What Would Collecting Be Like If The Internet Were Never Invented?

Excluding medical advancements, I think it's safe to say that the internet is the biggest invention in human history since the wheel. Some may say that the automobile or air travel are pretty big deals too, but all those did was improve means of travel. Humans have been traveling ever since we sprouted feet. Nothing brought most of the world's information to your fingertips while you sit on your couch prior to the world wide web. I am literally writing this in my home, sitting on the couch with a dog, who doesn't realize he's not a lapdog, sitting on my lap. Tomorrow it will be accessible to all our readers across the globe. What a country.

Okay, you didn't come here to read my superficial take on something decidedly profound. Who cares that this global communication tool can literally save lives? All we care about is how it facilitates our silly hobby, or to the point of this article, what our hobby would be like today with out it (aside from the obvious fact that you wouldn't be reading this):



No Ebay. No message boards. No Facebook. We'd need Toy Shop to connect us to dealers, and events, and even facilitate trading with other collectors who aren't in our immediate area. Collectors would literally take out classified adds in this periodical to buy, sell, and trade. Just the other week, I coordinated a figure purchase from across the Atlantic ocean via instant messenger.



This one makes me sad. I used to absolutely love going to toy shows in the 90's, but their importance has been completely diminished thanks to Ebay and other online resources. Nothing beats seeing rare items in person. It's thrilling, so it's sad to have this aspect of our culture reduced. My best option now is a comic con, but those are usually 80% comic dealers and 20% toy dealers. I miss seeing an entire convention being dedicated to toys.



We'd have nowhere to go for our news. Obviously ToyFare came into existence post-internet, but it would take at least another decade before the web obsoleted print media. In the early days of the internet, we were all running 640x480 resolution on our scan-lined CRT monitors. See that image above this paragraph? That would be a standard size image back in 1997 when ToyFare launched. If you wanted to see high resolution images of collectibles, you needed hardcopy print. As with toy shows, I kind of miss getting ToyFare. I'm tired of constantly being glued to screens (as my ever worsening eyesight can attest).



This is another one that stings. Bain Capital's over-leveraging of Toys R Us didn't allow it to make the necessary investments to compete in e-commerce which was quickly becoming predominant. So without the internet, it would have spared the toy chain from a competitive force to which it was unable to adjust. It might have saved the company. I say "might" because that over-leveraging left Toys R Us vulnerable to any better business model, and even in a web-less alternate universe, one likely would have come along.



Brick and mortar locations would be better stocked in this hypothetical, but this would require you to leave your home. Yuck. I know there is nothing more gratifying that finding product in-store for many of us. It's an important part of the collecting experience for those of us who harken back to the days when it was the only option, but nothing beats the convenience of ordering entire cases on-line and waiting for them to be delivered to your door. I think we should keep the internet. This outweighs all the fun things it's made obsolete.

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