Saturday, September 22, 2018

Who Decides These Things?

Whenever a new set comes out, one of the first things I'll do is see which Red Sox players are in it. I assume a lot of collectors do this with their favorite team. Topps has recently released a couple of products, and their lists of Boston players have left me scratching my head.

Topps Fire

2018 Topps Fire #6 Xander Bogaerts

Mookie Betts is not in the base set. I understand that a small 200 card set has to be selective, but this is one omission that makes no sense. There are 8 Red Sox players represented here, but someone at Topps decided that the likely AL MVP, one of the exciting young players in all of baseball, doesn't make the cut.

Topps Heritage High Number Series

2018 Topps Heritage #519 Eduardo Nunez
2018 Topps Heritage #712 Eduardo Nunez

Don't get me wrong, I like Eduardo Nunez. He was a good pickup for the team last year, and has been decent this year. He's not a superstar by any means. So why does he get, not one, but two cards in Heritage? I don't mean that he has one base with a variation either. He has two separate cards in the set, including a short print! Why?

I've only looked at my favorite team. Has anyone else noticed any other omissions/inclusions that have no basis in rational thought?

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, I know. Some of the inclusions are let's say "indifferent".

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  2. As a Sox collector myself I had the same questions

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  3. I think they just mess up sometimes. Matt Adams had two distinct cards in Topps Update a couple years back. Carelessness, I would guess.

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  4. Some non-collector suit with a short attention span says "We can't put prospect so-and-so for card #712, so who else we got?" Someone else says "Fill in with Red Sox, everyone wants Red Sox." and voila.

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