Review of the Cardboard News

March, 3 2007

By Adam McFarland

For as long as I can remember there have been three big players in Sports Cards and Collectibles news: Beckett, Tuff Stuff, and Sports Collectors Digest (the last two of which are owned by the same company - F+W Publications). The internet is changing things - anyone can compete with a few bucks and some happy typing fingers. I'd like to think that SportsLizard has made a small dent in the minds of collectors - in fact I know it has because of all the passionate emails I get.

The newest player that I've encountered is the Cardboard News, which is a hybrid print-web publication. The web version is available on their website, and the print version is mailed out for free on a bi-monthly basis. They appear to be supporting the (small) operating costs with advertising. Overall, it's a solid effort. Here's what I like and what I think needs improvement to compete with the big boys:

What Cardboard News Does Well:

They keep it free. These days advertising can be used to support almost anything a consumer uses (look at Google). By not charging a subscriber fee they give themselves a chance to compete with the more archaic productions like Tuff Stuff.
They write from the consumer perspective. 100% of the reason that SportsLizard has received the positive feedback it has from collectors is that I write to you as a collector with no affiliation to any company. The cover article in the March-April Issue by David Stadler entitled Leveling the Playing Field questions whether the decision by the MLBPA to only allow Upper Deck and Topps to produce baseball cards was really in the best interest of the consumer. Collectibles needs more people challenging the status quo.
Appealing to everyone. We all know that cards and collectibles are not as popular with today's generation of text-messaging MySpace kids, yet it seems too often that we put up this barrier to entry into the industry by not focusing on the new collector. An article entitled Some Ideas for Starting a Collection was written for the first time collector.
Encouraging customer interaction. They have sections like Burning Question, Player Collector Spotlight, and Cardboard News Contest that encourage reader participation.
The full magazine is available online, for free.
They have produced a free sports card toolbar with search options for eBay and Google, and links to important card sites like Beckett, Topps, and PSA.

What Needs Improvement to Compete with the Big Boys:

The print quality. If you are going to offer a print version it's got to better than stapled together sheets of paper. No one understands the cost of printing more than me, but you've got to find a way to produce a higher quality mailing.
No color...anywhere. The magazine is black and white and the site is solid black (coming from a web designer, that's a bad idea). Lighten it up a bit.
Online magazine is tough to read. The AJAXy magazine that allows you flip pages is cool, but the type is barely readable.
They don't publicize the toolbar enough. It's not even on the home page! That's one of the cool viral marketing tools that you guys have, make use of it.

Now I don't know if they even want to compete with Beckett and Tuff Stuff, but I personally think it's POSSIBLE if they patiently grow the magazine and the site. Great start fellah's!