Here's a pretty nice R.A. Dickey relic card from 2014 Topps Tribute. It's a plain white piece of fabric, but the card has a nice design to it and Topps chose a decent photo for the card. It is serially-numbered as # 56 / 99. I would imagine that means it is some parallel of the Tribute Titans insert set, probably bronze or gold or something.
I have been wondering to myself what the next big thing after relics and autos will be, simply because at some point the card companies are going to run out of relics and cut autographs for the long-retired and deceased big names in sports. I have't come up with a good answer for that question, but I would imagine that is one thing that the card makers have on their minds behind the scenes as they look at the dwindling inventory in their boxes of Babe Ruth bat chips and cancelled checks.
Not a bad looking card.
ReplyDeleteI don't think card makers are worrying about replacing relics & autographs because they've run out of things to chop up, but they are clearly trying to find the next thing that will make people excited about buying their products.
Probably not, especially for current players who are still generating 'event-used' materials and autographs, but I imagine it has to be a concern for the older guys who aren't generating any more of that stuff.
DeleteBut I agree that the issue you raised is pretty important as well. A lot of us hardly blink at a low-numbered relic card anymore, so what is the next thing that will extract dollars from our wallets? I don't really have a good answer for that, especially when it comes to the lower-budget everyman collector who can't snap up stuff like Flawless and National Treasures and the other high-high-end stuff that has practically half a shoe, a league logo, and a laundry tag embedded in a tri-fold booklet card.