It’s official: Upper Deck is in the dog house, along with Topps.
Early last year Andrew Miller’s SPx and Finest rookie cards were selling like hot cakes. This season, after a rough year for the Florida Marlins’ future ace, he’s been seemingly left out of all the big releases of 2008. First he was snubbed by one of my all-time favorites brands, Topps Finest. A few months later Bowman & Bowman Chrome had no Andrew Miller on their checklist. After that brutal heartbreak came the ultimate snub from SPx. Today, I am devastated after finding out that there is no Andrew Miller in 2008 Masterpieces.
It’s a shame that both companies are too concerned with including cards of Presidential candidates (and gimmicky cards at that) because they left out a player who I truly believe will be the surprise story of next season. Well, you can add Masterpieces to the list of products I will be staying away from.
As for the 2008 Bowman card below, it was made by a reader of Wax Heaven who used one of my own photos (link) and mixed it with his Photoshop magic to make a card that doesn’t really exist. Wow, who knew I’d be so desperate for a baseball card I would have to hire someone to make it for me?
Shame on you, U.D & Topps, shame.
Yeah, when you end up at the back of the rotation of any team, you wont get many cards. Bad for you, good for everyone else.
It’s always disappointing when a favorite player misses the cut…. but I don’t think anyone outside of the few Marlins fans out there would actually *want* an Andrew Miller card in their packs this year.
He’s not a rookie any more, and he just hasn’t been that good in the majors yet.
Well, out of Topps Finest, Bowman, Bowman Chrome, SPX, and Masterpieces, none of them have Presidential cards on their checklists.
It’s up to Miller to perform better in order to have more cards of him made. Given his bad 2008 season, he may not even be included in the 2009 Topps and Upper Deck flagship sets!
I agree with you in a round-about kind of way though. I do wish that there were more cards included in each set that comes out. I’m tired of seeing 100-200 card sets that all feature the same players. I miss the days of being able to get a wide variety of players in middle and high end products.
Come on Mario, do you really think that Miller belongs in these sets? I have a hard enough time finding new Jamie Moyer cards for my wife and he has actually won 30 games between the last two seasons.
Miller might turn out to be excellent, but he’s yet to prove much of anything.
Just ignore these heartless commenters… I’ll give you a shoulder to cry on…My guy [Brian Bannister] has a couple of signature cards in those sets but after finishing 9-16 this season that might end pretty soon too…
Here’s to Miller/Bannister Co-Singers card next year!
Ignore the haters, Mario. Did you know Tony Clark only had 1 card last year, and none so far this year? I remember a time when the companies would include a card of every player on the team that was on the 40 man roster (792 cards in Topps, remember). Anymore, it’s about the almighty dollar and player popularity. Sure, it makes it easy for a player collector like me to not have 400 cards each year, but come on now.
No way should he be left out of Bowman at least. And no way would he have been one of the worst to go in Topps Finest. SPx… is dead to me anyway, so I don’t really care about that one. Though if it takes a single player’s card to save it for someone, then so be it.
Hey guys, I didn’t think people were being rude in any way. The way I look at it, when I pull one too many Royals (not Bannister) or A’s, I get a little upset so it must be the same feeling away from Florida.
While I can understand SPx & Finest, there is no excuse for Masterpieces. Tim, I am SHOCKED Tony only had one card last season!
Too bad no Masterpieces, those are great. Who cares on SPx and Finest, they are junk.
the days are all but gone for the set collectors and being a one player collector getting tough as well. With topps and Upper deck’s focus on the big name stars, little guy gets the shaft. Another question does anyone else think that comedy Back on Topps just plain stinks. Not funny at all
JL, someone from Topps emailed me hoping I would blog about the TV show but I told them in nicer words, that the show sucked. No thanks.
I don’t blame you, I could not stand the brothers on cheap seats, and topps putting this crap on video makes no sense