[taffster74]

Modern collectors (those who got into cards in the 1990's onwards) were spoiled because of the variety of products and companies. We all have to remember that during the 1970's there was only 1 company producing NBA Cards - topps. Yes, upper deck and Skybox weren't around until the 1980's but fleer was definitely around. ditto for Parkhurst and O-Pee- Chee (I may be incorrect about them being individual companies but you get the idea). My point is, American collector's - largely - have been spoilt for choice. For Australian sports there has only ever been one company at a time. For years, Scanlen had the sole license for Rugby League, Australian Rules football and Cricket. When we had NBL bsketball cards it was only Futera who had the license (that last about four years). Futera also had the license for Rugby Union (that was very quickly shelved). Now? The last 12 years, the only company doing sports cards for australian sports has been Select and they've only done AFL and NRL. Now they've lost their NRL license (at least) and new company will be doing NRL. So people who whinge and moan about lack of competition better stop and think about how lucky they have been and how lucky they are to live in america in an era where there has been variety.