I have been kicking this thought around in my head for quite some time. However today cinched it as what I am going to write about, when I saw 2010-11 the Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee. For the past 3 years, UD has marched out a OPC base card that has been slightly tweaked year after year. The real treasure in the set though is the Retro Cards. I am convinced that is what people buy OPC for.
My wife and I are still working on the 2008-09 Retro Set. I really do love the designs of the old sets. Why do the card manufacturers think we want flashy abstract designed cards? Why can’t they go back to simpler designs. Iconic designs like 1975 Topps, or 1986 Donruss. Get rid of the logos, I don’t know if this is mandated by the leagues or not, but I hate team logos on the cards.
The companies have relied to heavily on autographs and game used on cards. Of course why wouldn’t they continue, we keep buying to find the one of ones, we don’t even like the designs and we are buying the cards. If you want creative, then you are going to have to buy our vintage sets, like Allan and Ginter, Mayo or Champs. Instead of vintage sets, come out with, and this may seem crazy, a set with no autographs or game used, just a set to collect. One that has a unique design, and lot’s of subsets.
To be truthful, I think we are all autographed and game used out! Instead if you want that, make a $10 per pack set where you get one game used or autograph per pack. That would spur on the retail side of things. The best selling packs I see at Target are the Trilogy, and ICE packs that have a hit per pack ratio. The card designers need to focus on design again. This is the Topps 2011 flagship base card:
If you are psyched about collecting this set, you are nuts. Come on Topps, this is your 60th year. Are there a ton of inserts in the set? Of course there are, it’s Topps. The inserts is where all the designing went into. Topps should be embarrassed that this is what they parade out as their 60th base design. There are so many great graphic art designers out there, why can’t they be hired to create a card that is worth collecting again? What I would give for seeing a base set like this:
Now how cool is that design? I hate logos on cards, but I love how they used it on this one. A little bit of old school and new school mixed together. Unfortunately these fall one per pack in OPC this year. For a grand total of 36 per box. You would need between 20 – 40 boxes to complete this set. Instead, make this a base card! Collectors would be all over it. What do you want to see in your baseball card design? I want to see creativity, before the card industry collapses because of excess autographs and game used cards.
O-Pee-Chee is a mainstay in my collection for the sole fact that it is a “collector’s” set. With 600 cards and another 100-200 released later, it is one of the only sets that you will most likely get your favorite player if he is not a superstar, not to mention most if not all the rookies. While it would seem that 100 card base sets have become the mainstay in hockey cards (with the rest being short prints), O-Pee-Chee, at least for me, has not failed to entertain, amuse, and keep me interested in set collecting.
I’ve got some doubles of that 08/09 OPC retro set… lmk what you need and I’ll check. maybe we can swap.