Relic Stupidity - Ginter Style

A month ago I wrote about the craziness with Series Two relics. Cards were made showing players who were no longer with the Cubs; in fact they had base cards in Series Two with their new team. I'm not chasing any relics from the base set, so it was easy for me to stay away from them.


Sadly, the same stupidity has come to Ginter. And here, I'm stuck. I've got every single Cub relic made since Ginter's debut in 2006 and I'd like to keep that going. Unfortunately, Topps is forcing me to buy cards of players that are no longer Cubs.

Players like Carlos Zambrano, traded on January 5, 2012

If you thought that is bad, it gets worse...

...Kosuke Fukudome, traded by the Cubs to the Indians July 28, 2011. He was the granted free agency and signed by the White Sox on February 14, 2012.


And if you that that was bad, check this out!

Ryan Theriot, shown as a Cub, last played for the Cubs in July of 2010...two years ago! Since then he's been with the Dodgers, Cardinals, and now the Giants. How ridiculous is that? He was with the Cubs two years and four teams ago, yet we get him as a Cub.


I understand the dilemma Topps faces when a player moves to another team: what do you do with the jerseys you've got from the former team. Either you show the player with his old team or you put out a mismatched card. Either choice isn't good. Look at what Upper Deck did when they went the mismatch route.

Green, gold, grey, blue, and red...yuck!


The third choice is to not use a player if you don't have a jersey from his current team. It's the cleanest choice, but it's also cost Topps some money, since they won't use some jerseys they already have purchased. And usually the bottom line trumps design. Too bad.


There are a few other Cubs relics, but Topps was ok with them...

....Marlon Byrd, an ex-Cub, but only since April.

Carlos Marmol, Ryan Dempster and Geovany Soto were included and there's a chance they may all be ex-Cubs before the end of the season.

Starlin Castro and Ryne Sandberg also have relics, though theirs are the dreaded shortprints


So that gives me nine relic cards to hunt, which is the same number of base Cubs in the set. It was much easier back in the early days of Ginter, when there was only one or two relics of actual Cubs to chase.