Thursday, August 1, 2013

The Dull Trading Deadline Made Worse By The Royal Baby

The past week leading up to the trade deadline offered the usually assortment of smoke, but there was not any fire when the trade line actually came and went this afternoon.  There was the Jake Peavy trade which saw the White Sox pitcher land with the Red Sox, Avisail Garcia with the White Sox, and Jose Iglesias land with the Tigers.  Bud Norris landed with the Orioles for L.J. Hoes.  Really not much to see.

The slow trade deadline will eventually be felt this fall when Topps releases the third installment of its base set.  While the majority of traded players are featured on airbrushed cards its still always cool to pick up cards of old players on new teams.  I will have to get a Bud Norris on the Orioles, but that might be the crowning glory of the Update set...maybe.  This year I guess that will be even less exciting.

Topps is figuring that a dull trade line might result in a dull Update set too, so how do they solve this problem?  Gimmicks of course.  To boast the sets release later this fall Topps announced an additional card to the Update set to attract a little bit more attention and help generate more sales.  I am slightly disturbed.




Topps has put all kinds of gimmicky cards in their sets of the past years.  Some of the cards, such as the Skip Schumaker rally squirrel card, end up making a pretty good splash.  Others, like the Ryan Dempster/Abe Lincoln card, just turn out lame.  I guess this all started with the Jeter/Mantle/G.W. Bush card in the 2007 Topps set, but the announcement of the Royal Baby card is not sitting well with me.  Is that RC circle in the corner a rookie card stamp?  Lame.  

All excitement has been dampened to the point that I might simply quietly buy the complete set off of Ebay, flip through the box, and then put it away into my card closet.  The royal family does not excite me, nor interest me in the least.  However, I know that there are people who are gaga over anything to do with them, so I am imagining that the update set could have a few crazy moments when it first hits the secondary market.  

You remember when the Skip Schumaker Rally Squirrel card was selling on Ebay for the first two days at $400?  Now the card is $40-50.  I see something crazy like that happening with the royal baby card.  If I land a copy it's going on Ebay immediately.  Cashing out.  

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