As we hit the turn of the calendar year from 2020 to 2021, there were many prevalent themes in the hobby this past year to reflect upon. I’ll start with the first three that came to mind when I looked back on 2020 - COVID, Chrome, and Card Heads
COVID
The worldwide pandemic brought on by COVID created a dynamic in the hobby that I don’t think anyone anticipated. At the very least, I didn’t see or hear anyone predict it in the first few months of 2020. Most folks, myself included, felt that the Hobby would likely suffer during a Pandemic. Literally the exact opposite happened.
Card Collecting across all sports, baseball included, exploded in 2020. Demand FAR outstripped supply. Box Prices, Card Prices, and Card Supplies Prices all went through the roof.
There are many reasons for this overheated bull market and some of the ones oft-quoted are below, although there are likely many other factors at play here as well.
People who used to collect were now stuck at home in quarantine digging out their old collections and reconnecting with the hobby.
People suddenly having non-essential money to spend on hobbies rather than travel, going out to eat and drink, etc.
Product supply slowed to a trickle due to upstream manufacturing shut-downs and delays, especially in the first half of the year, but still ongoing and creating artificial price inflation.
Stimulus checks were also another popular factor cited as a contributing factor.
The last one I will mention is Card Heads, which I will dive into a bit more below.
No matter the reasons, here were some of the many side effects:
Quality Control - Quality issues seemed to multiply, although that is hard to quantify. Using just Bowman as an example:
2020 Bowman Draft Colored Paper Parallels have been terribly off-center/mis-cut.
2020 Bowman Chrome, Philip Clarke had “autographed” cards packed out with no autos on the card.
2020 Bowman Baseball Sapphire Edition, almost every Bobby Witt base card, one of the two chase cards in the product, had terrible centering.
Shipping - None of the major shippers, USPS, FedEx, and UPS, were prepared for the huge surge in items being shipped as people shifted the majority of the in-person purchases to online purchases. Coupled with the loss of staff due to COVID, this resulted in a high volume of lost packages, significant delays, and packages damaged. With the decreased opportunities for face to face interactions in the hobby, shipping cards for sale and trade became even more of a linchpin activity. Shipping not being what we were used to pre-COVID hurt the hobby across the board even if it didn’t do more than stub the toe of the bull market.
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo - The amount of people breaking cards out there has never been higher, and I personally saw a huge increase in people taking their shot at it (some succeeding, some failing). With the huge demand for cards, more and more folks rushed in to fill the gaps. Prior to COVID, Breakers putting together retail-only breaks was a rare occurrence. Since COVID, it has become a regular occurrence as everyone, breakers as well as collectors, struggled to get their hands on cards.
Chrome
Moving on to the next major theme in the baseball collecting world - the continuing movement towards Chrome products. Topps didn’t just knock on the chrome door this year, they knocked the chrome door down. In addition to Topps usual slate of Chrome products (which are plentiful), they added at least four new standalone or “edition”-based products. Allen & Ginter Chrome, Stadium Club Chrome, Topps Chrome Ben Baller Edition, and Topps Chrome Black. They also added Chrome inserts to their Pro Debut prospect product. And I won’t be surprised if this trend continues in 2021 - I am already expecting to see a 2021 Topps Chrome Even More Chromed Edition.
Card Heads
Sneaker Heads and everything that comes with it have jumped into the hobby with both feet in 2020, leading to the popularization of the term “Card Head”. Leading the charge has been Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee) and plenty of other sports card “investors”. This is not the typical buying cards and boxes to make a profit while also being a responsible participant in the hobby. This is clearing the shelves of retail products and reselling at significant multiples, ripping and flipping every possible product, using bots to buy all the hot online products, and pumping and dumping products and cards, often via paid subscription services. Card Heads are taking full advantage of the current state of the hobby, but will they be in it for the long term? A lot of people in the hobby probably hope not, myself included.
Other Themes
Project 2020 - Encapsulating some of the best and worst of collecting baseball cards in 2020, Topps had a great idea and got in way over their head with this. I won’t spend much time on it as many others have beaten this topic to death, but I also couldn’t leave a year end retrospective without giving it at least a passing mention.
Phil Hughes - Ex-MLB pitcher Phil Hughes started a youtube channel, Phil’s Pulls, in late 2019 and has become one of the most popular and sometimes controversial known figures in the hobby. I enjoy his content and look forward to his opinions and youtube videos, even if I don’t agree with some of his takes.
Bowman 1st Editions - Another new product in 2020, Bowman 1st Editions, were done for 2020 Bowman Baseball and 2020 Bowman Draft. I am not the biggest fan of it as it is a bit of putting lipstick on a pig, but I am also a sucker and picked up some packs when they were available direct from Topps.
Topps Update - Given the huge impact of 2018 Topps Update, it would be hard to kill the value of future Topps Update products, right? Well, somehow, Topps did it. In a year where finding products on the retail shelves and seeing most products easily being more expensive than they were on release dates, 2020 Topps Update has managed to be found regularly on most retail shelves and typically selling at a 25% or more discount from release day prices.
The Rookies - The big Rookie cards this year started off with Yordan Alvarez, Bo Bichette, Gavin Lux, and Aristedes Aquino. The year ended with only Bo having that staying power with the replacements being Luis Robert, Kyle Lewis, and Randy Arozarena.
The Prospects - Starting off the year, Jasson Dominguez and Bobby Witt were the big chase cards in the first main release of the year, 2020 Bowman Baseball. Bayron Lora was the main attraction mid-year with 2020 Bowman Chrome. And Spencer Torkelson, the #1 overall draft pick in 2020, highlighted the most recent release in 2020 Bowman Draft. Not much has changed here, as prospecting tend to be about playing in more of the long game, especially in a year where there were no minor league games to change prospect opinions.
Topps Website Issues - Another thing I have to mention but won’t dive deep into is that the main baseball card manufacturer has regularly made buying their product direct from their website an absolute nightmare. Their raffle system that they implemented for some of their limited online exclusives was a decent attempt at making things better, but overall, their website and online purchasing process leaves a lot to be desired.
Grading - Getting cards graded, mostly for resale purposes, has also exploded, to the point where two days means 10 days and 30 days means 6 months (if you’re lucky) when submitting cards to be graded with the main players in the grading space. Add in the hyper-inflated prices for a high graded card versus a raw card and it becomes impossible not to mention 2020 in the hobby without mentioning the theme of grading cards.
Card Doctoring - In the first half of 2020, trimmed and doctored cards, often graded as legit by the grading companies, were being sold without the buyers being aware and got a lot of negative publicity in hobby circles. Unfortunately, as with most things in 2020, most people got outraged and then moved on without much of anything changing despite the hullabaloo.
Final Thoughts
Favorite Product of 2020 - Last year it was a toss-up between Topps Holiday (still waiting for this year’s version - looking at you Topps) and Bowman Heritage (rest in peace). Because I love prospecting, Bowman Baseball, Chrome, and Draft are almost always on my list of favorites. But this year I will go back to an old reliable - Stadium Club. As usual, there are no better pictures on a baseball card than in Stadium Club. And this year it is at the top of my list because of two cards - the Mark McGwire Bash Brothers card and the Mike Yastrzemski card. McGwire was my favorite player as a kid, and Yastrzemski is one of my current favorite Giants. When I saw Yaz standing next to his grandfather in his card, I immediately said that I have to own that card. I did not say that about any other card/product in 2020. Bowman Baseball, Bowman Draft, Topps Finest Flashbacks, Topps Inception, Bowman Sterling, Topps Archives Signature Series Retired Player Edition, Topps Archives Snapshots, and Panini Donruss Optic baseball are all honorable mentions.
Favorite Card of 2020 - As you can guess, my personal favorite card of 2020 is the Mike Yastrzemski Stadium Club card. Even better is that there is an auto version of this card, so it makes it an easy choice for my favorite card. Honorable mentions include the Mark McGwire Stadium Club Bash Brothers card, the Mark McGwire Blake Jamieson Project 2020 card, and the Mike Trout Topps Now Road to Opening Day Summer Camp card.
Collecting Goals in 2021 - In general, continue to grow and learn, make new friends in the hobby, and expand my horizons. Specifically, acquire more vintage, junk wax, post-junk wax (when I was out of the hobby), non-MLB baseball cards like NPB and KBO cards, and, of course, continue prospecting.
I cannot wait to see what 2021 brings, both inside and outside the hobby.