[taffster74]

Again, you have chosen to only read what you want to read. When I compared basketball and European soccer, I was comparing the collectables market. And wether you like it or not, soccer as an international sport has a far larger following than any sport that has come out of america. I personally can make no sense out the game of soccer but I do appreciate that it has a huge international following. And, i don't know why people keep on insisting that the NBA "Forced" upper deck and Topps out in favour of a sole company with an international flavour. Upper deck and Topps chose not to match the offer that was presented - they were given the option and chose not to take it up.

Put it this way, if Upper Deck's bid to buy out topps in 2006/07 had have been successful and it was just upper deck putting out more and more ultra high-end stuff would you be jumping up and down with excitement for every new, over-priced product they brought out?

Edit
Simply put, stop carrying on as if the American sports market is the only market that matters. By completely ignoring all other sports markets you are proving an unfortunate U.S Stereoptype of being insular and thinking only of how great the U.S is compared to the rest of the world. Now, I know that not all American's think that way, but it is a perception of american's that is prevelant outside of America simply because there are a small selection of americans who have the attitude. Please do not make things bad by doing that same thing here. Please consider my comparison of other markets as a valid comparison in regards to variety/lack of variety.