First Look: 2009 Topps Platinum Football

First we had Chrome, then Sterling, now Platinum. I know, lame as hell, right? Well, as a final hurrah, Topps announced via Twitter that they are putting out this set to close out their license with the NFL. I had heard from a few people that Topps was creating a product to directly compete with the perennial awesomosity of SPA, but this is too little too late.

Basically the product is going to be set up exactly like SPA, 24 packs with one rookie patch auto per box and lots of base. Unlike SPA, however, the product is all stickers (as usual for Topps), and the cards look like bastard children of Bowman Sterling and Topps Chrome.

After seeing this, maybe its a good thing after all that Topps is leaving.

Can We Stop With The Less Products Equals More Argument?

I hate when news like the Topps axing comes around, not just because of the actual news itself, but of all the stupidity that starts flooding the internet like a biblical storm. Whether its people giving their good riddance to whatever went down, or people conjecturing about how the hobby sky is falling, its annoying all the way around. In fact, the net gets so polluted with ridiculous comments, that you cant escape it.

First, we need to stop with the whole "where are the children!?!" type of bullshit. Im sick of hearing that things are going south because kids arent around anymore. Fuck that. As I have said before, kids are not the primary focus of this hobby, nor should they be. Ever since the 90s, when investment crazed adults made this industry what it is now, kids have been out. That means the boom and the decline all rest on the shoulders of grown adults, not children. Ask any of the manufacturers who their biggest customers are, kids or adults. Ask them who they market to, kids or adults. Find out why a child hasnt been featured on any of those UD posters for SPX or whatever. Its because KIDS DONT FUCKING MATTER. From what I have gathered in talking with different people, kids who still remain in this hobby function like the adults that drive the market anyways, so dont shove that argument down my throat unless you want me to ignore you.

Secondly, less does not equal more. Yes, I get it. You want to go back to 4 products a year so you can get every card, but that isnt going to happen. Companies cannot survive on a few products, nor would having less products, in any understanding of the concept, be a good thing for anyone. Having variety in our lives is the reason why collecting is fun, as it gives you choice on how to mold your collection. It also gives you a chase element which keeps you coming back for more. If there were only 1 or 2 products per company, people would have what they needed so fast that it would be boring to wait for the next product. In addition, there wouldnt be any way to account for the massive amounts of mid year happenings in card form, an aspect most collectors love. Also, if one of those few products sucked, it would fucking blow to have to lose out on it because it was a badly conceptualized set.

Third, the hobby is fine, and the industry is not in any immediate danger, so shut the fuck up with your worrying. I dont need to be bombarded with people telling me that cards are done because Topps lost football. Cards are not done, the industry is adapting to lower sales, and people will collect until the apocalypse. The sooner that the idiots realize this fact, the better. In all honesty, there really is no solution to any of the problems affecting card sales until the economy fully rebounds. At that point, things will return to a different shade of normal, and we can all go back to our happy go lucky Beckett world without the fear of Armageddon.

Lastly, I dont think this part of the industry's nose job was the fault of the companies themselves, despite the chatter. NFL Players Inc sure lives in a wierd bubble, and I dont think they really get what they just did. Plus, with Topps getting their exclusive baseball license, I dont think they really care about losing football the way we think they do. Baseball is the biggest yard on the street, and they are now the only real, whole dog in the yard. Everyone else is a cat or dog with three legs. That counts for more than anyone could imagine.

So, in other words, it sucks that Topps and their history is gone, but shut up with the stupid noise about everything else.

First Look: 2009 Topps National Chicle Football

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

The sad fact is that Topps opted to make this set after the Chicle cards in Topps Flagship, Topps Chrome, and UD Philadelphia were already out on the market. The even sadder thing is that these cards dont even compare to the ones from their base set, and they sure as hell dont compare to the ones in Philadelphia, so why even try?

The bordered sticker spaces on the autograph cards cut into the picture, and just draw attention to the fact that there is a sticker on the card. Why not just slap the sticker on the card without the border? It would look a little better than it does, right? With UD Philadelphia offering hard signed cards with better designs, this just isnt going to compete.

The dual looks borderline racist for the Moss painting as he kind of looks like those 20's era depictions of black people on theater posters. Of course, it wasnt meant that way, but im not sure why they would use that particular painting for the card. Then when you factor in that BOTH the Brady and Moss paintings look weird, and feature bordered sticker spots, the card just looks even more awful.

National Chicle is going to suck from what this is showing, and I think I should use an example of what the autograph cards should look like versus what they do look like. Its a stark comparison.

EDIT: I just saw this one, and I almost spit my coffee all over my computer. Obviously Topps' wonderful design team wasnt thinking too clearly (The Perez Hilton crap is my addition, though I think it adds to the overall presentation).

The Song Never Remains The Same

I was doing my usual ebay updates to see what was coming now that Chrome is live, and I stumbled across this crap. I am shocked, to say the least.

Ooof, that is pretty rough. Im not sure why this was greenlighted, consdering the patch intrudes on the subject of the card. Never really stopped anyone before, right?

For some reason, last year, Topps Chrome added a new feature card to a product lineup that didnt need a new feature card. Numbered ridiculously low, the rookie auto patches were squeezed into a set that had no reason to include jersey cards. This year, the cards are unfortunately back, but thanks to the new design, there is practically no space to include the relic. So, instead of doing the right thing and ditching this idea, they put the cards in the set again without regard for how they look.

Its definitely too bad, mainly because Chrome was always that one product you could count on to avoid the gimmicks. As of this year, BOTH Topps Chrome and Bowman Chrome will have these cards, and I have no fucking idea why. Is it really THAT important to add one more needless parallel, especially when the patches arent game used? Its like putting a PS3 console in a car for the driver. Why is it even necessary?

Listen,the solutions is pretty simple. This set would have sold regardless of these stupid looking cards, cant we just understand that they arent needed? They look ridiculous, they dont fit, and the cards are so rare that it shouldnt even be an issue. Keep Chrome free of gimmicky cards, its one of the last products that can still float without needless relics. I hope Topps will do their best to honor that in the future.

Hiding Is Not Worth The Effort

Yesterday, Beckett posted the end to their highly publicized in depth three year long expose about the fake Topps Rookie Premiere autos. This move sparked quite a frenzy over why this approach was taken, a lot of those comments focusing on Beckett's lack of professionalism. Rather than moving on or examining the impact of said news, Hackler instead decided it was better to take passive shots at the vast amounts of discussion over the merits of Topps move. After discussing with some of the other bloggers the reason for this idiotic display of douchebaggery, it became clear to us why this was all happening in such a weird fashion.

As most people said, including myself, the move by Topps was just a minor chink in the armor created by these people who sell hundreds of fake Rookie Premiere Autos. Beckett, as most of us expected, focused more on the inconsequential parts of the story, as not to disturb the plethora of people who come to them with news. I mean, because "player issue" cards are a HUGE part of the problem, right? Personally, I now see why Topps decided that Beckett would be a better outlet to break this story to. Rather than giving the story to a blog like this one, they chose a more familiar outlet. Clearly, its easier to go with a friend who wouldnt question the lack of action or call them out for focusing on the future rather than the present. Topps knew that going with Beckett would provide them with the opportunity to hide behind a solution that only covers upcoming cards instead of securing one that deals with the current problem.

Despite what people may say about my motives, many were left scratching their heads as to why Topps wasn’t going after the scammers more aggressively. If you think about it, it’s a good way to guard against future transgressions if the people responsible are punished for their crimes. Of course, there is a large discrepancy over the amount of time needed to execute this bust and the time available to execute it, which is a great reason why its important to have the discussion now. By throwing this solution at the problem, you still leave the collector base open to decade worth of fake cards, all being sold to unsuspecting people who pay hundreds to get them. How about protecting the customer rather than yourself? Hmm, becoming clearer now why Beckett got the resolution rather than the blogs?

Luckily here in the blog network we have established, its no longer an easy task to hide in plain sight, as many of the people who read Beckett's blog also read Mario, Rob and I. That means the people who read the kid gloves version of the story, are also going to get a lot of the riff raff you create by handling it that way.

A Comment On The Topps Lawsuit

After reading the many posts about Topps and their failure to pay for the autos in their sets, I was more interested in the cost of their autographs than anything. For those of you who wonder why its so expensive to put together a set, this is the reason.

I have commented before on the cost of autographs for the sets, but this is more actual numbers to show you just how bad it can get. Even someone like DeAndre Jordan gets 3 bucks a sig, even though thats probably more than his cards are acually worth. Consider he probably had to sign more than he sued for, its a minimum of 3 grand just for him alone. Then you see that Tracy McGrady and Derrick Rose got 50 and 25 each, respectively, and the numbers really start to pile up, especially when you imagine just how many autographs they sign per whole calendar year.

The issue is that the players are just as much responsible for the cost of a product as the stuff the companies buy to put in it. Add in the enormous cost of licensing, and you can see why products cost as much as they do. Although I am one of the people who say that products NEED this type of stuff to be successful, its painfully obvious that these players are costing the companies a lot of money.

Obviously, Topps needs to pay these players, as shafting anyone out of a commitment like that is crazy - especially when they are the lifeblood of your company. In this case, however, Topps isnt really in that bad of situation when you see that they wont be dealing with the league anymore. If they had continued with the NBA license, you could imagine how bad this would have been for them. The problem is that it doesnt necessarily mean that the players from the other sports wont use this as a reason to sour the relationship with the card producing public, and that is what scares me as much as any other aspect of this story.

With this lawsuit, Topps has set a pretty bad example for the rest, even more so when the numbers they pay for the autos are publicized. I think this is definitely a black eye for a company that hasnt been sitting well with collectors already, and I hope this is the last instance like this. In an industry that has dropped in net revenue over the years, stuff like this cant happen.

Topps - You Have Destroyed My Faith In The Future

Dear Topps,

After seeing the previews for Topps Triple Threads baseball, Topps Triple Threads football, and now Topps Unique Baseball, I must say that my faith in your design team is completely gone. It saddens me to think that the priorties for the products focus more on filling the card fronts with needless numbers of swatches than getting the design to a point where it looks favorable. On top of all of this, not one of your products other than Bowman has hard signed signatures, including the ones that cost more than $150 a box.

I understand that you want the cards to look like they are worthy of the price tag you put on the box, but when each card has a large foil sticker with borders built into the design, I automatically wonder why you couldn’t just use a clear sticker on a white or clear background with no border. Why do you always have to remind us that you use stickers, especially considering that every other company has found out how to use the labels effectively without compromising the design. Also, I know that Topps is one of the two companies that has the means to obtain hard signed cards, but a lazy temperment has taken over where innovation used to reside.

When I first saw the new product, weirdly named "Unique," the first thought that popped into my head was how un-unique the preview cards looked. It was almost as if someone had taken a stock powerpoint slide background, spliced in some tiny player pictures and called it a day. Yes, the swatches were cut from the most sought after parts of the jersey, but it wont make a difference when the cards look the way they do. One shining beacon of the boredom contained in this product is the Chipper Jones. True, the preview mockup shows a nice patch, but who could even care when you fall asleep mid gaze? Were you trying to avoid all essence of a well planned card? Are you even trying any more?

Triple Threads is not that much of an improvement over Unique's shortfalls, as the product still focuses more on the amount of included swatches than the design. As long as the list of priorities promotes spelled out words over content and design, I will continue to duck this and future products whenever I can. The fact of the matter is that just because you can stuff all those windows onto a card, doesn’t mean you actually need to try. The "less is more" concept has been abandoned with all of your High End products, as it has become more about showcasing the excess rather than working wonders with simplicity. Then, when you also factor that the Triple Threads brand has not changed in over four years, the stale stench coming from the design begins to stink even more.

Topps, the competition you will face in coming years will be even greater now that Major League Baseball has devoted its logos solely to your products. To continue to produce cards that do not look as if they were actually cared about will damage any rapport you have with the people who drive your business. The sooner you adapt to work on better design rather than how many panels you can attach to a card, things will improve. Until then, I feel as though your lack of planning has ripped any confidence I have in your products' prospects of being worthwhile to any collector. Thank you for destroying any hope I have for the future of the baseball card industry.

Disgustfully Yours,
Gellman

(Thanks To Mario For The Exclusive Image)

One Final Comment On My Disgust Over The Topps Exclusive

Michael Eisner says its time to bring kids back to the hobby. Fine. I agree that's a good secondary goal, but when you think about who actually composes the makeup of the collecting populace, we have to question what is going to happen to the people who have grown to love the way it is now.

Eisner says that the biggest problem with the industry today is the confusion over products, kids going into Wal-Mart and Target, giving up because of not knowing which product to buy. Personally, that is total crap. Its pandering to a public that has a closed minded view of what the prime demographic SHOULD be, while not addressing what it has become. The reason kids don’t like cards as much anymore is because the interests of the general kid has switched from following sports to playing video games and japanese animated shows. The demographics have changed, and it has nothing to do with how many products are stocked at shop n' save.

The fact of this industry since 1996 is that adults make up the market, not kids. Therefore to say that you are going to pull the train off the tracks and put it on a different track, screws over all the passengers on the train already. By refocusing the point of baseball card market to kids, it only makes things worse than it already is. Not only because kids shouldn’t be the focus, but also because most kids like the hobby the way it fucking is!

People, giving Topps the exclusive is not going to harken things back to 35 years ago. The hobby's face has changed, and it is never going back. Its time to stop trying to recapture that nostalgia, because that shit don’t fly 'round here no more. The day of the kid going into the shop and buying cards is gone, mainly because kids don’t follow sports like they used to. The hobby has changed, made the thousands of people like me into collectors, and it needs to stay that way. I know that Baseball is a different animal than football, but the ideals hold true. People want to be closer to the game, and Topps Opening Day is not the way to accomplish that. Plus, when Triple Threads and Sterling are the worst products on the market, how long before the lack of competition makes everything that bad? Not long, especially when Topps has to scale back their product line to accommodate the new cost of the license.

Topps Exclusive Is Bad For Business

Topps may have gotten the exclusive and put themselves in a great position, but its the collector that once again gets the shaft. Regardless of what Topps will do in the coming years, it will be without "true" competition, thus leading to more stale crap like Triple Threads and Sterling. Without having to put up with logo bearing products from UD or Panini, Topps is free to release anything they want without fear of losing customers to the competition.

Exclusives are never good, regardless of how they are sliced, as competition has always been the way better products are made. Considering that some Topps products are already the worst on the calendar, this is bad news all around. Im sincerely hoping I am wrong, trust me.

This is not to say that UD or Panini will not release unlicensed products, but they shouldnt have to do it that way. Granted, as UD has said, its more about the players than the logos on the jerseys, which I agree with 100%, but others arent smart enough to actually see past this original article. I say that UD takes a dive in baseball like nothing we have ever seen, unfortunately, therefore putting more strain on the already overburdened football brands to carry the company. Lucky for UD, the other two in that area are like one legged men in an asskicking contest.

Here's to my now even more greatly reduced baseball collecting habits.

Topps Continues To Suck At Just About Everything

Well, Topps is closing the doors on its basketball division, and here is one of those shitty ass things that will happen along the way. See, in case you forgot, Topps went and produced a product that raided their stores of Basketball stickers, and called it signature editon. It was basically a poorly thrown together product, solely to use up all the extra stickers before they lose the license. Of course, this left a lot of cards without the proper supplies to be made. On top of all that, if they didn’t have the stuff back from the athletes, they werent going to try and fufill it, and here is the result.

I have gotten about 3 emails in the last 24 hours from people who have outstanding Topps B-ball redemptions. All have been cancelled. Instead you will receive a replacement from the underwhelming Topps product mentioned above, where your card will most likely be a crap auto numbered to 15,000. Im sorry, but if you put out the commitment to help your customers before you lost the license, it is STILL your responsibility to fufill it. You do not get a free pass because you have given up on your basketball division.

For all of you who have Topps stuff, and also those of you who broke the golden rule of purchasing Topps products that cost more than 100 dollars, please be sure to let me know what you get as your replacement. If you end up with a JameSon Curry signature edition numbered to eleventy billion, I want to hear your horror story (for the record, that name is not a typo, he actually has a fucking captial letter halfway through his name for no reason).

Nice job Topps, glad to see that customer service is not your focus.

H/T Matt, Jerry, Shawn

Exclusive Does Not Mean Better

Exclusivity has been the talk lately, and I must say, everything about the stories has me pretty worried. The reason that I like the hobby is because there is a shit ton of products from every company that I can give a chance. Don’t like the latest DLP offering? That’s okay, there are a lot of other products out there that have the chance to be what you are looking for. With exclusivity on a player, or even now a sport, all of that goes away and that fucking sucks. Here is my previous post on it.

As we speak Baskeball has an exclusive company with Panini, and the MLBPA is looking towards Topps as its singular provider. When I see that, all I can think about is how badly I feel for those people who love collecting those sports. What sucks even more is that the people who collect exclusives from each company like Jordan, Jeter, Kobe, Grif, and LeBron, don’t have anything they can do any more. You basically fuck them out of their favorite player's stuff. If you look at those names, you can imagine how many people are going to have a problem with that. It brings in another question though, what happens when Topps products blow donkey balls one year for baseball, or what happens if Panini doesn’t live up to what they promise? Where else do you go? Unlicensed products will be made, but all that will trigger is lawsuit after lawsuit for the people who get screwed on the fact that UD Basketball could probably outsell Panini, even without a license.

For the collectors, exclusivity will not bring back 1990, or even 2000. It wont work like that. The only thing exclusivity will bring is problems with the collector base. People will get frustrated when topps produces somehthing they don’t like because they will have to wait until the next topps product to come out for vindication. What happens if that second product doesn’t live up to expectations? You keep waiting. Then, with exclusivity, Topps may not need to produce as many sets as they had to in the previous market to stay competitive. You would think they would focus on things more now that they have free reign to do as they please, but that doesn’t happen. It happens all the time: a company comes into a better situation, and makes a whole bunch of extra money. Instead of putting that extra money into making products better, they just pocket it. Im not saying that is what will happen, but you have to imagine that a lack of competition will turn things in the wrong direction.

People talk about exclusivity as good model because of what happened with UD and hockey cards. Well, see, when you have 1/8 as many collectors as baseball cards do, there isnt as much demand for variety. Hockey cards never reached the level that the big three sports did in competition, so it wasn’t a big deal to most people who only lost 1 or 2 major products from the calendar. Its much different with Baseball and Basketball, especially when the company that takes over is NOT one of the two biggest producers in the key market. With Baseball, there are quite a few people, myself included, that wont touch baseball cards anymore with Topps as a primary provider. Those are usually the people who collect many sports instead of just baseball, so higher end stuff is more important to them. When Topps Sterling and Triple Threads become the only option, things will get dicey for me and those people. I know I am not alone in that feeling.

Im not sure why the NBA and the MLBPA are playing with fire, or at least what seems like fire to me. Hopefully it works out, I really do hope that it does, but the little voice inside my head has been trained for disappointment.

Topps Should Lose More than Basketball.......

If any of you read message boards where people report how they are doing with new products, then I am sure you will know that there is some controversy around Topps Mayo. Many people aren't getting autographs at all in their boxes which does not match up with their 1 auto and 1 relic or 2 autos guaranteed per box pre-sell sheet info.

The biggest controversy though is the change to the auto list. This product was flying off the shelves (metaphorically) in anticipation of its release going from around $60-65 original pre-sell cost to over $100 as late pre-sell prices. People were excited to see the A&G version of Football, but more than that they were excited about the autograph list: guys like Dan Marino, AP, Joe Montana, Steve Young, E.E. Cummings, and the one that made many people totally pumped Joe Paterno. But guess what the released autograph list is significantly different than the original list.

I did the research by looking at the presell checklist (provided by Blowout Cards) and the released checklist (provided by Topps) and broke it down on the Topps Message Board.

Go Check it Out and then come back and comment. I am starting to believe that Topps should lose its NFL license too!

Product Review: 2008 Topps Triple Threads

This week, all around the world, people I think are the biggest retards, are rejoicing. Today, Topps Triple Threads: Joe Collector Edition is live and on the market. Despite the fact that I would rather rip my toenails out one by one than watch someone try to justify the existence of this shit party, many people are dancing in the streets. Im guessing, though, that these are the same people who have also wallpapered their bedrooms with wrappers from all the lettermen packs they opened.

The Good

There is not much that is good about this product. I mean, I really have to struggle to find a reason why I even need to talk about this traveshamockery of a product. Either way, Topps at least managed to put some good patches in the rookie cards. Thats pretty much the only good thing I could find here. Im completely serious. Yup, I would rather jack off a bear with foam hulk hands than even watch a simulated break of Triple Suck.

The Bad

Where to start, where to start. Well, lets start with the fact that this product has not changed, even in design, since 2006. I seriously cannot believe that Topps would even consider releasing a high end product year after year, with die cut shapes being the only difference between the releases. Its like Mac putting out new computers every year with the only difference being the color of the desktop background when you first start it up.

Secondly the cards were not even that good to begin with, considering how much they cost to buy. This year is not any different, as the pictures are ridiculously small to make room for their asinine die cut windows, and it looks beyond awful. On top of all that, when you get to the triple autos, the pics are even smaller. I cant understand that.

Moving on, the color schemes are so bad that I want to avert my eyes out of fear of retina damage. The crap is filled with bright green, bright blue, and bright everything, and it makes me think that lettermen was just the four horsemen to this apocalypse.

It gets worse as the product moves up the cost charts, mainly the the foldout duals and foldout jerseys. To tell you the truth, bigger cards should be awesome, and most of the time that is true. But due to the shear craptasticness of this set, and because all of the foldouts are so ridiculously ugly, that the above theory of bigger is better is crying in the corner. First off, with the dual autos, they are impossible to display, and are basically just two triple threads auto cards connected in the middle like a demonic siamese twin. What is even funnier, is that most of the people who I think couldnt solve a basic math problem, think these cards are the shit of shits. They would litterally kill another human to get one, much like starter jackets in the 1990s. Those people are seriously funny to watch, and the great thing is that most of them have robust channels on Youtube filled with maildays and SICK MOJO!

As for the six to eight piece jerseys, they usually are way too busy and way to retarded to garner my desire at all. Next time I want a card consisting of all the conference usa mid level rookies, Ill give topps a call to send me a pack of triple threads.

The Ugly

Triple Threads' biggest issue is a main problem for all topps high end - you dont get shit for what you pay. Its fucking special ed to buy this product, as for close to 175 dollars, you usually get a crap jersey auto and a crap jersey card. That is ludicrious. I would never even consider a single pack as a worthwhile bet, unless Joshua Johnson was my favorite RC of 2008.

The best part of all of this is that Topps main selling point of this product was the inclusion of the new 24 "piece" jersey fold outs that you can pull. Yes, you can now have a card that gives topps three whole lines to spell out the most random facts about your favorite player that you can think of. Want a picture of the player on the card you just pulled? Sorry, only a dime sized photo is put on each half of this fugly foldout. I really think that anyone who pays good money for these cards should be chemically or forcefully castrated in order to prevent them from adding to the genepool and creating more idiots who buy this fucking trash.

Lastly, as usual, Topps has put more 1/1's in this set than actual higher numbered cards. Its fucking crazy how many 1/1's there are for each card, and if you go by how many there are for each player, the number is staggering. Further proof that this set is only for the douches that ruin everything that is cool about the hobby.

I once touted this product as the inagural member of the Joe Collector HOF, and I hope you can see why. Basically, National Treasures comes out in a few weeks, so dont be a fucktard buy any of this.

Praise the Effing Lord - Sterling Gets The Axe

I am so fucking glad right now that I am actually taking the time to write this out on a hotel computer. Yes, ladies and gents, Sterling football has been cancelled like a bad sitcom. I sincerely thought that the product had the chance to rival the craptasticness of Lettermen, and thankfully now, we will never know. Lets go through some of the "SICK MOJO" that we will be missing out on:

1) Joe Montana Triple Patch Auto spelling out "140 YDS" in reference to his mammoth amount of career rushing yards in the second week of an odd month as a player of the KC Chiefs.

2) Eric Dickerson Quad Jersey spelling out "2 Pairs" in order to pay tribute to the number of pairs of goggles he wore as a los angeles rams player during the 1990 season.

3) Adrian Peterson booklet jersey auto spelling out "40 degrees" to show the temperature outside during his record breaking rushing performance against the chargers

4) Darren McFadden 1/1 Patch auto spelling out "3 letters" to awesomely display that "Razorbacks" has 3 more letters than Raiders in its spelling.

5) Jim Brown six piece jersey spelling out absolutely nothing, but rather having 6 different cut outs of a football, an african hat, a person that somewhat resembles a football player, a shape that oddly looks like a vag, a pizza, and a spade.

Man, Topps Sterling, we hardly new ye.

h/t Wax Heaven

This Could Possibly Be My Worst Box Break Ever

Just ridiculously awful:

Holy Crap, I Dont Even Know Where To Start With This

From the Blowout Cards Forum:

*After seeing 3 boxes of Lettermen posted on the day of the release*

Me: I really have no idea why people are buying this.

Sheep #1: probably because their nice looking cards. Maybe you should say "why are people buying this at this price?"

Me: They are as far from nice looking cards as you can get. The price is awful, and they have sticker autos on manufactured letter and patch cards, its that shitty of a product.

Here is how I imagine it went down:

Topps Lackey 1: So, we got Lettermen FB coming up, basketball went really well - those idiots are suckers for letter cards. Its like hobby crack! Do we have the patches signed?

Topps Lackey 2: huh? We had to get them signed?

Topps Lackey 1: yes, that is the point, otherwise its just card with fabric in it. I wouldnt pay 175 for that, but then again, I wouldnt pay even 100 bucks for any of our products, we suck at high end. We are just lucky that Triple Scraps, I mean, Triple Threads sells as well as it does.

Topps Lackey 2: Well, we do have an enormous backlog of all these awful topps stickers that we are waiting to use. Maybe we can alter the cards to include them so we dont have to get the letters signed. I still cant believe that we have these foil pieces of crap while everyone else went to clear and barely noticable ones.

Topps Lackey 1: BRILLIANT!

And, SCENE.

----------

I am beginning to wonder if you have to have parents that are related to buy Topps Lettermen. That or you were dropped on your head as a child, there simply cannot be any other explanation.

Even if I had the money to burn, I STILL would not buy even a single. Its is like a Topps product got pregnant accidentally and had an abortion, then, that abortion survived miraculously, and had sex with it's sister product when it was 13. THHHHEEEENNN, the sister product had an abortion - that abortion is Topps Lettermen.

The Aura Of The Letterman...

...Is so great that people are actually spending money on Topps Sticker Shock Letterman Football without a Topps executive holding their family hostage. Personally, I would rather take my money out back and put it in a big pile, squat over it, take a huge watery dump, and then light it on fire, before I would even entertain the thought of throwing down 175 dollars on a box of this purest of the pure pieces of shit product.

Instead of spending 175 dollars on a box of Letterman, you could:

-Buy a TV
-Buy a blu-ray DVD player or half of a PS3 (worth it!)
-Buy an auto of just about any rookie from any set so far
-Buy an auto of just about any current player in the NFL
-Buy 3/4's of a box of 2007 or 2006 National Treasures
-Buy every base RC of Adrian Peterson
-Buy a nice piece of memorabilia
-Make a car payment
-Buy tickets to any concert or show
-Buy a plane ticket to many places
-Give your money to a charitable organization like JDRF
-Buy a reasonably graded Montana RC (PSA of course)
-Buy a complete set of at least 10 base sets from 2008
-Pay for your license tabs for your car
-Buy holiday presents for your family
-Save it

Rather than doing any of the above, all of which are better uses than buying even a pack of Topps Letterman, people are still buying boxes and cases of this. I know, I know, there is a sucker born every second in this hobby, but personally, that is no excuse for thinking this crap looks cool enough to drop that much cash on any of it.

Its a rule: Topps products over 100 dollars suck. There is no way around it.

Is it Topps Allen and Ginter Football Time? Umm no.

Im not even going to trash this, Ill let the Topps guy do it for me. Holy crap, are they out of ideas already?

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.

Im Sorry Topps, You Are Idiots (Not News, To Be Honest)

I know we have all heard that the Finest RCs from this years set were supposed to be numbered, but arent. Despite them looking like they just rolled out of the suck bin and into the packs, people are obviously pissed that they arent getting numbered cards when they should. God forbid there be an unnumbered rookie card these days, right?

Regardless of how stupid the concept is, and even more regardless of how awful the set looks, people do have a right to what is on the sell sheet/box. So, to make up for their mistake, you can send in your card to be numbered in the factory if you want. It is on your own dime, so Topps is already making it harder than it should be. Reader Tim expressed his discontent with having to send in two cases worth of RCs to Topps, and how much that will cost. Yuck.

In all seriousness Topps should pull their heads out of their tight rectums and offer a little more than a factory stamped number. How about some packs? How about a mini box? I think that is only fair, because you shouldnt expect your valued customers to have to spend THEIR money to fix YOUR mistake. Its like Apple asking all their Mac users to send in their keyboards for a missing "A" key. Total crap.

EDIT: Thanks to Holy Hitter for finding out that Topps will actually be distributing hobby packs for the error. Is it one per card? What happens if you bought a few cases?