In my return to collecting, one thing I have come to expect is one hoax after another from the last two companies producing baseball cards. There’s a Derek Jeter card out there that features Mickey Mantle & George W. Bush, a Barry Bonds Upper Deck Sweet Spot card signed by an asterisk, and now an ’08 Topps card with the Red Sox celebrating their 2007 World Series win, except someone included a poorly-Photoshopped image of Mafia-friendly, former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani celebrating, despite being a lifelong New York Yankees fan.
Adding to all these cheap gimmicks is a very interesting card of a guy by the name of Kazuo Uzuki. As you can see from the scan below, it too looks like another bad Photoshop job by the guys at Topps. The question on everyone’s mind is; who is he? Also, how old is he? Is he even a ball player? From the few cards of his that have made their way onto eBay, it looks as if there is no Gold Parallel version. Also, if you Google his name, there are no real results, just topic after topic from baseball card message boards about the card itself.
Topps, one thing is to Photoshop some stupid image onto a real player’s card but if you put out a baseball card of some little league kid or someone’s son from your company, all you are doing is toying with the emotions of the people who buy your products. For your sake, I hope it is a card of a real prospect and not another one of theses “jokes”.
Speaking of bad ideas, Upper Deck has been doing some political wrangling as well with a set they are calling Presidential Predictors. The cards feature all the candidates in baseball-friendly cartoons (Barack Obama as Steve Bartman, etc.). Well, check out Upper Deck’s phony P.R guy’s statement about one card that was not suppose to be included because it was considered “somewhat controversial”.
“We literally had to go back to the hoppers on the floor and start pulling the Hillary cards out manually,” says one UD official. “We thought we got them all.”
Yeah, sure thing. What’s even worse is that one of the cards has made it into a pack and is now on eBay. Shame on all you 24 (and counting) who have bid on such a cheap attempt at publicity. Personally, I could care less about her politics but to me this image is revolting. Hillary is the type of woman that you have do your taxes, not someone you marry. Poor Slick Willy. I don’t blame him for going after some side meat, albeit, extra large side meat. Come to think of it, maybe Slick Willy knew what he was doing.(NSFW).
The Baseball Card Blog 
I can’t stand the photoshop effects the card companies are doing. It cheapens the card and the hobby.
Collecting sports cards is about… sports, not which company has a newer version of Adobe Photoshop.
http://www.sportslocker.blogspot.com/
Could it be a type of unconventional marketing campaign to advertise that Topps is now offering custom-made cards?
http://www.topps.com/sports/news/toppsNews.aspx?news_id=188
Nice find on the Slick Willy “masterpiece” painting.
I have to agree with bailorg here. i’m assuming topps picked one of their custom-made-card buyer’s cards in the actual topps set to try and convince others to buy their stupid home-brewed cards. Boo Topps for that one. Who the hell would want to but that card? and Boo UD nice idea too bad Topps did it before you. Accident my ass just like the “*” card the “buysner” card, would they please just come out and say, “hey we are trying to rip off our fans in a cheap attempt to make them buy our boxes before their release so they gets these stupid-ass “error” cards.”
I am so tired of these bullshit gimmicks.
I had the same thought as you, bailorg. I think the Uzi card is a marketing thing.
I would agree with you guys but the template for 2008 didn’t go live until Wednesday.
Also upper deck is doing the same thing.
As if there weren’t enough cards in these sets as it is, these companies feel that they need to start putting in cards of people who aren’t even athletes??
I feel that the integrity of these companies has gone down the drain-I hate to wonder-what’s next?
I said it when I first saw the Topps candidate cards…I don’t want to find them in my packs. I would like the Ron Paul card, but I don’t want it in the place of a baseball card.
Does anyone remember the Santa Claus cards that ProSet put in their football sets? The first one that came out shot up in price initially, but quickly fell. How much are those worth now?
And I can’t believe the Clinton card is over $1200 on eBay now (4 a.m. eastern time). Disgusting.
I think that Santa Clause card is worth about a dollar now.
That also reminds me of the 1989 Score Bo Jackson black and white card-the one where he had just his shoulder pads on and his bat laid across them.
That card went crazy when it first hit the market, now it is a common.
Same goes for the 1990 Score Dream Team Canseco card-the black and white, no shirt and blue jeans-I had to fight the women when that card came out just so I could get one for my collection. Now also a common.
There is probably going to be alot more of those Hillary cards popping up, it seems like Upper Deck is pulling a fast one on collectors.
Bo Jackson is a common? NEVER!
speaking of political cartoons: political cartoons
Wow. This card is selling for more than $1500.00 with 42 bids and a little less than 2 days left.
That’s sick. It’s a funny, silly little card that I would like to have if I pulled it, but to spend a months pay on it is ridiculous. Whoever wins this card for that amount of money is going to be signing some divorce papers when their spouse finds out!
A few more of the Hillary card have popped up. One guy is trying to sell it for nearly $4000 as a “buy it now.” I can’t believe people are actually bidding on it.
It was all an April Fool’s joke. Topps put out a press release, I guess the name means the first son of april, so now the card is worthless and we all feel more stupid for the ride.