Palin-Palooza

This is William posting, not Gellman. Any vitriol, hate-mail, kudos, offers of marriage or cases of free product should be sent to wmnoe at yahoo dot com, NOT Gellman, though if you want to send him cases of product, I won't complain much.

So I'm scrolling down my Google Reader list of card blogs that I read on a regular basis, and I see no less than FOUR pictures of ONE of the Sarah Palin Topps card that will be inserted into Topps Updates and Highlights Baseball which is releasing soon. That means that at LEAST four bloggers that I like and respect have posted their thoughts on the damn thing. I only recently got added to Upper Deck's Press Release email list, and I'm not on Topps as of yet, so I knew about this card, but not ahead of anyone else.

For the record, there are TWO Palin cards that will be released in the set, one is a standard blah-blah portrait shot of her today as a politician, and will be inserted at a reasonable ratio. The OTHER is the now burned into my retinas Prom Queen portrait of her repleate with tiara and roses. That card is supposed to be super-rare, and I'll bet that there are now more pictures of the card floating around the internets than Topps actually printed!

Before I give my take, here's what some of my fellow bloggers said:

Trader Crack looks like he had the first entry, saying "Gimmick lameness aside, politicians shouldn't have ANY attempted sex appeal. It also goes to show how seriously her running is being taken."

Dave and Adam's Card World which is about the most uncontroversial blog out there merely points out the release.

Cardboard Junkie says: "It's just another indication from Topps that they plan to sell their cards through gimmicky crap that people can chase to try flip on eBay for a profit and not though producing good cards that collectors want."

Stale Gum winds up his tacit approval with: "
Seriously Topps: WTF? None of the other candidates have had two cards, so why start now? And why just Governor Palin? If Topps is going to start making gimmicked inserts of the candidates youthful indiscretions, then dammit Topps, be consistent. I WANT A CARD OF OBAMA WITH A ROLLED-UP $100 BILL UP HIS NOSE! I WANT ALL FIVE OF THE KEATING FIVE! I WANT A JOE BIDEN/NEIL KINNOCK DOUBLE CUT-SIGNATURE AU! (Maybe those are the stealth gimmicks of '08TU&H?)"

My take: "WHY SO SERIOUS?"

It's not like Upper Deck isn't doing the EXACT SAME THING in SP Authentic adding cards of Democratic VP Candidate Joe Biden as well as Palin, though Biden's card actually goes with the rest of the dang set, and Palin's looks like an abomination that Topps wouldn't use for one of their many gross-out sticker series (Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, Hollywood Zombies).

Here's a news-flash people:

It's an Election Year

, people are interested in politics and who's going to try to fix the economic and foreign relations mess that 8 years of the Bush White House have left us. Sorry, not to get too political here, but it is true.

Next year's sets will have NONE of the political inserts that this year's sets do. Why would they bother? Get accept the fact that both major card companies are pandering to the collectors who actually LIKE this kind of thing (oh and I guess I'm one of them, since I'm putting all my political based cards in a special binder). Besides, Baseball and the presidency go way, way back, and Baseball IS the "national pasttime". There have been political cards printed in the past, even entire sets made of nothing but politicians.

In the end, it's all just a photograph on a piece of glossy cardboard. If you take yourself so seriously that one piece of cardboard ruins your day, then you should probably look into getting a new hobby. You might try model trains, they haven't changed much in the last 50 years.