2008 Topps Heritage Variations

Ok, my existential freakout is over. May as well talk about these new abominations to the lord super short print variations a bit. The first I've heard of them was last night, so I don't know much of anything about the insert ratios really, other than they're tougher than normal. I haven't seen much online about them, Beckett has a "Variations Uncovered" article on their site but it's about racing cards. Are they one a case? 20 cases? Harder than that? Specifically given to a few choice dealers to run the demand up? Who knows. Caveat Emptor.

First of all let's look at the Santana variation. Not much to say really, one has him in his Twins uni, the other has a Mets logo and a photochopped Mets uni. Any idiot can do that. This card is not interesting so let's move on.

The Smoltz variation. First of all, I want to make it clear to everyone that no matter what the eBay listings say, this card is not an error. It is completely impossible to accidentally convince John Smoltz to take photo where he is posing as a lefty, misspell his name as Jon on the front and back and happen to give him the exact same card number as a card of Lew Burdette that also has his name misspelled and shows him posing with the wrong pitching arm. An accident like that is not possible. This is a variation. This was done on purpose. There were meetings held discussing the creation of this card, people were delegated certain tasks in order to make sure the card was created, and a conscious decision was make by a real live person to make it a scarce short print for the express purpose of trying to drum up interest in the product in the hopes of boosting sales. There was absolutely no mistake made when creating this card and it was most likely approved by many different people in Topps' chain of command, just like they signed off on the Alay Soler card, the Bush/Mantle/Jeter card, the Jacoby Ellsbury Card, the Poley Walnuts card, the Lefty Joba card, the Astros Joba card, the Giuliani Red Sox card and the Kazuo Uzuki card. Anyone trying to convince you that it is an error is trying to get your money. Anyone.

Ok now down to the card itself. It's actually a pretty clever card and a nice homage to the original set. Lew was a little bit of a crackpot and liked to play jokes on the Topps photographers by posing as a lefty and giving them the wrong name. Well, he fooled them a few times, and his 1958 card has "Lou" on the front and "Lew" on the back. This card is a little more subtle, but it's a good facsimile. Smoltzie doesn't have the classic windup pose, but he has the glove on the right hand. The name is spelled Jon on the front and back and it even has the same #440 as Lew's original card. Real good By Topps on getting the details right. There is a precedent for this kind of thing, in 2006, Topps created a reverse negative variation of the Andruw Jones card with the same #25 as the orignal Hank Aaron from the '57 set. It was a plain ol' short print though, which means people could actually pull them.

Smoltz is one of those high numbered non-short prints in the '08 edition. I was wondering why they didn't just make everything 426 and up an SP, so I guess this is why. They wanted to match up Smoltz and the Burdette card. Now I'm wondering what the relationship between the other non-SP high cards are. Here's the list of the other four and their 1959 counterparts:

Number 439: 1959 - Brooks Robinson, 2008 - Daniel Cabrera

An Orioles connection. Our friend Kevin (who I JUST realized was not in the blogroll, tell me about these things, people!) would have something to say about comparing Cabrera to the immortal Brooks though.

Number 460: 1959 - Bob Friend, 2008 - Tom Gorzelanny

A couple of Pirates pitchers. Friend had a career year in '58, but crashed to earth in '59 with an 8-19 record. Not sure how much Gorzelanny wants to be associated with that, but 8-19 could possibly lead the staff this year for the Buccos.

Number 476: 1959 - Cleveland Indians Team, 2008 - Cleveland Indians Team

Makes perfect sense. Now I'm wondering if all the team cards correspond to their '59 counterparts. That will have to wait for later.

Number 478: 1959 - Roberto Clemente, 2008 - Jason Bay

Wow, Topps. Don't put any pressure on the kid, Ok?

So basically a lot of thought went into this set and Topss has done a reasonably good job with it. That's why the gimmickization of the Jon/Lou card disappoints me so badly. The set doesn't NEED a gimmick, it just needs a little extra thought and care put into it. The same number of cards as in the '59 set. Short prints corresponding to the original high series, with the black backs. No unnecessary black back parallels. That kind of stuff. Sets like these don't need a high priced chase card. It may push a few boxes in the short term, but when people start buying them specifically to get the one chase card what happens when they don't get it? What happens to the kid who buys a bunch of Topps looking for a reverse negative Joba and he doesn't get it? What happens to the kid who just wants a Poley Walnuts card and they never get it? How many get frustrated and don't come back? Not just kids either, I've seen many long time collectors get fed up and quit because it's just not worth it anymore.

I'm not against chase cards by any means. There's lots of good insert sets out there, Autos and relics are always welcome, press plates and one of ones are neat quests and the crazy stuff like cut autos and certified champion dog hair and what not is fun to watch from afar. I'm just sick of the artificially scarce base card gimmicks that are not necessary and have grown tiresome. The Alex Gordon may or may not have been legit, but all the rest of the special cards, photoshops, "pulled from production" cards and just plain unannounced curve balls like this are really getting tedious. Save the chase card crap for the high roller boxes and leave our building sets alone.