I think buybacks in 2015 Allen & Ginter that feature nearly worthless A&G cards from the last nine years are pointless. Topps stamps some foil on it, and look, a new, fancy card! There are 224 of this Michael Cuddyer 2011 A&G mini on COMC for $.08, but look, we bought some and stamped it, and now it's rare!
I don't love it on vintage cards either, but I don't think it's as dumb a concept as what 2015 A&G is doing. I can tolerate it.
All these words of hate, and then this arrived in my mailbox over the weekend:
When you have a PC of guy, I suppose you make these choices, which means you collect cards of that guy you think are dumb, but need them for your collection. That's what I'll tell myself. I luckily won it very cheap, but still, I wasn't excited about it arriving or anything. Maybe I'm doing this hobby all wrong.
I just bought a card I think is stupid. So what does that make me? Stupider?
I had to make the same decision with a Matt Harrison buyback. I think it's stupid - I also think taking beautiful vintage and stamping it with a Topps logo is akin to cardboard murder. For the record, I also think the Bowman reprints (the sapphire reprints from a couple years ago and the the diamond reprints from last year) are stupid. The product in both cases is expensive enough...I don't need some goofy gimmick like this in a pack when I would prefer the couple of cards it replaced in my set build. Anyway, I'll step off my soapbox.
ReplyDeleteHaters gonna hate and PCers gonna PC.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone really cares for these buybacks, but when you collect a guy and Topps does something like this, they pretty much have you over a barrel.
You did what you had to do. Respect. (Even if the concept is stupid.)
I've bought some stupid cards in my time because they feature a player I collect. I've even been looking at one of these 2015 A&G buybacks, but I haven't yet pulled the trigger on it. It's so dumb, but I kind of need the card for my collection. The struggle is real.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is where my threshold is as a player collector. I don't particularly care if I get a buyback for any of the players I collect.
ReplyDeleteThe A&G buybacks are about as dumb as it gets.
I'm not a fan either. I also don't see how it helps drive sales. Buying and stamping 10 full master sets makes it too broad to chase anything through packs. Heritage vintage buybacks at least have a focus of some kind (although I doubt they put the full set in packs).
ReplyDeleteI understand your plight but I get around this nonsense by only player collecting things with a print run over 50. There's no way they stamped over 50 of each card, so I'm safe!
I'm not even a player collector and I've bought cards that I hate. Something seems ok on eBay, but by the time it gets home and in hand, I hate it. Enjoy your stupid card! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's times like these that make me glad my main PC guys are in the minors and shudder to think what kind of stupid gimmicks Topps will come up with by the time they make it to the big leagues.
ReplyDelete