When the discussion turns to what card collecting was like in the “good old days,” we usually paint pictures involving images of 5-cent packs, kids putting cards in their bicycle spokes and collectors opening packs and trading with friends in the hope of obtaining those last elusive cards needed to complete a set.
We know that the 5-cent packs have long disappeared, and I’m not sure kids have considered putting cards in their bike spokes for quite some time, but set builders do, indeed, still exist in today’s hobby. Granted, most of today’s products are constructed in ways that make it virtually impossible to build complete sets, but that’s not the case with all products.
It’s far easier to create some headlines with news of a 1-of-1 insert card of a new product selling for thousands of dollars than the story of a 45-year-old man who just completed an online trade for the last four cards he needed to complete a 2004 Fleer Baseball set. But while the first story will turn some heads, the last story is what will keep the hobby alive and well for decades to come.
Set builders are to collecting what that group of five or six people who stop by every morning for a coffee break are to a local restaurant. They might not be the biggest customers in terms of volume or revenue, but they are loyal and long-term customers.
Today's card makers have anywhere from 12-20 card releases per sport, so they have to cater to everyone from the novice card buyer to the big-game hunter who buys packs solely with the hopes of hitting an easy-to-sell insert. Not every product needs to be focused on set builders, but a handful should be for one primary reason – building sets are part of the very fabric of card collecting.
Actually, that shouldn’t be the only reason. The fact is that encouraging set building is a way for the industry to get past the “instant gratification” mentality that is now firmly entrenched among so many collectors who view products as nothing more than a place where hidden cardboard jackpots reside. Those buyers will leave the hobby at some point when something more financially gratifying comes along. From the standpoint of establishing a collector mentality among buyers, set building is the best way to turn occasional customers into long-term buyers.
To encourage set collecting, the industry needs to overcome some of its own well-placed roadblocks. Not only do card manufacturers need to create products that are set-builder friendly, but card stores must encourage set building by offering a reasonable amount of singles for recent releases and offering opportunities for customers to trade, either with the store or with other customers.
And while short-printed base cards and higher pack prices have made traditional set building more of a challenge than in the past, it has created other set-building opportunities. Some collectors have opted to purse team sets, or some of the specially themed (and not too scarce) insert sets. Single-player collecting is an obvious choice, as well, along with other themed-set options.
No matter if it’s set building as most of us know it, or building a set based on a more refined concept, encouraging card buyers to try and obtain every card within a defined group is the best way to groom long-term collectors as opposed to temporary visitors to the hobby.