Is Twitter's Packout A Sign Of Things To Come?

Over the last few years of writing SCU, I have always taken a stand against the douchebaggery that plagues the hobby. Whether its fake cards, fake patches in cards, or fake autos, I have never shied away from letting my site be a haven from those people who seek to take advantage of the mis or uninformed.

Over the last few days, Upper Deck has brought something to the forefront of the hobby consciousness that I have been wanting for a VERY long time. Through Twitter, much to my elation, they are taking pictures of the Exquisite cards before they are being packed out and showing us. Of course, Exquisite is hand packed, which makes this 100 times easier, but it is a true defense against fakes. Because Exquisite has moved towards using more of the desirable parts of the jersey instead of moving away from it, nothing is outside the scope of reason. This has led to rampant faking and more gray area cards that are hard to authenticate.

If the Twitter packout were to become more complete, with each of the main hits of the product being photographed and posted for the public, my job would be a lot easier. Im hoping this is the beginning of the road towards a national database, despite the objections to the cost and time needed given by UD brass to accomplish it.

Secondly, if all were visible to everyone, they may be forced to include more 2 color + patches. People's complaints tend to circle around the amount of shitty patches in the top notch product, but that may be forced to change with everyone seeing everything.

Lastly, cards are becoming easier to track, and so are the fuck suckers who perpetuate all the scams. A national database would lead to a proof of wrong doing against the people who sell, hopefully enabling more of a policing of the sales on eBay. Of course, eBay would need to cooperate, but that idea may be as much of a pipe dream of a complete print run photo.