Skip to main content

Worst card of 2010: contestant #5


Trying like mad to catch up on these "Worst Card" posts after slacking just about the whole year. So, either you'll see a whole mess of these in the next month, or I'll just give up and ignore the thing -- which actually sounds like the more probable option right now.

But I can't wrap up the Worst Card segment without addressing dear Topps Update/Traded & Highlights. It always has some clunkers in it.

This is a classic example. It's not even the only one in the set. There are several of these "dudes just standing around" cards. And Topps has been doing it in Topps Update/Traded & Pick a Name and Stay With It for a few years now.

It's a big reason why I don't collect this set (well, besides the "no money" reason). Why would I go out of my way to collect cards that look like they were taken by some fan in the stands? Even if the fan showed me the photo that they took -- if it looked like this -- I'd say, "it looks like two dudes just standing around."

I can go to any golf course anywhere and take a photo that looks like this. The golfers will even have more normal clothing than Vladdy and Miggy.

I also like the painful reaching that was performed to come up with a title for this card. "NL East Origins." I wonder how long it took for some copy writer to unearth that?

Boss: We've got another one of those "two dudes standing around photos."
Copy Writer: Good god, another one? Nobody's going to want that crap.
Boss: I don't care. It needs a title.
Copy Writer: I quit.
Boss: You can't quit until I get a title.
Copy Writer: OK, fine. Um ... "NL East Origins." There you go. I'm out of here.

I realize all this card is is a checklist. Someone could say, "at least they put a photo out there. They could have done what they used to do and just made it a checklist, front and back."

You know what? I'd like that better. I like the old checklist. It didn't try to hide behind two dudes and pretend it was something it wasn't. It was proud. "I'm a Checklist, dammit. Write on me!"

No chance of being a "Worst Card" candidate if you're a checklist and you're proud. But there is no pride in this card.

Comments

Nothing makes a card like great photography. Conversely, nothing kills a card like bad photography.
I was going to say what Charles said, so yea, what Charles said!
Field of Cards said…
Ha ha. That's funny. This card is so boring that I'd forget to even study how bad it is. It's an almost invisible card. "Nothing to see here, folks." But as you point out, its blandness is amazingly bad.