Friday, October 10, 2008

Entertainment Cards Are Not The Way To Deal With Increasing Prices For Relics And Autos

Over the last years worth of products, we have seen some new types of cards enter the hobby, and most of the time it seems more like a ploy than an actual attempt to please those parts of the collector base. Whether it was Spectrum of the 80's hair metal guitarists autos from 2008 Spectrum Baseball, the entertainment letter cards in Icons, or even the MMA relics and autos in Americana, they all seem forced and uncreative. Topps had a very cool idea with the Marcus Henderson guitar pick card, and I think it would be cool to discuss some other ideas.

Regarding MMA, we all know that its pretty popular and has a big fan base, so it’s a nice thing that they are finally getting some cards when the WWF has had them for years. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel that the people who buy Americana probably wouldn’t want a Gina Carano auto. They seemed like the crap hits of the set. Coming soon, both topps and UD are releasing MMA sets, and I hope that they are cool cards for the sake of those fans, because there is some definite potential there for sweet relics from gloves, shoes, and ring attire.

As for inserting music people into a sports set, you guys know I think that sucks unless you are building a base set for fucking Allen and Ginter. Yet, if they were to do a music legends set with no sports people, or only sports people from entertainment (Shaq Diesel anyone?), I think that would be cool. Music relics and autos have been around just as long as sports stuff, so there should be some amazing things out there. Who would not want a concert used guitar pick relic card of Paul Stanley, or a chip of Hendrix's guitar. How about some Jerry Garcia tie dye relics? Fucking sweet. I would buy box after box of that shit. Throw some Sinatra and Kurt Cobain cuts in there and you have an amazing product with tons of potential.

Yes, I know this is a pipe dream, but that is the way it should be done. Not an afterthought in a sports set. That is my beef with this constant bomardment of crap, and I feel that there is a definite solution to this. I know its getting more and more expensive for atheletes to sign and even more expensive for them to get GUed stuff, but this is a money making possibility that could help to separate the two worlds.

10 comments:

  1. That is a bad-ass idea. They could even try to aquire concert used guitar strings and line up pieces of all six strings where the box for the relic actually goes. I for one would by this in a heart beat. I mean come on....Hendrix picks and Kurt Cobain memorabilia? That's sick. Good post!

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  2. I'm not really into the "used" stuff...but for those who collect memorabilia cards, your ideas would be great for them.

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  3. We (www.Cardcornerclub.net) talked about this very subject during the radio show we did at the National in August. I was going to post a link but we had some server issues and lost some archives and are in the process of reloading them. I'll post a link to the show when it's back up.

    I think there is definitely a market for a Legends of Rock or Legends of Music card set.

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  4. holy shit, if I had the chance to get cuts or concert used stuff from music's legends, I would buy a few cases for sure!

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  5. Amen!

    I collect the Spectrum metal dudes but not the rest of the set. I think of them as a seperate set from the baseball. As popular as classic & metal rock is, (just watch a few days of VH1 documentaries and see how many times they rerun the metal shows) and it's obvious there is a market for a card set like you describe.

    Horns up!
    GCA

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  6. I would pre-order a case from blowout cards in the hopes of getting that Gene Simmons quad cod piece auto with the semen stain. It's hard to find good Kiss memorabilia. They really should try to market themselves.

    Actually, I really would like memorabilia sets like you describe. I would buy them. Just keep them seperate from the sports sets.

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  7. I'm thinking it would cost a ton to get all the rights, not even counting relics or autographs.

    I'm sure Razor could do it though.

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  8. Yes, the rights would be huge. Thats why I called it a pipe dream.

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  9. Music based non-sports card sets don't sell very well. There have been a ton of music based sets, and none of them have been considered "successful".

    So pipe dream yea verily.

    Non sports doesn't sell NEARLY as well as sports cards do. Sets are much smaller also. I'm sure many of you know this already, but it bears repeating.

    I do think though that guitar pick cards would be very very cool. I actually own two guitar picks from the Barenaked Ladies, which I know for a fact were concert used because they GAVE them to me at that concert (we were in the pit and they shook hands with peeps in the audience, giving my wife one pick and I got the other). I framed them in a very small frame about card sized.

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  10. Yeah, concert used stuff is awesome. I have a drumstick that was thrown by Matt Sorum during the Cult's concert in minneapolis. I also caught a piece of Ian Astbury's tamborine, which was really cool too.

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