There's room for all of us in the hobby

It never shocks me when I see someone having something to say about the way someone else does something in the sports card world. I get it. It's a small community, and that can make some of us feel like it needs to be protected. For some of us, it's a business, for some of us it's strictly collecting, and for others of us, it's a mix of both.

The thing is, every community faces change, every community has newcomers, with new ideas and new ways of doing things, and frankly-it's a beautiful thing.

I remember when I first re-entered the hobby in 2011. I mostly watched from afar and bought boxes here and there. I wasn't yet running my DMN Takeover sales, and I didn't know where or how I'd fit in. Thankfully, there were a lot of great hobby members that welcomed me in, showed me the ropes, and connected me to even more great members of the hobby.

Even then, I saw people make commentary on message boards, twitter, and the like about there being new people in, about there being "too many breakers," and getting worried about anything from the price of cards getting too high, to the possibility of the industry being on a downward spiral.

Now, nine years later we can clearly see that the hobby did not die, the prices we worried were too high were nothing compared to now, and we didn't have a junk wax era 2.0.

I understand all the concerns, but I think this is a moment for us to go with the flow. To not freak out about all the newcomers, and to choose to welcome them in with open arms.

In my mind, it's actually really cool seeing the growth of this all. Of course it means the chance at prices continuing to rise, the increase of the occasional scammer, etc etc. But communities adapt and grow all the time, and so can we. I think the biggest disaster that could be had would be to play gatekeeper, pretending like we know who should be in and be out, pretending like anyone joining is here to just pump and dump the market as we side-eye their every move.

We can't know what's good and bad for the hobby for sure, so we may as well let it flow. I know it sucks to not be able to just walk into target and find a retail box that we want, but on another level, I think this increases the thrill. We can't just get whatever we want, at any time, and that's kind of the fun. The unknown, the uncertainty, the chase.

My hope is that this community keeps growing, that we see even more members come in, and that even more products for various income levels get produced so we can all experience the joy within our means.

But until then, when you see a new member, welcome them and expect the best. If you see them do the opposite of good, we can address that later- just don't trash them for being new.