Monday, September 22, 2008

Jumping The Proverbial Shark

If there is one thing I hate, its people who take the idiot 10 commandments to heart. If there is one thing I hate more than that, its people who do it regularly on YouTube. Thus, it got me to thinking, has YouTube box breaks and card collecting jumped the shark to the point where it is better to just avoid it completely? The nennth inning has a good post with his feelings, and I feel generally the same way.

As it seems for this moment in the YouTube space/time continuum, there are 2000:1 odds of people who are mind rapingly annoying versus people who arent annoying. I have found, much like the nennth inning says, that there are more middle and high schoolers than I ever remembered there being. These 13 year olds videotape everything from their collections to their maildays, and they very rarely post anything relevant to other users. When they are done with this annoying practice of idiocy, they go on everyone else's videos and leave nothing but comments like "FIRST!!!oneone" and "Nice MOJO!"

Now, if they dont like anything about the video or cant identify with it, they immediately leave some of the most evil and gross comments you will ever read. That is pretty fucking sad to see, especially if you are new to collecting, or god forbid, new to youtube. Personally, they exhibit everything I despise about the hobby, boiled down and separated until you have the raw makeup videotaped before your eyes. They are Joe Collectors before the age where they can actually be considered such. If you wonder where the idiot conglomerites come from, they come from these people.

The scary thing is, I can only think of two people I can watch on youtube on a regular basis. The first is Chri5784, only because he doesnt focus on anything other than the box. Its a minimalist approach, and I can handle that. The second is arplatinum, only because he breaks so much stuff, and does it by the case. His breaks are minimalist too, but the commentary is that much more annoying.

You are probably wondering what I am doing promoting box breaks on YouTube if I can barely stand it. Well, to tell you the truth, its the easiest and free-ist way to show people you arent scamming them on the group breaks we do here. You cant just post scans, that would be too easy to leave out a good card. So, I use it for help with SCU Breaks. I also use it as a way to reach a lot of people when I need to get out a message, but that will cease pretty soon.

All in all, I would say that YouTube has brought a new element to card collecting, but it has also made for a way to help fuck faces get their face on people's minds. On whether or not the shark has been jumped, right now, if you are a regular box breaker, consider it jumped. We have far entered the parody stage of the spectrum. For specialized usage, ill keep it for my selected viewers.

8 comments:

  1. First!!! Just kidding. The thing that annoy's the fuck out me is watching a pre-pubescent bitch boy opening a 200 dollar box. When I was his age I skipped lunch and used my lunch money for cards. Maybe it's just jealousy, I don't know. Maybe I'm turning into a bitter old collector at age 34.

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  2. Hey, I never opened more then a pack at a time at those kids age. I had to save for it. When I got my first job at 15, I paid for my own stuff, but i didnt buy many cards.

    Thats the difference. I cant stand to watch the tweens on YT open sterling and exquisite. Its like getting a BMW for your first car - just wrong.

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  3. I remember saving for months just so I could buy a $15 box of 1989 Donruss!...and then Upper Deck came out and I only dreamed of opening those packs!

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  4. Yeah, my biggest first purchase was when my mother was in charge of the front registers at Wal-Mart. At the time, Wal-Mart ordered cards themselves, instead of having vendors do it (this was 1987).

    They ended up heavily over-ordering 87 product (what a shock) and she ended up putting /tons/ of it on clearance all the way down to a nickel a pack. We ended up buying most of a case of 87 Topps and maybe some Fleer for like $30.

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  5. I have at least 3 posts like this on my blog. I HATE HATE HATE these video breaks. My peeves (spelling) differ only somewhat. I hate hearing the kids talking like they are middle aged businessmen for one. Then they pull the hits and act like they could give two shits about it. I got a Gary Sheffield Rookie once out of the 89 UD and almost passed out. It was about the players I loved and admired far beyond what they were worth. I could careless about them. These kids post way too much. I dont care about their Ebay accounts. Frankly I dont care about their breaks either. And yeah, I still would like to be able to purchase hobby boxes at the rate these kids do. And I make good money!!! I'm done.

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  6. yes, yes, yes, everyone's comments and your follow-up post hit the nail on the head for me. It is everything that I feel is wrong with YouTube videos and the kids making them. most of the people who commented on my post agreed too, except for the last one; interesting take for that person.

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  7. Remember collecting hockey cards around 1991-1992.

    I bought 1-2 packs per week on avg. for a couple of bucks each. That's what I could afford. Back then I was 11-12 years old, kids on Youtube that age breaks a full box and on regular basis on top of that.

    I spent maybe $200 over a span of 2 years collecting when I was that age (which my parents thought was way too much). I'm sure there was kids back then who broke boxes as well but I'm positive they are far more common these days.

    There are very few Youtube posters I can enjoy, Chri5784 also being one of those and the only one I watch on regular basis.

    Another note on boxbreaks seen on Youtube. What's up with all the fatfingering the high end cards. That's probably what keeps me from entering most group breaks, most people don't handle the cards as carefully as I'd expect them to do. In my book you never use your fingers on the cards, who wants fingerprints on their $50 card?

    What I also hate about some of these breakers is when they go like:

    "Blowout cards, best way to get your cards"

    "This break is sponsored by Blowout cards - cheapest cards on the net"

    "Did you see this Peterson we just got? Now people who don't buy from Blowout cards must be retarded"

    and so on...

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  8. See the blowout thing is there for a reason. If they "sponsor" your break, they usually give you price off the box equal to what you spend on shipping. Trust me, shipping is fucking expensive, and to get that discount is huge. I have no problem with that.

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