The first year card for a baseball player tends to be his most valuable. But you have barely any stats on that card. What’s the fun in that? Oh yay. One season of stats. That says barely anything. But the last year card of a player. Now THAT has the entire career stats of a player. That is cool.
Collecting cards in 5th grade I appreciated getting the cards of veterans, because you can see all these stats. Forget rookie cards, last-year cards should be most valuable.
Oh now here’s an idea. Topps should release one master set of every single player who ever played baseball. There would be one major release of this set. And then every year Topps issues an update to the set with the retired players. Imagine that. When a player who is a clear future Hall of Famer retires, that will be his one ULTIMATE card with ALL his stats. Everyone will debate what photo best encapsulates the player’s persona and career. Just like the debates over which hat does a Hall of Famer wear on his plaque, you’d have that for every single player who ever played. Everyone loves a good debate. Topps could even build on that debate and make a community website where people can leave comments about the player and his ULTIMATE career card.
That’s the name of it. The career card.
Rick, perhaps you misunderstood my idea. Topps would still produce their regular annual cards with cumulative stats. They wouldn’t stop making a cards for players who are still playing. This would just be an extra set that Topps produces on the side.
Bad idea it would put topps out of buisness besides the fun is in the cash to bild a master set yourself.