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Sudden price hikes for WNBA trading cards are benefiting new interest, but at what cost?

Posted on by Bobb
Sudden price hikes for WNBA trading cards are benefiting new interest, but at what cost?

I blinked and was kicked out of my personal collection.

My experience as VNBA card collector for 28 years was a constant stream of phrases: “nobody cares about WNBA cards” when I ask most dealers. Then hobby boxes 2024 WNBA Picks sold out in about three minutes on Panini’s website for a bargain price of $874—more than 500 percent more than the boxes of WNBA cards sold last year.

I think someone cares about this now.

Or for a lot of people, not like me, who came to WNBA releases all those years ago, we only had one option. These new people are definitely showing up in droves on live selling platforms like Whatnot to spend thousands on Select FOTL (first out of the line) breaks, where members buy the rights to every card of a specific team or player pulled from decks. opened. However, they seem especially disappointed when they don’t fall into one of the traps with one-word headlines like “edge” or “Angel” Breakers who can’t pronounce “WNBA MVP” Aja Wilsonname it correctly or leave it Nafisa Collier autograph aside from a bunch of other veteran players looking for someone specific.

Everyone is looking for a specific person. Maybe at the expense of those of us who are still foolishly gathering everyone.

Caitlin Clark this is someone who is a brilliant basketball player and an even more prolific marketing icon. And while her arrival in the WNBA opened the door to greater exposure and fan interest, her impact on the niche WNBA collectibles sector feels more like slamming the door on those who built inclusive WNBA card communities and promoted products when everyone told us no one cared. . . Setting prices for the most loyal customers and simultaneously raising prices sharply beyond the capabilities of new market entrants is not an effective strategy for long-term success.

As a sports marketing professor, I often discuss the two big R’s: reach and revenue. Reach is the expansion of your audience, and revenue is the money you generate. Take a look at any card forum on the Internet and it is clear that the growing popularity of the WNBA has attracted new collectors to the WNBA card market, as well as collectors from other sports. Clark’s collector craze is a dream come true for sports card companies to expand the reach of women’s basketball collectibles.

With so many new fans poised to become collectors, Panini and distributors would do well to rush to provide these newbies with accessible and affordable products to transform them from casual fans into lifelong avid collectors. But instead of long-term growth, the companies opted for $875 WNBA Select boxes. Dutch auctionsand a single FOTL Select hobby box for more than the cost of a whole box 2023 WNBA Prism. While Panini Instant offered individual cards for $10 and draft sets for $75 plus shipping, the tunnel vision of the rookie class provided a narrow window for collectors of new teams. Even as Panini maintained direct distribution costs at previous years’ levels, secondary distributors took advantage of the opportunity to increase box prices by 6x to card stores and online merchants. Years of loyalty buying WNBA products when demand was low meant nothing to distributors focused only on quick profits. Consumer outreach has been pushed aside for short-term gain. This was not a gradual increase over the course of a decade, but a sharp shift from one year to the next.

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Panini did not answer questions about price changes.

Many consumer goods companies strike a careful balance between reach and revenue, especially as demand and interest in their products soar. You’d be foolish not to take advantage and increase your bottom line, but the key is to find a middle ground that doesn’t alienate your long-term, most loyal customers. And that’s what’s so amazing about what’s happened in the WNBA card space.

I purchased a 2023 case less than a year ago. Origins of the WNBA cards for $599. The latest edition of the same release, 2024 WNBA Origins, now retails for $3,759. But no one cares?

I guess people care now, right? Or are they? Is the current state of WNBA cards a reflection of an incredible surge in hunger among the league’s fans, or are we witnessing a master class in how to exploit FOMO and consumers with limited experience with a niche product, all of which exist in an artificial economy built on gambling? ? This will be determined in future years.

Given that Panini holds the WNBA trading card license for at least one more year, and possibly three more years, it appears that he is abandoning the focus on expanding coverage and limiting the enormous opportunity to expand WNBA card collecting in pursuit of short-term profits , is disappointing. For example, paying $875 and getting a basic autograph from Shay Peddie and Katie Douglas is a disappointment.

Perhaps card companies and distributors are looking to upcoming draft classes with future eponymous “chases.” Names like “Page” and “JuJu” may tempt players looking for a quick shot, but what goes up must come down, and of course price increases of more than quadrupling in 10 months are rarely sustainable.

Who will be left when the speculators move on and the WNBA’s most dedicated and loyal, longtime collectors are alienated in the pursuit of maximum immediate profit? From a WNBA perspective, the question is: Who’s next?

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(Top photo: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)