Night Owl Cards

A couple of days ago, Topps released news of its new "Five Star Club," an exclusive club for super-high-end collectors who spend an average of $10,000 on Topps products each year. There was a lot of hue and cry about this and understandably so. ( Here is a well-thought-out rundown and rant). I was part of that, and I'll try to explain my feelings here. First, I'm not a fan of clubs. Never have been. I like things that are inclusive, not exclusive. Clubs can get ugly real fast. And here is the part of Topps' Five Star Club press release that got me going: "Introducing the Topps Five Star Club, an elite club for our most passionate collectors ." (Emphasis mine). Here was my Twitter reaction: A typical editor reaction to get worked up over word choice. But, still, it annoyed me. "Passionate" is not buying thousands of dollars of product in order to sell it or discard it. "Passionate" is not holding on to one card des...

This, in a roundabout way, is my response to the results from the "Where has Topps Gone Wrong" poll I posted. It's obvious, according to those who voted (and I know for a fact Chris Harris did not vote 36 times), that Topps' gimmickry is mostly to blame for the feelings of ill will that collectors have for "The Real One." Actually, the poll categories were fairly even until news of the Sarah Palin beauty queen card broke, and then that second column pulled a Carl Lewis. The poll's not up anymore, but here are the results written out: Too may gimmicks: 52 percent Too many sets: 25 percent Too expensive: 22 percent Poor card design: 19 percent Topps rules, the rest drool: 16 percent Too many relics/autographs: 11 percent Too little customer service: 8 percent I, personally, have the most problem with the first and second categories. I'm surprised that the relics/autos category didn't draw more votes, though. I know some bloggers have n...

Don't worry, no presidential pontificating here. The heaviest I will get on this blog is when discussing the combined weight of Prince Fielder and CC Sabathia. Whoa, those are some big boys. I'm just asking you to point your eyes to the upper right and add your vote to the poll. The question: exactly where has Topps gone wrong? We all agree they're screwing up somehow. So, go ahead and vote. It's free! And you can vote for more than one category. It's like voting for McCain AND Obama AND that guy from the communist worker party. (oops, sorry, that's a political reference). If you think Topps is untouchable, a benevolent and omnipotent god, then there's a category for that, too. Cast away. I promise, I will post on whatever category comes out on top. I have no idea what I'll say. But I'm sure it'll be some sort of unoriginal diatribe. Unoriginal but fascinating. Just you wait.