well, it's not office furniture but...

Remember a few posts back when I talked about the legitimacy of relics and how there is the possibility that they aren't what they are perceived to be? Remember it started with this card:

My sweet sweet Ty Cobb "bat" relic from Triple Threads. One of the nicest cards I've ever pulled, being questioned about its very existence and its possible deception about being what could be 2 cents of desk wood.

I went on to question the process of obtaining these bats and relics and such, wondering how many bats could Topps have used by Cobb, Ruth, Mantle, etc. Especially Mantle seeing how they give relics of his away with factory retail sets. How absurd and totally de-valuing a Hall of Famers relic in the process. Well all this started by my nature to question most everything and just wondering how Topps could have all this authentic memorabilia stacked up in their warehouse. It came into question again two days ago.

Topps recently put out their Tier One set. Curious of course, I decided to check out some stuff on eBay and found myself quite unimpressed by the results. Seven cards per box, about $80-100 per box. In said box, you get two autos (both on-card) and one relic. Well, I know what you're thinking, grab two of these and you equal a box of Triple Threads with two more hits! Well, that may be true but the relics are beyond dull. The design isn't horrible but single white/gray swatches? No thank you. On-card autos are nice but the odds of getting a great one are way high, so you end up with two OK autos and one dull relic. While with Threads you may only get four hits but triple relics are way better than single gray ones. Plus everything is pretty low numbered too.

Being unimpressed I decided to check out the BlowoutCards forums to see what the buzz was. I came across some guys questioning the authenticity of the relics, specifically the big timers like the Hall of Famers I mentioned above. Then someone posted a link to an article:
http://www.beckett.com/news/2010/01/topps-details-stadium-seat-relics-offers-replacements/

Apparently this isn't the first time it's come up. If you don't feel like clicking the article, or you can't here it is:

This just in from Topps…

Topps has confirmed that the following five memorabilia cards in the recently released 2009 Tribute Baseball include pieces of stadium seat:

Babe Ruth Dual Relic — Bat/Old Yankee Stadium Seat

Babe Ruth Triple Relic — Old Yankee Stadium Seat/Uniform/Old Yankee Stadium Seat

Ty Cobb Dual Relic — Bat/Tiger Stadium Seat

Jackie Robinson Triple Relic — Ebbets Field Seat/Bat/Ebbets Field Seat

Mickey Mantle Triple Relic — Old Yankee Stadium Seat/Uniform/Old Yankee Stadium Seat

Topps will replace any of the above cards with a pack of 2009 Topps Tribute Baseball or comparable product for collectors that are not satisfied with their card(s).

In addition, every card in 2009 Topps Sterling Baseball features game-used bat and game-used uniform except for one subject — Carl Erskine, which features Erskine’s autograph with stadium seat. Topps will replace this card with a pack of 2009 Topps Sterling Baseball for collectors not satisfied with their card.

Moving forward, to ensure no confusion, stadium seat pieces will not be used as memorabilia pieces unless it’s part of a special stadium seat-specific insert.

Please send all items intended for replacement to the address listed below. Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

The Topps Company

ATTN: Seat Relic Replacement

401 York Avenue

Duryea, PA 18642


INSANITY!!! Imagine pulling a Babe Ruth triple relic only to find out that its a uniform with two pieces of Yankee Stadium seating?? WTF?? Honestly, I lost so much faith in Topps after seeing this I almost debated on quitting the hobby. Oh and in case you may be wondering why I'm taking it so personally:


I own two of the relics they state in the article. I paid good money for both these and to find out they're stadium seats? Just totally disheartening. I don't even know what to say about it. I really don't. I'm sure that relics from current players are authentic but I have to totally question wether or not I have actual relics from guys that played 80 or so years ago and it totally shouldn't be that way. It's such BS but maybe instead of putting a Babe "bat" relic into every set numbered to 399, maybe get an actual damn bat used by him and making it actually rare. Like numbered to 18 rare. That goes with any older player. People aren't going to avoid a product because you can't pull one but pulling one would be all the better. I don't know. I know its cheaper but Its pretty bad that Topps has to mislead its customers like this.

huh?

Anyone else having trouble with Blogger? I posted up a post yesterday and now it is gone. Wasn't anything special, just talking about 2011 Bowman coming out next week and asking if it was still relevant or whatnot. Just weird. I got comments on it and everything. Poof! Just gone. I've been trying to sign in since last night and this is the first time I've been able to. This happened to anyone else?

...

warning: may cause irritation

Ok, so maybe this has been noticed before, maybe even said before. I had only just noticed it the other day. While going through my box 'o Jays duplicates, sorting them out by player, I came across this peculiar oddity:

2008 and 2009 Topps used the same Adam Lind photo. Now, I know this was commonplace in the 1960s sets, but come on Topps, you didn't take another photo of Lind in a whole year? I know thats not the truth because his 09 Bowman has a different picture. The picture is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I just think they could have at least went from a different angle or something. Here is an example of when recycled photography is alright:

2009 Chrome and 2010 Ginter Ricky Romero. Same picture, but at least they Ginterized the 2010 card. Makes it not as half-assed as it really is. Some work was put into this, as opposed to, well....nothing. Maybe the Lind was a tribute to sets of yesteryear when they used the same photos year to year? Or maybe it was a slip up and they didn't realize it until 2009 was released? Or maybe they just said screw it, he's not a Yankee, no one will ever notice. I'll leave that judgment up to you.

why donruss? why?

I came across this card today:

Why would you use this picture for the front of his card? This one is going into the personal collection for absurdity alone.

frustration

I couldn't help myself this weekend. While at the local card shop searching for Hall of Famers to add to my collection, I decided to buy a hobby box of Update. The results? Nothing. I opened no pack with the promised hit. This makes box number 2 with a missing hit. If you remember about a week ago, I purchased a jumbo HTA box, and got the auto and bat barrel, but that was it. This hobby box yielded neither an auto or relic. Both of these boxes did have silk cards in them, but since when is a silk card an auto or relic? Clearly, I have been screwed. Twice. I just saw the article on Mojo's blog and I have to fully agree with everything. Their quality control is apparently on permanent vacation. I haven't gotten too many damaged cards though, and I must say the overall quality of the Update cards is way better than series 2. They've got a nicer feel to them and not too much silver overload on the names. Damaged cards are one thing, missing hits are a totally new epidemic in itself. I wrote off the jumbo box as a 'whatever' thing, but after the hobby box, I really felt, well...quite pissed off. What are the options though? Deal with it and think' thems the breaks'? Or do I contact Topps, and wait like 3 months for two hits I could care less about? 'Cause you know they wouldn't be anything other than some common All-Star jersey card of a player who probably didn't see game time. Or an auto of someone who wasn't even in the base set. Cards that would sit in a box and be forgotten. I'm all for autos and relics, but it just doesn't seem worth the hassle. Or maybe it is. What do I do? Have any of you contacted Topps and dealt with this situation before? Any information could be helpful.

whats this?

Another parallel? Apparently these are copper and are numbered to 399. I have never come across these before tonight. I purchased one of those 'value packs' from Wal-Mart and this was on one of the packs. I also got a World Series manu-patch from a super thick pack that was inside too. I NEED to find the Vernon Wells copper, now that I know it exists. I just can't have it missing from the rainbow.

just one vernon

The Troll sent over another trade package that he said that he owed me. Inside were some assorted packs and Blue Jays cards. There was also this:

He had won it on eBay and sent it on over. Its great, 1 of 1s are always cool, and for my favorite player its a sure thing. It also presents me with the question I've had about printing plates since I saw the 2010 Topps ones on eBay. If a plate is printing a card, it prints it in a mirrored version of the card, so when it prints 'backward', its really printing right, like the card above. If I held it in a mirror, I could read the signature. Unlike this card, however, are the 2010 Topps plates, which aren't mirrored, and seem like they are just a metal version of the card itself, but only using one color. I have found this to be very odd. Maybe Topps switched up their printing process to allow non-mirrored plated to print non-mirrored cards. Doubtful, what magic do you possess, Topps? Seems like the old 'bait and switch' to me... I may not have explained this properly, and I do apologize for the wording. I just have some trouble putting all the right words down here to describe what I'm thinking sometimes. Anywho, a big thanks to the Troll again for the great addition to my Vernon collection!

i'm eddie, and this is my brother eddie, and my other brother eddie

I'll file this in the 'WTF?' department. Now, I'm all for Eddie Murray. He had an incredible career, a Hall of Famer for sure, even got himself that ring in '83. On Topps' part though, they claim that there were 3000 of each short print produced...Then why do I have three of Eddie??? I would imagine that a card that is limited to 3000 would be a tad harder to pull. I'm glad its a short print, and I'd take a duplicate short print over no short print, but I would definitely prefer one I didn't have. As I have stated before, I do hate short prints, but ONLY when they are part of the checklist. These legend short prints are not. Therefore in my book they are all good. I remember the first one I got out of series 1. It was #300, Ryne Sandberg. I was still fresh faced in collecting again, so I just figured it was part of the set. Then I got the Yount, and thought the same thing. Until I got the real number 300 in the set. Then I did a little reading and found that my two legends were indeed special. Again, I am glad I have the Eddies but I would trade them for a short print I don't have. If you are interested and have a short print to trade it for, let me know and we'll work something out.

dear Topps....what the HELL did you do? part two!

Alright, last night in a late night rant about Topps' slacking off this year, I forgot to mention a few things. Series 1 was not without its faults. Incorrect colors on certain players (45 David Hernandez, 131 Dustin Richardson and 196 Ian Desmond to name a few), a player with the incorrect position (68 Brandon Inge listed on front as a pitcher, but really a 3rd baseman). At least everything was there. I'll explain. There are 30 MLB teams, and each team got a card in series 1, 15 told the 'franchise history' (cards that I am a big fan of) and the other 15 had the team name on the front and some info on the back (2009 record, managers name, day/night win/loss record, etc). Now, one would expect that this trend would follow in series 2, and it did. For the most part. While there are 30 team cards in series 2, only 29 teams are represented. The 15 that did not get the 'franchise history' in series 1, did so in series 2. The other 15 on the other hand were 14 of the other team cards, and another Texas Rangers card. This card was already in series 1 but it seems they corrected some info on the back. What they neglected to correct was giving the Tampa Bay Rays their card. No Rays team card. Smooth move Topps. Even the checklists are wonky in series 2. Besides being almost impossible to read on the card fronts, they are out of order. Series 1 checklists went 27, 204, 237, 269, 302 for checklists 1-5. Series 2 checklists 1-5 are numbered like this: 350, 543, 637, 636, 510. ??? Seriously? Haven't checklists gone in numerical order since the dawn of time? Was Topps on vacation while planning series 2 and they had their grandparents come in and finish the work? Again, all minor gripes but they all add up to.........laziness. Really friggin lazy. Oh, and as one fellow blogger pointed out in last nights post, the damaged cards. I've gotten at least 20 damaged cards so far from this set, thats more than double what I got out of series 1, and I bought WAY more of that. Unaccepable, how do all these error happen? Its not like they have to rush the product out to market to beat Donruss or Fleer. Makes some checks and double checks of the work to make sure things are correct the first time, its not difficult or all that time consuming. I know they love Mr. Strasburg and all, but they shouldn't let it cloud their judgment and ability to make quality ball cards. They have withstood this many decades for a reason, now isn't the time to start throwing it all away just because there is no competition.

dear Topps....what the HELL did you do?

Topps....oh Topps. You are the only baseball card maker left. We all know this. Why would you go and do this to your product? Your FLAGSHIP product? The annual release we have seen since 1952!! Come on guys, get with the damn program. What the fuss is all about are my gripes with Series 2. I really liked series 1. It was enough to get me hooked back into collecting as a full time hobby. I anticipated series 2, like the rest of you. And was kinda let down. It feels sloppy. Lazy even. Examples: the over EXCESSIVE use of silver foil in the names. I really liked how in series 1 the names were outlined in foil. Nice touch. For series 2, they cranked the machines to overload, so all the names look funny and have a thinner black name area where series 1 has, you know, readable names? Try reading Jarrod Saltalamacchia's name. Or any of the checklists fronts for that matter. Why is the text so damn small?? Saltalamacchia's name too small? Make him a horizontal card. There, long name issue fixed, you have all the room in the world now. Oh wait, the checklists were horizontal too, and they STILL messed those up. Series 1 was perfect they way it was, why mess with it? The only thing I can hope for is a fix in the Update set (or series 3 as it should be called), going back to how series 1 looked. Man, I hope so. Topps shouldn't be getting lazy just because they are the only game in town, thats just bad business. Minor gripes, maybe its just me, but I'm all for uniformity, and uniformity this ain't.