[rjcj2017]

Uggghhh .... OK, here's the deal.

I have stated on here before that I am against companies with monopolies (i.e. Topps) jacking around with stuff like unnecessary short prints just to gouge collectors ... such as the Bryce Harper RC out of Series 2 earlier this year.

Beautiful card, right? Yep, and the auto version is even sweeter ... but I refuse(d) to spends hundreds/thousands on wax to pull one, or to plunk down $200-250 to buy a single.

So, like with Strasburg a couple of years ago — coincidence? — I decided to wait for the Update set to come out to pull his "rookie card" out of a pack, the old-fashioned way ... without going broke!

I've eagerly anticipated the release of 2012 Update, and it just came out today.

With the same freaking photo they used for his Platinum RC!

He hasn't played enough games that they couldn't come up with a new photo, or one at least as cool as his short-print RC photo?

I mean, it's just my opinion, but he kind of looks like a grade-schooler playing hopscotch to first base in the Platinum/Update photo.

And now, it's my only choice for a basic Topps RC that I can pull without going broke.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ... can't see myself buying one pack, much less a blaster.

[nyyankeesfan28]

You don't want to do a factory set, right? And you want basic Topps, not A+G, not Platinum, etc?

[lefou66]

Yeah youre right about the Plat photo....i kind of like more the Chrome one.I cant beleive they put the same photo in Update

[rjcj2017]

You don't want to do a factory set, right? And you want basic Topps, not A+G, not Platinum, etc?

Yeah, just basic Topps ... but I like the photo on the Series 2 SP WAY better than the photo on the Update RC.

So, it's either plunk down the cash for a SP, or just don't bother with a Topps RC this year, I guess.

Does anyone know what the photo on the factory set RC looks like?

---

Yeah youre right about the Plat photo....i kind of like more the Chrome one.I cant beleive they put the same photo in Update

I do like the Chrome pic better, but even still, since there are only like a dozen baseball products this year, can't they come up with a different photo for each one?

Let's see ... Topps 1 & 2 (but he wasn't in Series 1), Gypsy Queen (wasn't in GQ), Allen & Ginter, Chrome, Finest, Platinum, Tier One, Museum Collection, Bowman, Triple Threads, Update ... what am I missing?

So far that's only like 10 different products he was eligible to be in, so you'd only need 10 different photos!

[chevy man 22]

These products are made months and months in advance of their release so you figure most of the baseball stuff from this year was produced late in 2012 for Topps Ser. 1 that came out in Feb. and probably March and April for the majority of the other stuff. So that's only a handful of games in which he played that they probably had a chance to get a photo of him in action. Also think about the cost of using different photos in that they would have to make separate printing plates for each photo which can be expensive.

[fulltritty]

I don't know, but if you watch Nationals games on a daily basis, the Platinum picture typifies Harper on a daily basis. He tears around those base pads like that picture every game and his helmet usually falls off rounding third and going home.

[rjcj2017]

These products are made months and months in advance of their release so you figure most of the baseball stuff from this year was produced late in 2012 for Topps Ser. 1 that came out in Feb. and probably March and April for the majority of the other stuff. So that's only a handful of games in which he played that they probably had a chance to get a photo of him in action. Also think about the cost of using different photos in that they would have to make separate printing plates for each photo which can be expensive.

"Also think about the cost of using different photos in that they would have to make separate printing plates for each photo which can be expensive."

I think the cost of packs and boxes more than covers four new printing plates.

And I work for a newspaper, they burn four new color plates for each color page in each paper each day.

I think you have a good point about the timeline, but we're only talking 10 different photos ... shoot one game, focusing only on Harper, and you should have 15 to 20 usable/decent shots to work with.

---

I don't know, but if you watch Nationals games on a daily basis, the Platinum picture typifies Harper on a daily basis. He tears around those base pads like that picture every game and his helmet usually falls off rounding third and going home.

That's fine, but that's the Platinum picture. How about a different picture for the Topps Update card?

[elfeo013]

be more annoyed when you have to wait over a year for a redemption card

[rjcj2017]

be more annoyed when you have to wait over a year for a redemption card

Very true ... and that actually circles back to my original point about Topps ... in an era of redemption cards, numbered cards, auto cards, jersey cards, short prints, etc., why do they also have to monkey with one of the last remaining "old school" aspects of card collecting, i.e., grabbing a few packs at a retail store and finding the hot rookie card?

One other thing I noticed ... back in 2010, for its Update set Topps started issuing extra cards of players marked with the date of their MLB debuts ... so, if you were like Starlin Castro and Stephen Strasburg, you had both your "base" RC and these MLB debut cards in the update set ... but if you were like Jason Heyward, and your base RC was in an earlier series, you only had your MLB debut card in the Update set.

You can tell the difference because there are no stats on the back of the MLB debut cards, just a sentence or two about their first games.

So guess what they did with Harper? Yep, only one MLB debut card in the update set ... so, unlike Strasburg, technically the SP Series 2 card is his only "real" RC ... (and I'm not counting the All-Star card in the update set, that's just a coincidence) ...

And now the MLB debut cards carry the RC logo as well, but they didn't before ...

Ah, consistency. Wonder how Beckett is going to handle this one ...

[oneofakindcards]

...I have stated on here before that I am against companies with monopolies (i.e. Topps) ...

Why do people say this when its clearly wrong? Topps doesn't have a monopoly, they were selected by MLB to be the only company to produce licensed MLB cards. Other companies can (and do) produce baseball cards.

Anyone against this should also be against the "only officially licensed soft drink" and everything else the MLB licenses!