Jack of all Trades (Review)

This documentary is described as a man, re-connecting with his Dad thru fond memories of baseball cards. It sounded great and I decided to give it a try. I loved the cover after all and it spoke to a past time of my own when I was in the hobby of collecting too.

And the description is generally right, however, this film comes up short in so many ways.

First off, the man who stars in the film has no idea baseball cards have declined in value over the years. Proving how naive he is with the hobby. Right then and there I should have stopped the movie but I let it play.

He then goes on a quest to find out what happened to the hobby though it's with mild interest and not that of a true fan of baseball. It throws together a meeting with his Dad (who he hasn't seen in 20 years) as it's "finale" but it's so underwhelming you wonder how much of it was planned.

I would imagine more than half of the documentary was pre-planned.

Also the "Where are they now" post credits are filled with incredible mis-information, which I blame on his ignorance into the hobby and not him trying to be deceptive.

For one, he states that Upper Deck got out of the business and Tops is the "last man standing in the baseball industry" Not true. Tops got exclusive rights to baseball cards and locked everyone out years ago but the director is so lazy he never bothered looking in to it.

Tops is portrayed as this brave company, standing tall for the hobby that most people have abandoned when in truth, they're the reason it's been destroyed.

Horrible business practices, creating a false sense of scarcity in the market and horrendous lack of concern for their customer base has brought the hobby to its lowest point to date.

I hope one day someone makes a better film about this topic. It's well worth looking in to for some one who knows more about the hobby and not by someone who's shocked to discover his 1989 Jose Cansaco card is worthless.