If you don’t know who Sandy Koufax is, you probably arent a big baseball fan. Let me just put it that way. The guy was about as dominant a pitcher as there ever was, and thanks to a VERY timely deal with Topps, he will be signing for their entire 2011 calendar. I don’t usually talk much about baseball cards, mainly because I don’t collect many baseball cards anymore, but I am a HUGE Sandy Koufax fan. Being the Koufax fan that I am, this is definitely big news.

Koufax, like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and company hasn’t signed a ton of autographs in recent products like some of the other living HOFers from that era. He has had a few cards in recent Upper Deck products from 2008 and 2009, but they were rare enough that they were easy to miss. Now that he will be featured in all the Topps products for 2011, that number is sure to climb, and after seeing a card like the one below, I could not be more excited. Sandy is getting on in years, very much like the rest of the players he played with and against, and I hope this gives collectors a chance to beef up their Koufax collections before the inevitable happens.

For those of us who have been collecting a while, Koufax autos are coveted pieces of many collections, so they fetch a pretty penny when they are made available. That’s not to say there arent some great and affordable options out there, but its not like Yogi Berra’s cards where you can find thousands for close to nothing. I have tried on a few occasions to secure a Koufax auto, and I have yet to find any success in doing so, and I don’t think I am the only one in this situation. I love that most of his autographs in 2000’s era products are hard signed, but unless you have 150 bucks to burn, you are going to have a tough time finding one to purchase.

My one fear is what will happen once 2011 Triple Threads, Sterling and Tribute come out, as all will basically destroy everything that was once valued in Koufax’s stuff. These products are all littered with horrid looking cards that have sticker autographs, and you can bet that they will be everywhere. Not every card will be like the Real One autos out of Heritage, and I hope Topps doesn’t Strasburg this one. Yes, Strasburg is now a verb.

Bottom line is pretty simple. With Bryce Harper set to make a splash in Topps’ 2011 line with Koufax along side him now, hopefully things will start to turn around for the exclusive baseball license. 2010 was a tough year because of product quality and Stras’ injury, and you can imagine that both issues will need to be fixed if the collecting base is going to stick around. This is Topps’ diamond anniversary, and if they are looking to skate by like they did in the second half of 2010, they may end up with a CZ instead.