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My god, this breaks every rule in the fucking book:
Maybe Topps and Panini should get together and take a class on how to design cards. Lesson 1, not every single card needs to have five hundred things put into it. I mean, look at this piece of poop, why are those bat swatches even necessary? Secondly, and more importantly, why is the ticket stub idea making a comeback? Topps TX football must not have been enough of piece of crap to ditch the idea all together. Seriously people, who takes a look at this card and says, "YES! Run that shit!"?
One other thing, does that ticket stub even have any fucking importance what-so-ever? It just seems like its just another fucking game that someone played in. How funny would it be if Markakis sat that one out? I would laugh.
If this is what card design has come to. Holy fuck.
I have to agree, that is a piece of crap. Why would anyone want a ticket stub to a random game they didn't attend? I don't even keep the ones of the games I go to. And I'll never understand why they insist on obscuring the photos of the players, when that is why we collect the cards in the first place. That could be me in that photo and no one would ever know.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Topps but even I can't defend that mess of a card.
ReplyDeleteooohhh.. that is bad. but at least they covered up the part of the picture of his bat with a piece of bat, right? oh and i just noticed they used the same image in the background too, so you can see some of the parts that were blocked out in the other one!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those things where it's so close to being something appealing (to me), but where it's off, it's waaaaaaaaaaaay off.
ReplyDeleteBest option I can think of:
- Lose the bat pieces and have Markakis sign the stub. Have something on the back about what he did in that game, perhaps. And lose the shadowy Markakis in the background.
Floating swatches are bad. Floating swatches THAT bad, when there's already something non-card in/on the card, are way worse.
The stub signature is so obviously lacking. Maybe they left it out because it wouldn't interfere with Nick's image enough.
This is an example of "You're trying too hard." Collectors gobble up inserted stuff, so they keep shoving it in. Look, I have some ugly cards in my collection. Some of 'em I bought as singles on the secondary market. Being a fevered player collector will do that to a person. So I'm not completely innocent. None of us are.
But Topps mailed this crap in. Simple.
Yup, that card sucks. So does that set. Too bad. Now maybe if they put ticket stubs from momentous games like Matt Wieters first MLB game ticket stub and and blurb about it on the back of the card that would be interesting. OR stats of what the player actually did in that game. Too much work?! Sigh.
ReplyDeleteIf they want to make it work have a stub from a game of historical moments like a no-hitter, a playoff clincher, or 3000 hits/500 homeruns.
ReplyDeleteI think the last turd I laid in my toilet looked better than this card.
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with everyone else. As a Markakis collector, this is painful to even look at.
ReplyDeleteMatt pretty much nailed it, lost the swatches so you can actually see the photo, have the player sign the stub, and make sure to include a write up relevant to that game on the back.
It's so close, yet so far away. Frustrating.
I saw one of these on blowout. The ticket stub was from the 1989 World Series. The player? Eric Chavez. Who was all of twelve then.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, topps.
It would be one thing if Ticket stubs were worth something, but they arent unless its something huge. This seems like junk tickets they got in bulk.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Topps did get "signed" tickets in their TX football set. Yeah. Stickers on super bowl stubs. What a joke.
I was going to buy a box friday, but the owner of the shop told me not to waste my money. This coming from a card shop owner who is going through some tough financial times.
ReplyDeleteHe said he was going to pack it out, at $2.00 a pack. I went back yesterday evening to pick up a box of 09 Ballpark, and there was a full box on the counter with a big sign that said 2 bucks.
This may be the worst release of the decade.