The REAL Sports Card Hobby Awards
Best Blog:
I haven't found one yet. Seriously, there are so many card-related blogs out there trying to be the "voice" of the hobby, collector, industry or whatever, and they all fail at what matters: writing. You'll find very little unique insight or creative takes on topics within the industry. Most of what these sites post are simply opinions regurgitated from the collective masses on the message boards. You'd think someone who took the initiative to start a blog would have their own opinion. Sadly this is not the case.
A lot of these blogs will post useless "reviews" of products with silly rating systems which are nothing more than glorified sell sheets. Even better is reviewing and rating products when you have a working relationship with a major card manufacturer. Zero integrity, zero credibility. These blogs are great at whining, but fail when it comes to offering actual, realistic ways to fix the problems of the hobby.
And the fact is the majority of these blogs solely exist to make the owner money via affiliate links and other advertising. You'll often see stories focusing on eBay auctions hoping the readers will click those links, making them money. Having a blog to make money is not a crime, but they need to admit that they are running the site to make money and are not really interested in being the "voice" of anything. Stop lying to your readership.
Best Forum:
I know the challenges that come with running a board with a lot of users. These problems are compounded when the boards are full of kids (and adults who act like kids) like most of the card-related boards out there. You have a lot of "internet tough guys" who believe having the biggest post count and lots of friends on a board make them something special. These people spend much too much time online making up for something lacking in their real lives.
That being said, each board has its own advantages. If you want comedy value, visit Blowout. If you want nazi mods and a forum leadership structure more complicated (and unnecessary) than a Fortune 500 company, go to SCF. If you want self-important kids who think they have more knowledge than they do, go to FCB. There is a reason most collectors frequent more than one board - it's because none of them do everything well.
What I wouldn't give for a board full of adults with years of real experience in the hobby, who break more than a few packs from the LCS and a blaster box from Walmart, who can be trusted when it comes to trades, sales and group breaks, and who don't care about post counts, reputation points or any other meaningless forum statistic. A true elite message board for VIP level collectors. Nah, that would never work...
Best Box Breaker:
This one is easy. You have to go with Chris from the Hobby Box (chri5784). Anyone who convinces people that they should buy boxes from his shop but let him and his buddies open them is a genius. Honorable mention to our friends from overseas at the allenmpc YouTube account. These guys have opened about 80% of the entire production run of Exquisite basketball, losing thousands of dollars (it is a UD product after all) and don't appear to be stopping.
