It seems as though any great idea in the industry is ultimately overused and underdeveloped until it there is nothing available but stale and boring results. Whether it’s a simple concept or a completely awesome idea, nothing is left behind and everything is exploited, much to the dismay of a lot of collectors. It should be pretty obvious by now that I have VERY specific tastes in what I like and what I collect, so it should be no surprise that I want to see the destruction of certain elements that seem to be vastly overused.
Here is my (growing) list of things that have jumped the shark:
The Non-Autographed Jersey Card
We all know that game used jersey cards were responsible for the revitalization of the industry back in 1996. However, that was more than 14 years ago, and things need to change because I am just about ready to pull my hair out with this crap. Companies like Panini (ESPECIALLY Panini), have made the non-auto jersey card a focus of just about every product they release, and I think I speak for most people when I say we are fucking tired of it. In fact, Panini has an especially nauseating track record in the fact that each and every one of their products feature hundreds of worthless non-rookie oriented jersey cards. These cards, even for the top value guys, rarely eclipse 5-7 bucks, and yet we see thousands of them each year. Some of the rookies may initially command higher prices INITIALLY, but when all is said and done, most of these just end up in the bargain bins. Some could even argue that the patch card also falls into this category, but the jersey cards have most definitely jumped the shark.
The Manufactured Letter Card
Manu-letters, autographed or not autographed, are everywhere these days, and they have no doubt lost a lot of appeal for many collectors. Although some of the people out there still like to spell out weird shit for message board signatures, the letter cards are basically a dime a dozen. Donruss Threads is probably one of the worst offenders still in production, mainly because the patches don’t even feature team colors. Instead of producing letters with the team names and team colors for the rookies to sign at the premiere, Panini opts for Black and White letters so they can construct them more in advance. Complete crap. Topps was a terrible perpetrator last year too, when you see how many of their sets featured signed manu-letters. I remember asking myself, “Again with the letters Topps, again?” when each new sell sheet came out. Consider this shark jumped.
The Sticker Auto
I value hard signed cards at a huge premium over stickers. I will ALWAYS pick the on card auto over the sticker, unless it looks like last year’s Playoff Contenders or School Colors set that were just epic fails all around. Topps is probably the worst at doing sticker autos of any company, mainly because they feel the need to border each sticker they use, or build it into the design so that your eye is immediately drawn to the foil abomination they call an autograph. Stickers were originally created as a cheap way to alleviate problems with obtaining player autos, but have instead turned into an exercise in laziness and disorganization. When a company like Upper Deck can put out almost 100% of their calendar on card, including multi-signedVeteran cards, there is no excuse when a company like Topps cannot offer ONE SINGLE HARD SIGNED VETERAN CARD FOR AN ENTIRE FUCKING YEAR. Panini is almost worse, but they are at least making an attempt to do better. People may hate the unethical practices of Upper Deck as a company, but you cannot deny that they brought the big guns to EVERY fight.
The Diecut Window
Diecuts have become more of a patch faker deterrant than a design element these days, but for most of the cases, it looks awful. I don’t see a need to die cut the window to spell out something or to represent the team insignia, and when it comes to Triple Threads and Topps Sterling, there is nothing worse in cards. Its one thing to cut the window to fit the design, but its completely different to create the design to fit the shit spelled out in the windows. SP Authentic looked amazing each year because of simplicity, not because Upper Deck spelled out the player’s position with a symbol. Get this crap out of my house.
Foil Coated Card Stock in General
I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to the use of foil board in cards, but I cant stress enough how shitty it looks. Don’t believe me? Look at Threads this year, and compare the non-foil base cards to the holo-foil parallels. It practically destroys any appeal created by the great photos. Topps may have the market cornered with their faaaaaaar superior Chromium technology, but that doesn’t mean you have to challenge for the crown, Panini. The cards get easily damaged, they look like they should have pictures of little ponies and kitties on them like supermarket stickers, and it only highlights design problems that much more. STOP. NOW.
Stupidly Named Subsets
I have commented quite recently that there is no need to name your subsets. Different design elements and different pictures do MUCH more than naming each part of the set. It would be so much cooler to have “Donruss Elite Auto Jerseys” rather than “Dress Code Auto Jersey” or “Freshman Orientation Auto Jerseys”. Hall of fame signatures? Fine. Canton Absolutes signatures? Fuck off. There is nothing more annoying than seeing an awesome card ruined by an junky name for the set.
Base Cards
Yeah, I said it. Base cards, especially in football, arent worth the time of the companies to produce any more. If more products moved to tin format, it would definitely cut cost, but it would also lend itself better to organization and value. If a product costs thirty bucks a box, go ahead and make a 500 card base set, but anything above that should be in one pack format. I don’t even take base cards home with me anymore. I leave them at the shop as freebies for people who have no regard for space in their collections.
Printing Plates
If there is one thing on this entire list that needs to go, its printing plates. They are such a boring and stupid addition to any product, mainly because they were never really meant to be inserted in the first place. The cards cater to those collectors who want nothing more than to pull a one of one, even though just about every plate is actually 1/4. They are ugly, stupid, and should be cut from every product.
EDIT: This specific entry has brought about some debate from bloggers on twitter. I found it quite interesting to find out that they are never used in the printing process anymore. They are specifically manufactured to be hits in products. After thinking about it, that should have been pretty obvious when the plate image is not the reverse of the card image. Shows how observant I am…
Player Exclusives/League Exclusives
This is more a marketing tactic than anything, but it still affects cards more than anyone would know. I think its safe to say that cards would be in a much better position without companies dogfighting over who has exclusive rights to sign for them. You should have cards that perpetuate brand loyalty, not exclusives that do the work for you. Its completely counter-productive, and has shown miserably in both the NBA and MLB.
Excessive Parallels
Parallels are used as a way to fill out a product rather than a tool to bring about more value. Because Parallels have almost become more concentrated in each set than the base cards, they arent valuable any more. Chrome has become the ONE exception to this rule, and its only because of the way their cards are structured. Again, Panini is one of the worst in the Parallel game, mainly because each card of theirs has about five hundred versions. I actually would say that the base card is no longer the common in a Panini set.
The Scrub Auto
The reason scrub autos exist is to have a cheap way to fill out an auto checklist. When Adrian Peterson charges 200 bucks a card, it forces the manufacturers to use lower tier rookies to fill out their box hits. Well, this is where the strategy breaks down. Instead of loading up on cheaper position players, they cast a wide net to include guys that probably wont make the practice squad. Honestly, if a guy has a shot, plays QB, WR or RB, have higher numbers of their cards instead of shitty defensive and non-position players. There is not going to be many Tom Brady like players who are undrafted and play free safety for the Lions.
Cut Autographs
When cut autographs become a case hit, its time to let it go. Cuts need to be a once in a lifetime pull, not some guy that played for a few years and happens to be dead. Walter Payton and Johnny Unitas make good candidates, not the center for the 1969 Colts. Its even gotten to the point that companies have stopped using photos on their cuts due to licensing. That is completely inexcusable.
Redemptions for Sticker Autos
Its one thing if a company is waiting on a hard signed card from a player. Ill wait for those any day of the week. But if they are waiting on a sheet of stickers, that’s their own fucking fault for not being prepared. If the player was a rookie at the premiere, its almost a felony level crime. Company commitment to delivering quality products has drastically fallen off the face of the earth, and shit like this shouldn’t fly. Right Panini?
Outside of these, there are about a million more, and Im sure you guys have your own. Feel free to comment below with your suggestions for the list, I will most definitely add ones that I like.
C’mon man, you know you are dying for that super sick MOJO Billy Curry cut sig!
wait, what?
Printing plates? Plates are a great way to put extra value into the product with 0 added cost.
The positive image plates are used in a process called offset printing. The plate doesn’t touch the card stock, but deposits the ink onto a roller which then prints the image on the stock.
Ok while I agree with most of the list the one thing I don’t agree on is the scrub autos. If it weren’t for topps putting Arian Foster in Bowman Sterling he wouldn’t have a single true rookie auto. I know he is a RB and might fall under your definition of acceptable, but there are also tons of people who do collect lineman, defensive players and just any player that went to a certain college. For these people having these autos in the sets are what make alot of the products worth buying.
I think the best way for companies to include these scrub autos would be to make them set exclusives. Instead of having a scrub auto of a certain lineman, defensive player, or other in half the products put each of these players in only 1 product each. Theres more than enough of them to do this. It would keep the overall costs low still and it would bring each set a little more value as it would drop the odds of pulling these players. Also if one of these players suddenly became “hot” it would not only keep the cards rare and valuable, buts would also turn a bland middle tier product into a chase product for that year, exactly like 09 bowman sterling is now because of Arian Foster.
Nice post – a succinct collection of issues with today’s companies.
I would edit one entry to say “HIGH END base cards”. I understand and agree with the idea that very high end sets don’t need base cards. But much further than that is mojo hunter snobbery.
I’d throw one more item on my own list, although it’s not caused by the companies. Clueless player associations requiring rookies in every single set produced.
Good call on alot of these – it definitely sets up for some debate. I agree with most, but the base sets I have to take issue with. Based on what I’ve seen in blogs, there are still a sizeable number of base set collectors. This may be more baseball-specific, but I don’t think completely doing away with base product is the smartest thing. Not everyone only collects autographs, and yes that takes up more space, but it comes back to personal preference. I wish the manufacturers would go back to differentiating their products more. In the mid 90’s, upper deck had a low-end (collector’s choice ~700 cards) for set collectors, a base brand (~550 cards), and a premium brand (SP ~200 cards). The higher end, the fewer base cards. I liked this idea, even if it’s not feasible exactly in that format. Either way, either eliminate the base set from the product or work on the design – don’t just throw together a bunch of recycled crap that looks exactly like another product from 2 years ago.
Solid white jersey cards. Why bother?
If a company is going to do a jersey card, it must be at least two color or contain some stripe.
Get rid of the manufactured letter patch cards! They suck!
Great post.
My Perfect set
100% autographed. Can be sticker or auto.
Base Auto /99
Only one parralel 1. Needs to be a cool color like the Status aquas 2. #d to the player (which is very cool for 88/88 and 15/15 etc. QBs obviously become more valuable.) 3. Needs to be on card auto.
Only two insert sets 1. Auto Jersey /25 2. Auto Patch / 10
1 of 1 alternate design auto patch with real gold or platinum used (preferably in the set and play name, not the border.)
This shoud be the Exquisite/National Treasure/Pradigm ultra high end set.
So a max of 5 cards for a player out of that set.
I would collect a set like this all day.
Would like to add one more insert set exculsively for great games and milesstones worn threads with Auto’s if they are still alive. Mostly Super Bowls of course.
My Thought would be the Shoes,Pants, or Jersey Elway wore in the Drive, or the gloves of David Tyree that he used to make the amazing neck catch in SB XLII. The Jersey of Dan Marino when he set the single season passing yardage mark against the Cowboys.
Maybe called it “Pieces of History” or something better that someone with better word smith skills can come up with.
Id rather have a piece of game film then another single colored jersey of a scrub! I hate scrub jerseys and autos, that’s all i ever seem to pull! Best FB auto i have pulled was Matt Schaub and that’s not saying much!
I agree with the previous poster who commented that manufacturers need to do a better job differentiating their products and tailoring them to their different audiences. Older set collectors like me have little interest in all the “hits” which have forced box prices higher, whereas younger collectors who primarily collect the “hits” have little interest in base cards. Yet virtually every product contains both elements and therefore satisfies no one. Stop trying to make every product appeal to every collector.
My second comment is that manufacturers need to create “hits” which actually bring value to the collectors. Too many hits are mundane jersey swatches and autos of mundane players. Why not try to partner with the actual teams and leagues to create unique “experience” hits that would actually excite collectors (for example that chance to throw out a first pitch, shag flies during BP, be at batboy/girl, take BP on the field, manage the team for three innings during spring training, be an honorary captain for an NFL coin toss, etc.) instead of including mundane and easily replicable physical items. Or how about gift certificates for StubHub, Ticketmaster, or team stores that collectors could redeem and use. Heck, Topps even had scratch-off game cards in packs for a few year in the mid-80’s. Wouldn’t it be cool to have one of those in every pack?
The bottom line is that manufacturers have to do a better job understanding their customers and delivering them value for money. Until that happens, nothing will change.
Good post, but it looks like you are complaining about EVERYTHING the card industry does.
Look gellyman
First of all card producers don’t Know and do not give a damn what collectors like nowadays,that’s why they include every card type under the rainbow.
But as we both Know every body collects different,so buy manufacturing all the different types of inserts and base parallels they satisfy the hole hobby including you,and me.
This is how they stay afloat.
What pisses me off is other collectors trying to tell other card collectors what to collect,so when Topps pulls there single jersey cards from their issue some poor mother fucker who cant live without collecting single one color jersey cards is out of luck.sad.
What we should all be doing is creating some huge collectors society that instead of members buying cases and boxes or even packs,cant forget about the rats,should be manufacturing their own cards and issuing by card types.
This would give today’s card companies the kick in the ass they deserve.
1) Jersey cards – I still am in favor of them, just not as readily found. Instead of 3/4″ swatches, make them at least 2″ swatches and if a product normally has them 1-2 a box, make it 1 per every 2-3 boxes.
I would also call for more dirt-stained or torn swatches that show some evidence of game used. I enjoy my dirt-stained jersey cards.
2) base cards – they are my favorite thing as I’m a set collector – usually base sets but I will do SP’s to make it more complete if it’s a set design I really like.
3) printing plates – I always had a feeling they weren’t press-used. I’d figure they’d have more dried ink blotches or ink residue on them if they were actually press used rather than their pristine state because they are meant for hits.
Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy.