any pack purchased - which means that it could be enjoyed by not just serious collectors, but the actual general target market as well.

 

The condition based pricing is just a way that scarcity is created over time, naturally. Say 50,000 gen 1 Charizards were printed but only 500 made it out of the decade in 9/10 or 10/10 condition...

 

NFT minting just creates known scarcity from day 1. You know (or can reverse engineer) the actual odds of pulling a certain type of NFT on mint.

With day 1 scarcity you can get somewhat appropriate market pricing a lot sooner than waiting years and years to see what survives and stays popular and in good condition.

NFTs would suffer from SOME temporal scarcity increases because certain tokens would get lost in wallets, stuck in dead owner's hands, etc.

 

Over time, who knows what this means as far as comparing traditional collecting to digital collecting. I'm sure there will always be a space for physical card collecting - there will always be aficionados. Will NFT collecting replace some of that market share or just function as a new industry?

[connorp]

But doesn't this eliminate the entire point/purpose of high end collecting? Or are you suggesting that this "submarket" of the trading card hobby needs to be weeded out entirely? The fragility/deteriorability of trading cards is what ultimately gives them value or long-term collectability. Lots of people still have Base Set Charizard Pokemon cards sitting in their basement, but the fact that these were generally held by children ~20 years ago means that they are likely to be in subpar condition in 2021 and hence not special. Now, a PSA 10 Charizard is a completely different story - hence why it's worth what it's worth. The only way I can see maintaining this submarket of trading cards in a digital landscape would be to offer extremely low population cards which would be valuable by way of their predetermined low population count, but that isn't really the "point" of what makes collectable cards a cherished hobby: a Base Set Charizard isn't inherently impossible to pull; and any random kid could pull one out of any pack purchased - which means that it could be enjoyed by not just serious collectors, but the actual general target market as well.

 

There’s basically a market for both. You have collecting in the traditional sense like you’re saying with Honus Wagner 1910 and Mickey Mantle ‘52 etc

 

…then in the same category of millions you have Mike Trout and Lebron recent cards- the non-traditional (value based on unique only)

[connorp]

Being a non-millennial, I only get the former

[glory]

There’s basically a market for both. You have collecting in the traditional sense like you’re saying with Honus Wagner 1910 and Mickey Mantle ‘52 etc

 

…then in the same category of millions you have Mike Trout and Lebron recent cards- the non-traditional

 

Agreed, I think both will have markets, at least for a while. This is not a scenario where technology made something obsolete. It's more of a matter of preference, and there will no doubt still be people who prefer having the traditional card, or possibly both. All bets are off when the Gen Z's and younger are taking up most of the space, since they would have grown up with a different mentality, but I don't think regular cards are in any danger for the next little while. NFT's and cards can both share space in the same bubble.

 

Now, if going away from Topps means MLB is going to double down on the NFT's and not put as much effort into physical cards, then that's a different story. Even the biggest collectors are not going to care if the quality of the cards are not great, so it depends on how this deal with Fanatics impacts how they proceed in both areas.

[Ray]

Marlins just called up Edward Cabrera, who’s going to be really good. Their starting pitching depth is ridiculous:

 

1. Sandy Alcantara

2. Trevor Rogers

3. Jesus Luzardo

4. Pablo Lopez

5. Edward Cabrera

 

And then they have Sixto Sanchez (if/when he returns), Eliaser Hernandez, Max Meyer, Zach Thompson, and Jake Eder either in the minors or currently injured. Embarrassment of riches.