Sports & Money: A baseball card exclusive....I like it

The MickHere's a case where less competition in the marketplace may turn out to be a good thing.

I'm talking about reviving the moribund market for baseball cards, which seem to have become irrelevant to youngsters today more interested in computer games and music downloads.

Late last week, Major League Baseball cut a deal with Topps, giving the longtime card trading company exclusive rights as baseball's trading card maker.

While this is a blow to Upper Deck and the handful of other companies that market baseball cards, this could help make baseball card collecting popular again. I mean, does anybody under the age of 15 collect cards anymore?

Part of the problem, as I see it, has been the corps of competitors -- all with their own line and design of trading cards. Walk into the drug store or a Target-type retailer and you'll see a long shelf of baseball card choices. Pack after pack from different companies and different card gimmicks.

In other words, there are so many choices right now that it's hard for any kid (or adult) to know what to collect. Again, a classic case of too many choices being a bad thing for consumers.

YogiAs as kid, I grew up on Topps cards and stale bubble gum in each pack. Back in the 60s, you could buy Topps or you could buy Topps. No Upper Deck, Donress, Fleer, Leaf, Score....
Sure, there were the occasional Bowman cards or the cut-out cards on the back of Post cereal boxes. But Topps was the brand. You paid your nickel, tore open the pack and hoped you didn't have duplicates of what you already owned.

The emergence of Upper Deck and some of the other companies brought innovative designs to card collecting. Buying and selling -- for big bucks -- also took off. Cards became big boy toys.

Card collecting seemed to peak in the early 1990s as adult collectors drove prices for those colorful pieces or cardboard upward.

Baseball cards simply become another commodity where a cards' value on Ebay was the one stat on a collectors' mind. Kind of took some of the fun out of a kid's hobby.

Since then, the market has drifted away. By some estimates, card collecting is one-fifth the size it was a decade ago.

Blame baseball for some of the decline -- player strikes and steroid scandals don't exactly draw in younger fans.

So, perhaps Topps will bring some stability to the card business. The company is owned by former Magic Kingdom (aka Disney) chief executive Michael Eisner.

"This is redirecting the entire category toward kids," said Eisner. "Topps has been making cards for 60 years, the last 30 in a nonexclusive world that has caused confusion to the kid who walks into a Wal-Mart or a hobby store. It's also been difficult to promote cards as unique and original."

Since Eisner bought control of Topps, the company has, among other things, introduced 3-D cards, and created a collecting Web site.

Upper Deck and other companies can continue to sell cards, but they will no longer have the rights to team logos and trademarks. They're toast.

I agree with Eisner that the card industry needs to appeal to the 8-to-12 year old again. That's the future.

Of course, this deal between Topps and Major League Baseball may be too late to bring in large numbers of new young collectors.

For many kids, the bottom line is that card collecting just isn't interesting and fun anymore. Heck, it's grown as stale as a piece of Topps bubblegum.