Monogamy Sucks

Exclusive contracts suck in every way shape and form. Basically it prevents companies from releasing non-base cards of a player that has an exclusive contract with another company. For the company that has the contracts, it makes them money because collectors of that player will have to buy the respective products if they want the big hits. Now, not everyone is approached for exclusivity, just the bigger name guys. If you have obtained a lot of contracts, it really hurts your competitors - more than we care to accept.


Finding a non-UD Jordan auto is like finding Santa Claus - not possible.

Surprisingly, exclusivity is the biggest problem facing the Basketball card industry, in my opinion. Lebron, Jordan, Durant, and Kobe are all UD exclusives, meaning that anyone else is basically fucked when it comes to making Basketball products. Because of this fact, I will never touch a Topps basketball product because UD has all the big pulls on their side. UD has also signed a handful of the 2007-08 rookies like Horford and company, making it pretty much impossible to make any money busting a Topps product. Topps does have Oden, but that alone didn’t sway me once during the whole season. My analogy for this is like being able to date Jessica Alba, but you cant touch her - ever.


No touchy.

What's funny is that Topps Basketball is still releasing high end products like Triple Threads and Eschelon, even though I cant see a reason for anyone to take a chance on them. You know how they lure collectors in? They put thousands of "1/1s" in every case (as said before, thanks for ruining it Topps).

Baseball has exclusives too - all huge name guys as well, signed by guess who. Jeter, Griffey, Ichiro, and a few others are all UD property. Griffey has been with UD since they came on board, and he still shows no sign of breaking that. The only good thing is that baseball still has other guys that people want. The biggest thing that sucks for baseball collectors is that pretty much every HOF player has an exclusive contract which prevents a lot of collectors from getting some of their favorite guys. Biggest examples: Hank Aaron and Sandy Koufax. Both were DLP exclusives when they did baseball, and when they went the way of the Dodo, the contracts didn’t expire. That meant for Sandy, we had to wait for 2007 products before we had autos again. Hank Aaron will be under contract indefinitely with DLP and they arent giving him up, meaning no new Aaron autos from now on.

The only sport that doesn’t allow exclusives is the NFL (THANK THE FUCKING LORD.) Although All Day has a marketing deal with DLP, he can still sign for UD and Topps, which he does frequently. Same goes for Favre, Manning, and others. The only thing you cant do is put them on the display of your product. One of the reasons that football cards are such a competive market is because everyone signs for everyone. Collectors have more products to choose from, and normally designs/specs/collations are more thought out because of it. WE ALL BENEFIT.

So when Topps stops prodcuing Basketball, thank the exclusive contract for ending them. I think its fucking ridiculous, but again, the companies making the money don’t really care about us. They only think what is best for them. Thanks again for that, guys.