For a very long time, I have considered what it would take for a high end product to be ultimately successful in the baseball arena, where many of the players who have the most value are dead or not signing. One idea that was championed by Upper Deck, was to go the route of on card autos coupled with huge ridiculous patches, but it takes a certain level of planning and design success to make that happen correctly.

The one way that I have always said was the best way to make this work, was to focus on the autograph content. Basically, make it worth the while of the collector to actually buy the product’s unique autograph over an autograph from another product. In baseball, that is very tough to do, but I think inscriptions is a very good start.

Here are some reasons that this could be huge:

2009 Ultimate Matt Kemp Inscription Auto

2009 Ultimate Ken Griffey Jr Inscription Auto

2011 Topps Anniversary Chipper Jones Inscription Auto

Tribute baseball, over the last few years, has lacked the wow factor needed to be successful in a way that it had been in its first go around. Relics and sticker autos really dont present anything different than any other set, and this year, Topps looks to be going the right direction. They previewed some of the hard signed inscription cards that will be inserted into packs, and I must say, the cards look absolutely awesome. If the rest of the product can live up to these types of standards, I dont think that Topps will have any negative backlash like they may have had with previous products at this price point. Baseball inscription cards have always carried huge weight with collectors, as evidenced by previous year’s Upper Deck sets, and I think this could be a huge hit.