Friday, May 11, 2012

Cards, kids and our hobby

We really liked the topic Upper Deck brought up this week. What should we do to get kids interested in collecting new trading card sets? I like to twist their sentence a little and put it as, what should we do to get kids interested in the hobby in general? 

Here is the idea I had posted on there:

"Here is a new/old idea. How about introducing kids through collecting by putting 1 or 2 cards into cereal boxes? This hasn’t been done too often since Post had them in their boxes in 93 and 94. Have a checklist of about 10 players and have one card per box of cereal. And from here move onto other foods as well. Kids love food. You can put mini cards into boxes of Cracker Jack. Put them into fruit snack boxes. I was a kids once and nothing was more exciting than finding something special in my box of food.

Thats just a start. Put cards and video games together. In order to get kids into this great hobby, you have got to target their favorite spots. If they really dig what they find in their box of cereal or in the other foods or video games for free cards, it could push them into buying the real stuff.

But there has got to be a kid friendly brand(s) out there for them to purchase. Not something too expensive (I have seen so many parents not buying because of price), too confusing (meaning no Sp’s and variations), or too much in depth with the product. They need something simple, colorful, eye catching and on a kid level. Die cuts, refractors, cards that you can feel (ones with felt or bumpiness) could be attention drawers.

And maybe besides sports, doing their favorite tv shows might be a draw in. You never know."

This was only part of an idea I had. There is a ton of stuff we can do to fix the hobby to draw interest from younger fans.

I now post this question to you guys...what do you think we or card companies should do to draw in a younger fan base so the future of our hobby doesn't disappear?

5 comments:

  1. go back to basics in the 90's they were affordable you could get packs for 2 bux. with the demand for auto's that is crushing the market like they did with jerseys making them almost worthless. you used to be able to go to the store or shop and get a slew of 50 dollar boxes and those were simpler times even as an adult i cannot afford to buy some of the packs out there.upper deck has turned into a glorified press pass or sage hit.which there is no point in buying any of it unless you collect college stuff. all the old stuff was nice but short lived accetates,dufex,trophy collection, artist proofs but they got to do something without overloading the product so it holds some value. in the direction card companies are going right now i dont see a resolution in the near future. ive been collecting for 25 years and what their doing is ruining the hobby for collectors,kids,set builders and the card market. thats just my 2 cents!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like Don Titan's idea. Make stuff affordable. I consider myself part of the youth of collecting (I'm in HS) and that's something I can completely endorse.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have to reiterate the cost problem. Score football and Opening Day baseball are kid friendly products, but what else is there? Stuff that is four, five, fifty, a hundred dollars+ per PACK? Some kid-friendly contests in those products would be good, or a way for kids to save up even retail wrappers to mail in for special cards. Make game-used cards within their grasps is crucial. For us "big kids" we complain over a "crappy" relic but how excited is a 10 year old over that same relic? Priceless.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think make less of them so there worth more but make them affordable to buy . Advertising on TV I think would go along way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think this "problem" can be solved. As a teacher, I have dealt with kids for 12 years now, plus another 5 as a comic book store owner. In my opinion, the demand for cards just isn't there. Addressing the supply side of the issue won't fix this. Kids just aren't into baseball as much as they used to. There are too many other avenues for them to spend their money on these days. If anything, football may be the key.

    ReplyDelete