I still love to collect vintage opc hockey , it reminds me of being a kid in the 70′s. However it seems the internet is mostly people who collect modern shinny cards. It sucks for vintage collectors. I also find that the internet has put a negative spin on the hobby. The hobby is now more about money than collecting and the love of sharing and learning about our favorite players, teams and cards. Most people don’t even look at the cards and certainly don’t read the back of the cards like we did. As kids we didn’t have access to all the information that kids do today. We used the backs of the cards to learn valuable information about the players.

None of this was possible without the web.

There are some bad experiences such as eTopps closing debacles, hype of short prints, cards not being what they are advertised to be and not being able to be returned because of being bought online from someone you don’t know. But there is always good and bad with everthing.

I personally use Ebay to see what common cards of a certain set look like, before I purchase. It is so much easier to compare picture quality and design prior to purchasing a box or a case. Yes, the hits are nice, but you can capture pictures of them anywhere. If I purchase two or three boxes of a certain product, I like to know that I would enjoy even the base cards and their design.

Card values and selling aside, Twitter and Facebook, have made being a fan a lot more fun. Athletes have taken to Twitter, and some even offer autographs for trivia, or milestones. The hobby in my opinion, (a very small insignificant one) has benifited hand over fist from the internet. Granted there are some people that are unpleasant to deal with, but that is true at Card Shows, Shops, and other places.

The internet has definitely been a good thing because it now opens up the hobby to everyone, not just those lucky enough to have a LCS or the ability and time to travel 100s of miles to get to one.

The internet has become the local card shop. It has become where I meet with friends and other racing nuts. Where I may have stopped in my local shop once a week or so i now check in every day throughout the day.

I get the choice of shops and yet I still need more. There are things that I still need to get from a brick and mortar store. The thing I have also noticed is the more successfull stores seem to incoroporate the best of both worlds.

They are there for their local customers and a place to meet other collectors. However they also have laptops or desktop computers in shop to help find that elusive card for one of their regulars. They can also help a customer unload their finds if a local collector doesnt need them.

When product doesnt sell locall, they can find a customer somewhere.

This maxmizes their business. Something I have noticed the last couple of years is more shops need to use the internet. I am not talking opening an online store or sell everything on ebay.

I am saying get a webpage. Even if its just a one page site that list your shop, hours nice items you have for sale. We were traveling for our annual family vacton to PCB. We always stop in columbus georgia for one night. I looked in the phone book [something i never use at home] and found out that their were two card shops.

I checked online to find information about them and couldnt. If either of these shops had a web page I could have looked at it from my hotel room. That way I would know if they sold what I was interested in and could take the chance on stopping by before we left town. Since their ads mentioned no details we didnt want to waste the time trying to find the store.

If I had more time I might have anyway, in florida i had found an ad in the phone book and decided to take a shot. When I arrived the place had closed. Shop owners invest in a site. You can get someone to make one cheap.

Most travelers now carry a laptop, tablet or smart phone. A google search pulls up your shop directions etc and you may get a lot more walk in traffic. I was mentioning this to the family and my niece said not everyone knows how to use a computer. My response is, if you have a business you cant afford to not know how to use one.

The internet has also allowed the card companies to communicate with the collectors. Well the smart ones do anyway. Who better to ask what to make than the customers who are buying or not buying the product.

One slight drawback to this. Collectors wanted more race used autographs per box, Companies gave us that then the collectors were mad the cards were not worth as much anymore.

I remember when the first issue of beckett racing was created. We were estatic. It gave us a real magazine just like the stick and ball sports. We had many card companies, a couple of diecast companie and life is good. Well then companies started dissapearing and there was only one. The magazine dissapeard. We can not fault beckett for it because the advertising was not there.

I still feel there is room for a magazine but probably not an print price guide. It would need to be more of a hobby magazine. more on cards collectors etc than prices. maybe even an emagainze. articles pictures etc just electronic form that you can buy off itunes. No printing cost but all the benefits otherwise. It would be cheaper to produce for beckett and cheaper to buy for the consumer. Who knows.

I do know this we are all in this together and if the hobby is to survive we all need to listen to each other.