What We Talk About When We Talk About Online Exclusive Cards

 

Is it FOMO?

            I don’t know.

            I don’t fear I’m missing out on the vast majority of these cards.

           Is it a repressed hostility?

            Maybe…I know I’m not a big fan of things being available for a limited period of time. Been this way since when you had to collect five proof-of-purchases on Star Wars action figures in order to send away for a Boba Fett.

            I know.

            I’m dating myself here.

            When Disney tried to provoke me to buy their movies on VHS, because I had a limited time before they were going back into the Disney vault, I thought, the hell with them. Let them go back into the Disney vault. Which, by the way, I pictured as being this big steel, mouse-head-shaped door that, when open, shown a deep orange illuminated light.

            But full disclosure…I don’t like Disney films…so if a Disney movie went back into the vault it didn’t matter to me.

            See you later, Peter Pan, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

            Ok…so…

            And I don’t feel any hostility toward online exclusive cards or the people who buy them.

            You do you and I’ll do me.

            What are we talking about when we’re talking about online exclusive cards?

            You know what I’m talking about. Topps Now. Topps MLB Living Set. Throwback Thursday cards. Topps Game with in the Game. Topps Project 70. Topps Project 2020. The Montgomery stuff you have to be a member to be able to purchase. Everything from Soccer to Hockey Stickers to Elvis and Star Wars cards all the way to Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids.

            Am I missing anything?

            And what in the actual FF?

            When I checked this morning, Topps listed itself as having 113 online brands. That’s a lot of online, limited time, exclusivity. And this stuff’s not cheap. The Topps Living Set, which is two cards that come out weekly, cost $7.99 a piece or, the more affordable, $11.99 per two card bundle.  The Elvis cards, which I was initially interested in, are $9.99 per card. Who is regularly buying this stuff? And can you tell me which stocks you invest in please?

            I get the anxious sweats just slapping down cash for a single Hobby Box of base.

            I’m not saying the stuff isn’t nice. If it wasn’t there wouldn’t be a market for 113 online products. I like the Star Wars living set, although I’m not even thinking about getting into non-sports cards right now with the way things cost. The 1977 card designs really take me back. I think the Topps MLB Living Set is pretty fun with its 1953 design. They, like a lot of the nostalgia Topps pushes like drug dealers, take me back to being a kid at a card show looking at cards I couldn’t afford under the showcase glass.

It took a while but Topps eventually put up a Topps MLB Living Set card that even I wanted to buy.

And I like the idea of art cards. Project 2020. Project 70. I’ve always viewed baseball cards as art. Kind of hard not to when a card like this exists in the world.

I bought a couple Project 2020 cards.

A little something for Jackie Robinson Day

And I could resist these two Project 70 cards.

That Cobra card is beyond “killer.”

See what I did there?

On the Clemente, I’m a big fan of Lauren Taylor’s sports art work. She does an excellent job of weaving the history and local lore of a player in to her designs.

I even have her Willie Stargell print on my wall, to look at each morning when I sit down to write.

And, yes, I’m bitter that Project 70 made not a single Willie Stargell card.

But Project 2020, with its reliance on artistically reproducing the same small set of rookie card with different artists, well, it got a little redundant to me. Maybe because, other than the unattainable Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson rookie cards, the rest of the rookie cards in Project 2020 didn’t appeal to me. I’d hoped for better with Project 70, but after awhile it became apparent that we were going to see the same players or the same team over and over again.

I really feel for you Dodgers and Yankees fans who have a bad case of FOMO on that one.

The $19.99 on each individual card didn’t help.

Also....do we really need art cards when this card already exists in the world?

That said, I love the Topps Game Within the Game set.

I have one myself.

I’m kicking myself for not getting the Clemente.

            When the Henry Aaron card comes out later this year, I’ll for sure be queuing up.

            Topps Now…well…I’m really trying to understand that one. And I should. I write. Fiction and poetry and now these essays. Some would call me a writer, although I’ve never self-applied the word. I keep, an almost daily, handwritten journal as well. I’m also a librarian. I think I understand the minutiae of life and the desire to keep a record of it. But making a card celebrating Luis Robert hitting a home run and robbing a Seattle Mariner of a home run in a worthless April game?

            Does someone collect all of these?

I…I guess there’s a market for any and everything.

Otherwise, these guys wouldn’t have careers.

And, yes, I’ve also dabbled in Topps Now

Ended up with a short print on that adventure.

            I guess the point of this blog post, if I ever have a point, is that I’m simply surprised at the amount of card product that just exists online. When I got back into The Hobby, online exclusive cards were one of the most intriguing aspects to me. I’d go on Topps web site and just sift through the stuff. When I stopped collecting in 1992, there were no online exclusives. There was no Topps website. There was no online. If you wanted to buy what Topps was selling other than its wax product, you had to send away for one of these babies.

Sure, times have beyond changed since 1992. And online searching is easy. You can buy a car online now. So why not baseball cards? Why not exclusive baseball cards? Google has made a fortune data-mining the shit out of all of us, so that it takes me less than ten-seconds to find a picture of The Rock to put on this blog.

Does he still go by The Rock?

And how many Fast & Furious movies are there now?

I can see the unique allure of online exclusive cards. I don’t always agree with the price, but at least two times a year something catches my eye and hits me right in the wallet. And I guess that’s the point. It just gets me that at this stage in the game one’s whole sport or non-sport collecting experience could be simply what Topps puts up on its web site. Never in packs. Never from a brick-and-mortar store. And with the presence of Amazon.com, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

I fear this blog post is me reaching out.

I fear I’m old.

I fear I’m naïve.

But not in that suave Jeff Goldblum way.

I fear I'm more like this.

And don’t get me started on NFTs!

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: Going to take a dive into the PC, talk some Pirates History, and look at the cards I've thus far accumulated for one Mr. Ke'Bryan Hayes