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.

First Look: Donruss Americana II

People loved Americana. LOVED IT. It was one of the first sets to be completely focused on celebrity autos and memorabilia, and it really didnt disappoint. It was structured very much like Absolute, so the price point wasnt bad for four hits.

Well, as you can probably guess, they wanted to do it again. Here comes the sequel, please dont feed it after midnight.

My only suggestion when releasing a sophomore version of a blockbuster set is to NOT MAKE IT THE EXACT GODDAMNED THING!! DLP has forgotten this golden rule and basically released series two of 2007 Americana. What the fuck were they thinking? The cards look exactly the same, down to the same subsets. Go find the sell sheet, you'll see what I mean.

Oh, and one more thing. What is the reason that every fucking set under the sun now includes at least one Boxing or UFC/MMA subset? Im curious why this has become so huge with 2008 products. I mean, last time I checked it was 2008 CoSigners BASEBALL, not 2008 CoSigners CLUSTERFUCK.