Dear Card Companies, Card Store Owners, and Collectors, etc.

I have been collecting cards all my life and am at the point where I want to quit but I can’t. I am sick and tired of wasting what little money, I have on a hobby that views me as a cash cow and not a human being. I feel like cards are drugs and collectors are the addicts. We chase the illusive autograph or game used card instead of the drug induced high. As far as I am concerned, it is all the same.

I am convinced that card companies don’t care about us. I know that they are just trying to survive in a bad economy. We all are. Card companies just go about it, the wrong way. To me card companies and the middle men who sell them are just like the drug dealer who doesn’t care about his buyer. They give you just enough to come back for more. I am sick of walking into a card store and getting laughed out when I tell them my budget.

There are a few good guys in this hobby. (Alex and his wife at Valley Sports Cards, you are the best.) For the most part however this hobby is saddled with people who trying to screw you over just like the card companies do. The only difference is that instead of calling it screwing you over, people call it good business. Unless you are building a set, the average person buys a pack of cards like they do as if they would gamble. They put that money down in the hopes getting a good card in return. How often does that happen though? How often does a collector say that he got his money worth? It happens when you buy cards on ebay, but I guarantee you the seller is cursing out the world for getting 10 cents on the dollar. I feel like I am better playing off the lotto. You hear of these amazing pulls but the fact is, the people that get these pulls are not the average collector. They are people who are cracking open cases. How many people really have the money to buy a case? I barely have the money to buy packs.

I am sick of it. I am sick of spending 20 or 40 dollars worth of money on packs and getting nothing in return. I kick myself because I could have put that money towards a good book, gas money, or one of the teams that I coach. I am in this hobby because I love sports and cards are a connection to it. I have been collecting cards all my life and am at the point where I want to quit but I can’t. As a kid, there was nothing better than opening a pack and pulling a rookie card of my new favorite Dodger who debuted that season. I will gladly take any suggestions on a new hobby that I can devote my time and energy to, that will reward me.