Saturday, March 8, 2014

Tribute...This is Getting Insane

Last week I wrote a post on Topps tribute insult to Billy Williams by using the same picture on both the 2013 and 2014 Tribute cards.

Today, we go from an insult to downright insanity.

Billy Williams played over 50 years ago.  The stock of good color photos of him from his playing days might be a little thin.  So I get that Topps may have to use a picture more than once.

Ryne Sandberg played in the 1980s and 1990s. There should be a boatload of color pictures of him available.  I guess Topps is not privy to the Sandberg stash.


This is his card from 2014 Tribute.  It's got a shot from either 1994 or 1996 (the years that Sandberg was active and the Cubs wore that version of the Cubbie on the sleeve).  So far so good.


This is the 2013 Tribute card.  Not so good anymore, since its the same picture.  But wait, there's more.


How about 2012 Tribute, with the same picture!


All three, side by side.

There is absolutely no reason for Topps to be using the same picture three years in a row.  It's utter insanity.

It's Topps.

I don't know what else to say.

8 comments:

  1. What i also find annoying is that Rizzo has 3 different type of auto cards in Tribute, just like last year. All of course have a handful of parallels as well and as a Rizzo collector i feel the urge to chase them all....(although the latter might also be simply my own problem :-))

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  2. It's really depressing. This is my main complaint with Topps... and it's not just that they'll use the same photo three years in a row within the same product line, but they'll use the same photo three different times in one year within three different products.

    Both anger me. Laziness. Makes me wonder if Topps would be doing the same thing if Panini or UD had an MLB license. Competition is a good thing, but competition on equal footing is even better. (Especially for the consumer.)

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  3. For pictures on base cards, I don't think it would make a difference if there was other companies making MLB licensed cards - there is just no thought put into making base cards out of a product driven by assorted hits.

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  4. Hmm... Topps continues to pry money from collectors year after year, for basically the same items. (Although not as blatant as the "sparkle" nonsense.)

    Just one more reason not to collect current issue products.

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  5. Collectors are part of the problem here, because people are still buying this product even with Topps' laziness. Most people will only do as much work (and pay for as many images) as they absolutely have to. As long as people keep buying the product with the same images, then there is very little incentive for Topps to purchase new images.

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  6. Photos are secondary in high-end sets. It's all about hits.

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