Dear Collectors,
We all got an inside look at the rookie premiere this year thanks to social media, but honestly, I cant stand all the complaining just because there is a more prominent display of what actually goes on. Its like people were clueless for the last ten years and didnt understand that the rookies rarely wore any jerseys at the premiere in a way that would resemble “game worn.” In fact, for the last decade, there have been practically no uniform swatches inserted into cards, worn for more than a few seconds at a time. Because this is a necessity to have enough material to make the thousands of jersey cards that people love for some reason, there is no way around the practice.
What makes 2011 different is this past year, Mark Ingram tweeted pictures of himself wearing a good number of jerseys all at once to burst the bubble of everyone that didnt know any better. Guess what? I bet for the first time, these jerseys were worn for a couple of minutes instead of just a few seconds! Yes, because he had to take the time to put on all the jerseys, it was a minimum of a few minutes on his back! YES! More connection in these usually disconnected swatches, right?
Again, I dont get why people think this is a new way of doing things. Its not. In fact, I really dont want to listen to the constant reference back to the Ingram pictures. If you want all the swatches, you need the premiere, bottom line. Because so many of the rookies dont make it on to the field each year, there arent enough REAL jerseys to go around. Who cares that he wore #80 in the picture, honestly, because when they are all cut up, what does it matter? Would it REALLY make that much of a difference if he wore 28 or 32? I have to say no.
In the end, the rookie premiere is awesome because we get NFL uniform photos to grace the front of the cards for most of the year. I have no problem with the event, and I dont buy rookie jerseys unless there is an auto included as well. However, IF you decide to complain, you better be complaining about the whole experience since 2001, not just this year. That’s all I gotta say.
Your friend,
Gellman
Adam,
Are you saying, there is no Santa?
Do not make me post the outside the lines report on espn I was on in 2001 lol.. Instead they cut and paste this article from espn that prompted the report. Its a great read when the event worn business started to pick up
http://a.espncdn.com/sportsbusiness/s/2003/0711/1579655.html
Still amazes me how uninformed/surprised collectors are with all the information out there
-wheels
I have a question that maybe you can answer Gellman which is somewhat related to this post. Looking at Topps Baseball Relics as an example i notice that almost all “game used” swatches for nearly all players are the same color, grey or white in most cases, which has me wondering if they are in fact cut from the jersey of the person on the card or we are being mislead somehow and that all players come from the same white or grey jersey. This goes for the bats too, you never see an ash or dark maple bat unless it is a 1/1. I’m sure this goes on in football too somehow.
Most team’s jerseys are either predominantly grey or white, thus more swatches.
One half of me wonders why collectors still lust after this crap…the other half of me notices the huge number of memorabilia/relic cards that can’t even sell for 99 cents on Ebay.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that everyone wants the stars, but most of the “hits” are actually scrubeenies…