Over the next month or so I will be setting out my thoughts on the state of things, perhaps later I will go back an edit them into a more cohesive document but for now it will be as and when. I will cover all the major players and some of the smaller ones up to and including the distribution services available within the UK. Now however I will talk a little about the way things stand at the moment.
The forecast for the UK card market isn’t good and no matter what others might be saying this is a fact. Print runs are down overall and the market is becoming saturated, when you add this to the economic climate at the moment things are looking bleak. We are following the US closely and the market in that nation has dipped significantly. The major players n the UK seem to have their eye off the ball. The only real non sport manufacturer in and from the UK is Strictly Ink however we have sporadic distribution of other companies sets from across the pond, but this has become extremely patchy and unreliable since the demise of the Cards Inc group in mid 2008. Cards Inc for all there flaws (and they had many) could at least import and distribute sets from all major manufacturers to destinations across Europe and within the UK itself. Once they pulled out of the market this distribution process has basically come to an end. Those left are poor at best and lack to cohesive infrastructure, knowledge and interest in the subject matter to perform in any meaningful way. This has several knock on effects that are immediately apparent.
1. It is now more difficult to order boxes and cases of non sports cards in the UK.
2. It is more expensive to order the same goods, (an interesting side note to all of this was even with the UK Pound at it’s highest level against the US dollar prices were INCREASING rather than decreasing for US cards in the UK)
3. Because retailers find it more difficult to receive accurate information about upcoming sets and difficulty ordering them when they do have information they do the obvious thing and simply fill the shelves with other more profitable and easily obtained merchandise.
Point three is one of the most concerning, because we can still hope that a reasonably good distribution and sales service may materialize in the future (once the dust from the only real major player pulling out settles and some people pull their collective fingers out) points one and two are possibly salvageable. Point three strikes at the hart of the card market, availability and ease of purchase. Without this the market will not attract new blood, and without an influx of new potential collectors and customers things really do become black. We find the situation in which seeking out a new set is more difficult for the consumer than it is worth. Obviously the customer still has eBay (the great double edged sword of the card market) so they can import there cards directly from the US or other locations but this is not ideal because it sees a steady stream of customers leaving the UK hobby and simply becoming reclusive internet collectors… fine for them but what about the next generation of collectors? What will reel them into the hobby if we have nothing for them to see? TBC
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